We all experience losses as we grow older in life. These losses are usually about our physical or inner self. However, sometimes these losses could be about how our relationships with others have been lost or changed due to growing up. For example, in the story How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, four sisters suffer or experience losses as a result of growing up into older young women. All this started when the four sisters moved to the United States from the Dominican Republic at a young age. This affects the four sisters because they encounter problems or obstacles as they age into young adults. For instance, Julia Alvarez shows that growing up is a process of losing respect, sanity, and a loving friend. As the sisters …show more content…
In the chapter “The Four Girls”, it said, “ ‘She told us that she was being turned out of the human race. She was becoming a monkey…Already the other organs inside her body were a monkey’s. Only her brain was left, and she could feel it going...And she’s making these awful sounds like she’s a zoo’ ” (Alvarez 54-55). In this chapter, the sisters’ mother told embarrassing stories that had happened to each one of the sisters. The story about Sandra, that the mother told, was about when she suffered a mental breakdown while growing up. She explained how before Sandra’s breakdown, Sandra had been suffering anorexia. And as an effect from this, Sandra started to believe that she was turning into an monkey, that evolution was going backwards, as she grew older. And so it’s this that caused Sandra’s parents believe that she had lost her sanity because of the crazy idea that she believed that was happening to …show more content…
In the second to last chapter “An American Surprise”, it said, “the door flew open, and Gladys, sobbing into her upraised skirt, scurried down the hall. My heart sank…‘Papi,’ I cried, turning around. ‘Don’t make Gladys go away, please.’ My father reached out and pulled me towards his lap. His eyes were dull as if they’d been colored in brown and smudged. ‘We can’t trust her-’ he began...” (Alvarez 272-273). In this second to last chapter, Carla and her other sisters received piggy banks as gifts from their father’s trip to the United States. However, none of the sisters liked their gift, so Carla decided to give her piggy bank away to Gladys, the housemaid, after one night she approached Carla to buy her piggy bank from her. But Carla decided to just give it to her for free because she was special to her and had view Gladys as a loving friend. Gladys was very happy about this, but a few weeks later, this would all change. Carla’s parents had discovered about this and decided to let Gladys go. And so when Carla found this out, she broke down in sadness and tears. She had felt terribly heartbroken and couldn’t believe it because she knew at that moment that she had lost a very dear friend to her who had meant a lot to
Going through the same thing every day can be comforting and change can create chaos in the everyday routine. After the youth leaves change will set in but will change the outcomes of the activities that occur. Some parents will enjoy the free time that has been presented and others will fade and not know what to do. Older generation parents have readjusted before and have had to change their life to incorporate the youth coming into their life; some transitions were easier than others. Some of the parents find that moving out of their community is not the way to change the pace of life that is occurring. Yet the change of moving would create a drastic change of pace; some of the parents in Ellis tell Carr and Kefalas, “They fear that the outside world will expect them to change too much of who and what they are” (21). Making a change would require something that most parents don’t have, and that would be wanting to leave. Most of the older generation are content with the life they have; yet the ability of having a change of pace is enticing.
To be independent is to be free from constraint. When one is free from constraint, one can make their own rules. In Jean Kwok’s Girl in Translation, the main character Kim belongs in the category of free will. In her early stages of childhood, she would often work back to back, nonstop. She sacrifices her her childhood in order to pay off the seemingly everlasting debt from Aunt Paula, who is not supportive of Kim’s thriving scores in school. In regards to school, Kim shoots for the stars and earns perfect grades. Soon after she earns excellent grades, she receives a scholarship to Harrison. From Harrison comes to Yale. Kim struggles to choose a college, she sees Annette carrying brochures and pamphlets of many colleges, while she has none.
In this article, Brooks et. al (2010) focuses on black females and ways they are portrayed through some of the struggles within them. “This article examines how black girlhood is constructed through fiction” (p. 7). It is important to make a connection when reading something. Connections can be made either by text to self, text to text, or text to world. According to this article, Sharon Draper states that she likes to give her readers a strong character to read about so that the reader can fully connect (Draper, 2009, p. 8). This supports my belief of the importance of making a connection through reading. I gathered the understanding of the importance of sharing pieces of literature, similar to the ones that were mentioned, in my classroom because of the diversity it shows to the students. There are many pieces of literature that I have personally read that gave me
Passage: p. 151: from " Never had the sun risen so beautifully" until "watching the dazzling sight"
Constancia from "Abuela Invents the Zero" has the experience of losing her grandmother in the church. Instead of being a good granddaughter and searching high and low for her grandmother, Constancia hides herself in embarrassment, and abandons her grandmother. "I put my hands over my face like I’m praying, but it’s really to hide my burning cheeks. I would like for her to disappear. I just know that on Monday my friends, and my enemies, in the barrio will have a lot of senile grandmother jokes to tell in front of me. I am frozen to my seat. So the same woman who wants me dead on the spot does it for me. She makes a big deal out of getting up and hurrying to get Abuela." So, Connie did not care about finding her grandmother, but cared about her reputation with her friends. So, another woman at the church had to look for her grandmother. After this, when her grandmother is found, Connie's grandmother is hurt and tells her "You made me feel like a zero, like a nothing." Then Constancia feels bad and has to talk to her grandmother. So going through the experience of losing her grandmother in a church, and then not even bothering to look for her, and then feeling bad afterwards has shaped Connie's values to not caring about the feelings of her grandmother to caring about what she says and does to her, and maybe it opened up her eyes to valuing all of her family member's and
The interpretations of the characters is greatly known throughout Julia Alvarez’s “Daughter of Invention” and is well hidden deep within the layers of what the story is trying to reflect. In the short story, the reader is able to identify the characters’ distinct personalities with ease – however, most readers do not muster the time to comprehend any evident changes that makes the character what they are. As hinted, the father is known as a gentle and passive man who loves to pass on his tradition and youth to his daughter – Cukita (92). This later changes when he ends up throwing a tantrum in outrage at Cukita’s speech (94). To the average reader, it’s explicit that the father’s character is known to be lazy and angry, but don’t acknowledge the reasoning behind his and any other character’s behavior.
Girl Time is a book written by Maisha T. Winn who is a former public elementary school and high school teacher. She has worked extensively with youth inside and outside urban schools throughout the United States. Winn provides information in the book about girls incarcerated in juvenile detention centers and girls who have been previously incarcerated.
Is Gender the same thing as Sex? This topic is complicated because many people confuse these two as the same thing but they are very two different things. There are several Cultural Myths about Gender and Sex. Gary Colombo, who wrote: “Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths” who explains that a cultural myth is a shared set of customs, values, ideas, and beliefs, as well as a common language. In “Sisterhood is Complicated” by Ruth Padawer who is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, focusing on gender and social issues in “Sisterhood is Complicated” she shows many of the Stereotypes about Gender and Sex and how they are unmistakably just cultural myths. It also has how there are positives being trans at an all women
The first poem that I chose was by the poet Julia Alvarez titled “Queens, 1963” this told the story of a family that has moved into in Queens, NY. The writer and narrator of this story is from the Dominican Republic. One year has passed for the family to finally settle into the neighborhood. This time an African American family has moved right across the street. The young girl notices how her neighbors have not treated this family with kindness and respect. More police have been seen patrolling through the neighborhood. When reading this poem my initial thoughts were that “Queens, 1963” describes the American people's behavior towards foreigners and their reactions. Alvarez states, “Mr. Scott, the retired plumber, and his plump Midwestern wife, considered moving back home, where white and black got along by staying where they belonged.” (Alvarez, pp 952) It will take another year and another family that will move into their neighborhood, than once the African American family settles in another family will be placed under the same scrutiny.
The Girl with All the Gifts a book where eating human flesh is the food mentioned most in the novel because of the zombies. Besides the human flesh there are mealworms, beetle levee, which the zombie children eat to keep their metabolism in check. Other from those “foods” there is a freeze dried packet of Roast Beef and Potatoes which the survivors eat when traveling from their base Hotel Echo to the main base one hundred twenty mile south called the Beacon besides that there is no survivors beside the ones who live in The Beacon and the ones who live outside of military command called Junkers.
Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok is the story of eleven year old Kimberly Chang and her mother’s immigration to America. They struggle through poverty and difficult living and work conditions, but Kimberly eventually blossoms into an intelligent and successful woman. Towards the ending of the novel, Kim encounters one of her biggest dilemmas. After a tryst with Matt, the charming Chinese boy who she is in love with, she becomes pregnant. She has to decide if she wants to get an abortion, or keep the baby, as well as deciding if she wants to tell Matt or keep it a secret. On one hand she has just gotten into Yale and has great things ahead of her, but she also has to think about Matt and what he might want. In the end, Kimberly makes the right
As a girl, she had an extremely difficult childhood as an orphan and was passed around from orphanage to orphanage. The author has absolute admiration for how his mother overcame her upbringing. He opens the third chapter by saying, “She was whatever the opposite of a juvenile delinquent is, and this was not due to her upbringing in a Catholic orphanage, since whatever it was in her that was the opposite of a juvenile delinquent was too strong to have been due to the effect of any environment…the life where life had thrown her was deep and dirty” (40). By saying that she was ‘the opposite of a juvenile delinquent’, he makes her appear as almost a saintly figure, as he looks up to her with profound admiration. He defends his views on his mother’s saintly status as not being an effect of being in a Catholic orphanage, rather, due to her own strong will. O’Connor acknowledges to the extent that her childhood was difficult through his diction of life ‘throwing’ her rather than her being in control of it. As a result, she ended up in unsanitary and uncomfortable orphanages, a ‘deep and dirty’ circumstance that was out of her control. Because of this, the author recognizes that although his childhood was troublesome, his mother’s was much worse. She was still able to overcome it, and because of it, he can overcome
In the short story, “Girl,” the narrator describes certain tasks a woman should be responsible for based on the narrator’s culture, time period, and social standing. This story also reflects the coming of age of this girl, her transition into a lady, and shows the age gap between the mother and the daughter. The mother has certain beliefs that she is trying to pass to her daughter for her well-being, but the daughter is confused by this regimented life style. The author, Jamaica Kincaid, uses various tones to show a second person point of view and repetition to demonstrate what these responsibilities felt like, how she had to behave based on her social standing, and how to follow traditional customs.
In the story, “An Hour With Abuelo” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, Arturo goes to visit his Abuelo and throughout the story realizes that he shouldn’t be so quick to judge the people that care about him because you might find them to be worth your time. This story teaches its readers that you should cherish the time you have with the people that love you. Arturo thinks to himself, “I want my mother to have to wait a little. I don’t want her to think that I’m in a hurry or anything.” (Cofer, 140) This quote proves that he realizes he has a lot in common with his Abuelo and ended up enjoying the time he had with him. Throughout the story Arturo and Abuelo realize all the things they have in common with each other. This idea brings the readers back to the thought that it is never too late to make a connection and enjoy the time you have with the people who love you.
For many, losing something can be a painful experience, whether financially or sentimentally, it can be just as painful. The loss of something is a dreadful event which can completely change your life, or just simply make it harder to move on, to focus on anything else, or to gain anything else. The loss of something can be hard in a general sense, but losing something which you have just gained, or something which you have pursued can be harder than anything else. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s In Other Words she explores many different emotions on her journey as she learns Italian, one of the many emotions is an anxiety caused by losing the language for which she has just learned, showing that something you have pursued and consequently something you