Read the excerpt below from “At the Hearth” by Laura Esquivel and complete the instruction that follows.



The arrival of a new revolution is imminent, and I don’t think this time it will be from the outside in, but the opposite. It will entail the reclaiming of our rituals and ceremonies and the establishment of a new relationship with the land and the planet, with everything sacred. All this is possible in intimate spaces. It is there, around the hearth, where the New Man will appear, as the fruit of a common effort. He will give equal value to production and reproduction, to reason and emotion, to the intimate and the public, to the material and the spiritual. He will encourage the creation of balanced societies and understand clearly that self-realization should not be linked solely to public recognition and economic retribution. He will question his active participation in society, asking himself whether he should work in a factory that grossly pollutes the environment even though he is well paid for his work, and will look for other ways to earn a living. He will value small acts for their intimacy and transcendence and understand that they modify society just as surely as public events do—each helping to elevate the human condition and allowing us to enter in communion with our past—and regard them as reminders of where we come from and where we should be headed.



Discuss how this section of the text reveals both Esquivel’s theme and purpose in writing.