Substandard Life In Helena Viramontes

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A girl encounters a death and in that life changing event she finds a new meaning to her once substandard life in Helena Viramontes’ short story “The Moths”. Rejected for not being an adequate young woman, at fourteen, she often fought back with violence. Disliking her family, she frequently went to her sickly grandmother’s house, who helped her carry out a less self-destructive life. Ama, her mother, was wanted by her for the first time when Abuelita passed. Viramontes reveals that cherishing your family is essential because unwelcome events can take them away before you really know them. She didn’t fit in with her immediate family so she went to Abuelita’s home, which proved to be heart changing. Abuelita’s care for her made her in

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