Volar By Judith Ortiz Cofer Summary

In the story of “Volar” by Judith Ortiz Cofer you see two people that want to escape from their lives. The story is narrated by the daughter of an immigrant family, who dreams of flying like a superhero through the town they live in. In her dreams, she is escaping the reality of her life by doing things she most likely doesn’t have the courage to do in her everyday life. First, we see her using her X-ray vision to look in on people she knew, she “sees the landlord, whom she knew her parents feared” (295) when she sees him she blows the money he is counting all over the room to make him have to count it all again. In her own way she is standing up for her parents and the injustice she feels they face from the landlord. As the story evolves, we see her dreams evolve as well. In the next part of the story our narrator is still having her superhero dreams but now when she is escaping

The narrator seems to remember her parents fondly but there is a sadness in the memory. The parents are discussing taking a trip back to Puerto Rico, to see the mother’s family. The narrator’s mother longs to return to where she came from, even just to visit, she talks to her husband about “renting a car and going to the beach” (295) You can tell that the mother has thought about going back to visit often, she has already planned out the trip in her mind. The narrator’s father explains that the family cannot visit, he begs her to understand that he “can’t take the time off of work” (295) and tries to dissuade her with the expense of flying to Puerto Rico. The father obviously works hard to provide for his family and while he does a good job, it is just too much for him to take off and return to his wife’s home. It seems that they have had this same conversation before, he answers her almost like he is resigned to the fact that she will never stop asking to