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Confetti Girl

Decent Essays

The biggest rift that can separate a child and their parent is if the other, more understanding, and closer parent is out of the picture. This is shown between the daughter and her remaining parent in two similar stories. In the selections, Confetti Girl by Diana López and Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes, the narrators have different points of view than those of their lone parents which create a tension between their relationships. In one story, the protagonist feels she is not listened to and understood by her father. In the other story, the protagonist’s mother makes her decisions for her based on her own feelings, not the protagonist’s. Both of the narrators' points of view in each story create a looming tension with their own parents …show more content…

First, their interests differ greatly; her father’s interest is English, and her interests are anything except that. As stated in the text, “Everything’s great until he asks about my English class...Nothing’s more important than his books and vocabulary words. He might say I matter, but when he goes on a scavenger hunt for a book, I realize that I really don’t” (López). Her father neglects what she dislikes because it is the one thing that he loves, and it breaks the connection of their father-daughter relationship which ultimately creates tension. Moving forward, the loss of her mother adds to the tension between her and her remaining parent. In the text, the author writes, “Mom always had after-school projects waiting for me...I guess these projects were chores, but they were fun, too. Now when I come home, I’ve got to sweep, fold towels, or scrub the bathroom sink. Dad helps, but sometimes he makes a big mess” (Lόpez). She used to have loads of fun doing “chores” with her mother, but now that she is gone, she enjoys doing real chores with her father so much less. This creates tension because it intensifies how different it was when she and her mother used to spend time together. Her father cannot seem to recreate this bond, and so a rift is formed between

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