Ernesto is a child condemned to a fate which is difficult to face for him throughout the story, and it is also a fate that seems doomed and dour, but which is in fact a testament to human resilience. The difference between his person experience of fate, defined by frustration and powerlessness, and the reader's opinion of his character is the context of the novel's frame. The frame of the novel is the covers; within the covers of a novel, printed on novel paper, the story is automatically taken as a beautiful work of art, and the merits of Ernesto's character are shown not for their relevance to his daily life, but for their relevance to the human experience in general.
Evidence for this comes in the form of "everyman" symbolism that does not make Ernesto unique, but instead does the opposite. Ernesto is not defined by his unique point of view until much later in the novel when he is experiencing his adaptation to northern culture in America. Until then, he is defined in agrarian and tribal terms; he is a participant in his community who works hard with his family and whose community consists almost entirely of his large Mexican family. Within that domain, his identity is considered in tribal terminology.
What happens next is the diaspora of Mexican government corruption which sends his family out into the world like the second "chosen people." This diaspora leads Ernesto to a new identity. What are the markers of his new identity? The loss of his mother and his excellent capabilities for academic success. That's not bad for a personal enlightenment! The novel awards him a powerful point of view; when the novel shows him staring at the school from afar, there is a great deal of gravitas in his eye. However, another enlightenment seems to be waiting for him where he must discover how to find happiness despite trauma and suffering.
