Tuesday, November 2, 2010

First Impreesions of "How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents"

So far I find "How the Garcia Girls lost their Accents" to be an interesting stoy. It is different from other stories I have read because it doesnt go in chronological order. Instead it goes from the present to the past. Kind of a like a flashback, but except this falshback is large and is basically how the book/story is orginized.

By just reading the first section I can already kind of see a theme going on in the story. The theme that I am seeing is the relationship between men and women. The author, Julia Alvarez, attempts to convey this realtionship between men and women through the life of Sofia.

In the vignette or chapter "The kiss" I can an introduction to Sofia's father and the realtionship he hols with Sofia. The vignettes sates that Sofia and her father do not have a very good relationship. They have barely begun to talk again when the vignette takes place. Sofia attempts to rebuild her relationship by having her father's birthday party at her house. We also get a look at Sofias past in this vignette. She ran away when she was young and had multiple boyfriends which she slept with. When her father learned this he swore that he would never speak to her again. I think this whole situation foreshadows or in this books case it preshadows to Sofias past with her father. I believe that Sofai was abused by her father and that is what leads to her dating issues.

Another theme that I find so far is the way in which Dominican Republicans view life in the us. For example, in the vignette "Antojo" when Yolanda returns from the United States her family views her in a different. They take the fact that she had not come back to the Dominican Republic in so long as a sign that she was losing her ties to her roots and cultural.

Overall thr Garcias is an interesting book that I look for ward to finishing.

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