Use of Language in How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez

Being oppressed by her mother, Nel has an attraction to Sula's carefree environment which, unlike her own, lacks any oppression. Likewise, Sula has an attraction to Nel's peaceful and orderly environment. They both desire something that the other does not have, and that's where such a strong attraction comes from. Together, they are perfect- Nel finds in Sula the youthfulness and the fun she's missing, and Sula finds order and stability in Nel.

Sula wanted nothing to do with a husband that would betray her and cheat on her and come home and just be horribly mean to her.  I think the biggest emotional obstacle Sula endured was watching her mother burn to death. Sula went through an obstacle course of emotions and relationships.  Poor choices were made, which led to her ultimate demise, however, her demise was her own choice. It was pretty ironic how the dislike for Sula brought the community together. With their dislike for Sula they forgot about the problems they had with each other.

Her mother and grandmother, who obviously favor her brother, essentially ignore Sula. Hannah, her mother, is a very sexual woman who enjoys the company of many men in town to the disapproval of Sula. Because of her mother’s actions, Sula views her with an indifferent and callous sense of hostility. Still, Sula reacts in a negative way when hears her mother say, “‘I just don’t like her’” in reference to her daughter. (57) The difference between loving someone and liking someone is made clear here. It develops the idea of a mother’s ambivalent love. When a child is aggravating, it can be frustrating to love them. But for Hannah, she simply does not like the person Sula is becoming. This realization, for Sula, removes her from

The novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, by Julia Alvarez, illustrates these challenges. Throughout the novel, we see how different aspects of culture shock impact the Garcia family. In this essay I will discuss how particular events change each family member’s Dominican cultural values and identity.

Caminero-Santangelo, Marta. 2007. On Latinidad: U.S. Latino Literature and the Construction of Ethnicity. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.

In the novel Sula, by Toni Morrison we follow the life of Sula Peace through out her childhood in the twenties until her death in 1941. The novel surrounds the black community in Medallion, specifically "the bottom". By reading the story of Sula’s life, and the life of the community in the bottom, Morrison shows us the important ways in which families and communities can shape a child’s identity. Sula not only portrays the way children are shaped, but also the way that a community receives an adult who challenges the very environment that molded them. Sula’s actions and much of her personality is a direct result of her childhood in the bottom. Sula’s identity contains many elements of a strong, independent feminist

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.

Sula says “I did not hold my head stiff enough when I met him and so I lost it just like the dolls”(136). For a second, she became the woman that the Bottom wanted her to be. The Bottom saw Nel as good because she conformed to this standard, and saw Sula as evil because of her promiscuous and non traditional lifestyle. However, here Sula is showing that she too can show these traits that the people in the Bottom see as correct and virtuous. The fact that Sula and Nel both possess the traits that defined them as either good or evil, shows that they actually cannot be defined as either, just as Eva describes “Just alike. Both of you. Never was no difference between you two”(169). Their similarity erases the harsh line drawn by the people of the Bottom as to what good and evil looks like, making it apparent that morality is not black and white but more ambiguous. Good cannot be the direct opposite of evil, if those who represent good and evil are both good and evil themselves. The idea that Sula is evil while Nel is good is torn down in Nel’s mind as well, as near the book 's end she reflects on the death of Chicken Little. Morrison writes “All these years she had been secretly proud of her calm, controlled behavior when Sula was uncontrollable...Now it seemed that what she has thought was maturity, serenity, and compassion was only the tranquility that follows a joyful stimulation. Just as the water closed peacefully over the turbulence of Chicken Little 's

The book Sula by Toni Morrison is regarded as one of Morrison’s best work because of the content and structure of the book. Shadrack is an important character in the novel although his appearance in the plot is fairly brief. His significance in the novel stems from the fact that he represents one of the recurring themes of the novel, which is the need for order. Since the need to order and focus experience is an important theme, the character Shadrack illustrates the terror of chaos through his self-proclaimed day “National Suicide Day” in his small town, which portrays the importance of fear, chaos, and death in the book Sula by Toni Morrison.

The relationship first starts to take a turn for the worst when Sula accidentally kills a local boy named Chicken Little, by throwing him into the river. The town never finds out who is responsible for his death, mostly due to the girls silence. Though Nel played no roll in Chicken Little?s death, she stands by Sula and tells no one about what she saw that day at the river. At his funeral, ?[the two] held hands and knew that only the held hands and knew that only the coffin would lie in the earth, the bubbly laughter and the press of fingers in the palm would stay aboveground forever? (Morrison 66). Nel?s silence in support of Sula is the first instance when Sula takes advantage of Nel, relying on her in order to survive.

As you read, you notice that Morrison never really just states the race of the girls for a reason: to allow the readers to form their own opinion. The story starts off with Twyla being dropped off at the orphanage by her mother. This is where she met Roberta, who became a close friend, the two girls started bonding because no one wanted to play with them, and the reason for that, as Twyla states is that, “we weren’t real orphans with beautiful dead parents in the sky” (pg 201). The two girls of the opposite race were just two abandoned girls whose mother’s did not have the ability to raise them right. Although the girls didn’t have many friends, they made their time at St.Bonnys very adventurous. The last time the girls saw each other at St.Bonnys was at the picnic, which shortly Robertas mother came and took her home. This event made the first mall breakage in their friendship.

One of the traits that made Toni Morrison’s writing style unique was her significant choice in the story. Her main choice was not telling the readers who was black and white and making the girls have similar backgrounds. The first time Twyla and Roberta meet is in the orphanage. Their fathers are both out of the story, mothers who are unable to care for them, and very alone. In the very first page of the story, Twyla mentions that, “we looked like salt the pepper standing there,”. By this quote, we can infer that Twyla and her friend Roberta are black and white. However, Morrison chooses not to reveal who was which race. Since this leaves the readers to make their own assumptions through often wrong stereotypes, Morrison makes a point to switch the stereotypes around for the girls in various places in the story.

Being oppressed by her mother, Nel has an attraction to Sula’s carefree environment, which, unlike her own lacks any oppression. Likewise, Sula has an attraction to Nel’s peaceful and orderly environment. They both desire something that the other has, and that’s where such a strong attraction comes from. Together, they are perfect. Nel finds in Sula the youthfulness and the fun she’s missing, and Sula finds order and stability in Nel.

Writers use setting to reveal the hidden emotions of characters. Characters react differently when placed in particular environments. Morrison used this technique, when in a single chapter she portrayed Sula in two distinct moods. In chapter 1922, Sula is introduced as upfront and tough when “she slashed off only the tip of her finger” (Morrison, 54) to intimidate her bullies. A young girl who is not terrified, “if I can do that to myself, what you suppose ill do to you?” (Morrison, 55) is later on placed in an environment of comfort and viewed as

just like her grandmother, Eva, she had to fight against the cities prejudgment and her family. because she was raised in an eccentric household, which was different from the what people thought was the usual, Sula was forced to cover up her differences. Hannah's act of survival and Vulnerability is repeated by Sula. When Sula and Nel take their regular walks home from school they are threatened by some boys. one day Sula takes a knife and cut off a piece of her finger. "if I can do that to to myself what you suppose I'll do to you?(Sula 54-55)" when Sula does this you can see that she's becoming to realize her self recognition. Sula is finally establishing her own identity. this moment shows her inner strength. Eva's inability of mothering aspects left Sula and Hannah with little to no care taking skills to be learned or taught. even though Sula behaves similarly to her mother and grandmother she feels disconnected on the secluded level. although this will make her ability better to establish herself, it will limit her ability to show effort to others and even caring for