How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents By Julia Alvarez Summary

Living in Mexico throughout her teen years was very rough. Unlike other teenagers where their parents constantly provide for their children, Marisela’s life was a lot different than the usual parent- child relationship. She lived with her Abuela ( Grandma) Lupe, along with her 3 brothers and sister. She constantly had to take care of her brothers and sister at such a young age, that she became the mother-like figure of the

Symbolism can be used in many different ways. Julia Alvarez uses it very well in her writing. Alvarez was born in the Dominican Republic and since she lived there it gives her a special connection to the girls in: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents because they are based off real people. Alvarez uses symbolism very well in all her writing especially in How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents Julia Alvarez uses symbolism effectively in order to allow the reader to see deeper into the character's personality. Although Alvarez uses symbolism all throughout How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents there are only a few that a truely worth noting.

In the book, How the García girls lost their accent, by Julia Alvarez, who utilizes rhetorical devices in the passage chosen to develop the conflict that Yolanda is facing in the story by using imagery, simile, and anaphora in order to evince how Yolanda’s conflict with her husband John plays a role in her horrible breakdown and her journey to revive the love she had for her native language and culture.

Cultural shock is a common feeling a person experiences when transitioning into a completely different environment and living situation. Throughout the world, immigrants experience many difficulties when assimilating into a new culture.

Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth

One of the main sources of tension in How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents, written by Julia Alvarez, are the sisters search for a personal identity among contrasting cultures. Many of the characters felt pressure from two sources, the patriarchal culture that promotes traditional gender roles and society of nineteen-sixties and seventies America. Dominican tradition heavily enforces the patriarchal family and leaves little room for female empowerment or individuality, whereas in the United States, the sixties and seventies were times of increasingly liberal views and a rise in feminist ideals. This conflict shaped the identities of the characters in Alvarez’s novel and often tore the characters apart for one another.

New Country, New Me: Taking Back Control in How the García Girls Lost Their Accents

Many young second generation daughters of Mexican heritage has grown up with a distinctive gender norm. In the midst of the second world war, the expression of freedom and equality spread throughout the country. This initiates for women to become more tuned to the social affairs the men had left behind. Thus, immigration brought a lot of Mexican families into Los Angeles. Double exposure to familial expectations and the American way of life brought in a sense of desperation of trying to balance both. The second generation daughters who have been exposed to the loudly spoken

As a result, Anzaldua illustrates her hardship to the attention of an English speaker as an audience. Throughout the reading, she consistently switches from English to Spanish in many paragraphs forcing a non-Spanish speaker, such as myself, to look up translations an order to make sense of the story. An example of this would be when her mother expresses her disappointment saying, “I want you to speak English. PA hallar buen trabajo hablas ingles con un accent” (206). By forcing this task on the audience, this allows a sense of empathy and understanding of author’s struggles of what she had to go through growing up. She had spoken English but is still sadly looked upon from her mother due to having Spanish “accent”, that with this accent putting her through school is pointless.

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel is a powerful novel that serves as a great introductory guide to the Latin-American culture. The novel consists of primarily female characters, the De La Garza family, where each one portrays a female stereotype, or perhaps their role in the society. The setting of the story takes place during arise of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which helps to further distinguish the roles of the women and how they go about living their everyday life. Like Water for Chocolate can be looked at as a story about two women, a daughter and a mother, Tita and Elena De La Garza. Tita, our protagonist, struggles against her mothers’ tradition, to “serve” her until the day she dies, without having a life of her own.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez is a novel that I definitely enjoyed reading because it shows the reality that many families have faced when they immigrate to the United States. It is a very realistic book that catches the attention of the reader instantly. I liked that the book is given throughout different points of views, and that is not just a narrator telling us everything. I think that what the author was trying to say in the novel was how much leaving your mother nation can affect you as an individual. The author tried to give this message, by setting examples. The girls had to leave their cultures and language back in the Dominican Republic and adapt to a new life style were they faced discrimination as well.

In both the Dominican Republic and America, the girl’s sexuality is oppressed by men who trick them into thinking they care. While on the Island, Sofia meets a guy who she loves more than anything. When the other sisters arrive, they realize that he is controlling her every action and thought. He tells her what to do and will not let her think for herself. Carla was exposed to a perverted man in a green car. This causes her to think that sexuality is a threat to society and a dangerous thing overall. She can’t figure out who she is because this man stripped her of her identity.

Julia Alvarez also uses language to show how the four Garcia girls adjust to living in a new, and to them alien, culture. The protagonist in this novel is the family Garcia de la Torre, a wealthy, aristocratic family from the Santo Domingo, who can trace their genealogy back to the Spanish

Meanwhile, the girls try to lose themselves—by forgetting their Spanish, by straightening their hair and wearing fringed bell bottoms. For them, it is at once liberating

Firstly, thank you for your comment, Professor Avellaneda. Language learning is more about the theoretical knowledge such as grammatical rules, also a conscious method of learning, but I would really like to explore the topic of identity. The direct impact that Amber’s Spanish speaking abilities have on molding her identify as someone who’s bilingual and this allows her to connect with her culture and heritage.