Poem Analysis Of Old Heroines By Julia Alvarez

Women are powerful creatures, capable of causing change and hope in the midst of adversity. Heroines shine in the limelight, bringing attention to what is wrong and what needs to be done. However, we never hear about these women after that prominence rolls onto another. When the curtain falls to allow a new play to begin in her place; we get up from our seats and leave popcorn buckets behind, leaving her alone. Her role is done, she's left the impression upon young hearts and change will not be standing by. "Old Heroines" by Julia Alvarez is about this. Focusing on the affect a heroine has on other women, and what happens to her afterwards.

In the first stanza of the poem, Alvarez describes our heroine. She has just completed her task, her giant push in what she believes is the right direction. She is still young and she too is changing, "She sees her reflection, a face still dramatic,/pale and young in that afterward light." (Alvarez pg 542) Both our speaker and protagonist are unsure what she'll do next, but we can tell she is
However, their lives were not affected like hers was. They are not awake in the night, but rather sleeping in the arms of their loved ones. This contrast between our protagonist and her supporters is evident to the speaker and then to us by surrounding these women in love and pleasant dreams, "dreaming themselves in elegant furs racing towards Moscow, Chicago, some heady excitement!" (lines 14-16) while our heroine is dragged down by words such as grainy, and "jailhouse train" (line 18). We are left to believe that she sacrificed her normal everyday life to progress and innovate those around her; while these women whose lives she has undoubtedly affected continue on "racing" towards cities of elegance, she races towards a man who no longer loves her as stated in lines 3-4 "rides to the city to see her old lover-/though it's clear from the ending he has broken things