Helena Maria Veramontes writes her short story “The Moths” from the first person point of view, placing her fourteen year old protagonist female character as a guide through the process of spiritual re-birth. The girl begins the story with a description of the debt she owes her Abuelita—the only adult who has treated her with kindness and respect. She describes her Apa (Father) and Ama (Mother), along with two sisters as if they live in the same household, yet are born from two different worlds. Her father is abusive, her mother chooses to stay in the background and her sisters evoke a kind of femininity that she does not possess. The girl is angry at her masculine differences and strikes out at her sisters physically. Apa tries to make his daughter conform to his strict religious beliefs, which she refuses to do and her defiance evokes abuse. The girl’s Abuelita is dying and she immerses herself in caring for her, partly to repay a debt and partly out of the deep love she has for her. As her grandmother lay dying, she begins the process of letting go. The moth helps to portray a sense of spirituality, re-birth and becomes, finally, an incarnation of the grandmother. The theme of the story is spiritual growth is born from human suffering.
The fourteen-year-old girl is a round and dynamic character with great depth. The round characteristics are seen within her broad and complex emotions. She has developed an aggressive temperament in response to abuse from her Apa and teasing from her sisters who call her “bull hands”, laughing at her masculine features. This temperament has led her to state: ”I began keeping a piece of jagged brick in my sock to bash my sisters or anyone who called me bull hands.” (Bausch) Her temper...
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... light, we ascend towards a bright light in death. Magic realism is used to describe Abuelita’s rebirth as the moths carry her soul through the doors of heaven.
The theme of “The Moths” is produced mainly by the character, conflict, and language of the story. The characterization brings to life the initial turmoil as Abuelita begins to nurse the girl not only physical, but also mentally into embracing her own hidden emotions. The conflict furthers shows the painful experiences the girl experiences so that this spiritual awakening may occur. Language is used to describe this process, giving a glimpse into her life style and uses colorful to portray the girl’s awakening and Abuelita’s ascent to heaven.
Works Cited
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In the Time of the Butterflies is a historical fiction novel by Julia Alvarez based on events that occurred during the rule of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. This book shows the hardships the Mirabal Sisters had to go through while being part of an underground effort to overthrow the dictatorship of Trujillo. It also shows that ultimately, it was their courage that brought upon their own death. Alvarez wants us to understand anyone and everyone has the potential to be courageous.
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The girl's mother is associated with comfort and nurturing, embodied in a "honeyed edge of light." As she puts her daughter to bed, she doesn't shut the door, she "close[s] the door to." There are no harsh sounds, compared to the "buzz-saw whine" of the father, as the mother is portrayed in a gentle, positive figure in whom the girl finds solace. However, this "honeyed edge of li...
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The spirituality is not only present in the moth wing balm, but is also evident after the death of her grandmother. A sense of spirituality is apparent in the quote, "Then the moths came. Small gray ones that came from her soul and out through her mouth fluttering to light" (1242). This presents a religious parallel in which the light resembles heaven. These moths represent angels who are carrying Abuelit...
This short story by Helena Maria Viramontes, she is portraying symbolism in the moths, the sun, and the growth the granddaughter went through into releasing her resentment. Towards the end of the story, the moths came out through Abuelita’s mouth, while being in the bath tub, fluttering into the light. This represented rebirth and liberation in the Abuelita’s soul because in the story, the granddaughter states that Abuelita would tell her about the moths within the soul and slowly eating the spirit up. Therefore, by the moths within her soul escaping and fluttering to the light, it represented more than just Abuelita dying. The moths represented her soul finally at peace. In addition, the moths were also a healing remedy because how she would use the moth wings, during the beginning of the story, to her granddaughter’s hand to shape them and making her feel more confident about her “bull hands.” Abuelita’s soul was portrayed as moths in the sense of freedom, spirituality, and being able to let go of her cancerous body.
“The Death of a Moth” by Annie Dillard wasn’t based on one specific moth; it was generally pointed toward loss and gain in life; gaining benefits even after death. Dillard compares human life to animal life; perhaps she was seeing herself as the moth in the glowing fire. Ironically, when she caught moths flying into a candle, Dillard was reading, The Day on Fire by James Ullman, which inspired her to write again. Each moth flew into the fl...
Innocence is something always expected to be lost sooner or later in life, an inevitable event that comes of growing up and realizing the world for what it truly is. Alice Walker’s “The Flowers” portrays an event in which a ten year old girl’s loss of innocence after unveiling a relatively shocking towards the end of the story. Set in post-Civil War America, the literary piece holds very particular fragments of imagery and symbolism that describe the ultimate maturing of Myop, the young female protagonist of the story. In “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, the literary elements of imagery, symbolism, and setting “The Flowers” help to set up a reasonably surprising unveiling of the gruesome ending, as well as to convey the theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing the harsh reality of this world.
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