Essay Example on "Bodega Dreams"
Stephanie Santos
Professor Dievler
English 14/ 008
December 5, 2007 Novel Essay
“That’s what it was always about. Shedding your past. Creating yourself from nothing, Now I realize that that’s what attracted me to Willie Bodega. Willie Bodega didn’t just change me and Blanca’s life, but the entire landscape of the neighborhood. Bodega would go down as a representation of all the ugliness in Spanish Harlem and also all the good it was capable of being. Bodega placed a mirror in front of the neighborhood and in front of himself. He was street nobility incarnated in someone who still believed in dreams. And for a small while, those dreams seem as palpable as that dagger Macbeth tried to grab. From his younger days as a Young Lord to his later days as Bodega, his life had been triggered by romantic ideal found only in those poor bastards who really wanted to be poets but got grafted and sent to the front lines. During that time Bodega would create a green light of hope. And when that short-lived light went supernova, it would leave a blueprint of achievement and desire for anyone in the neighborhood searching for new possibilities.”
In the quote from Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quiñonez, what he means with his quote was that the people from the neighborhood can start a new life when it comes to Willie Bodega. Though the whole drug selling thing is look down upon society, Bodega is making the community better. He uses the law to make sure that his Puerto Rican Neighbors are having a good life. He is a bad and good man because he breaks the law to make life for people easier, he sells drugs to buy property to let poor people live there for a very cheap rent. Overall, in the novel, Ernesto Quiñonez’s use of imagery, character analysis and metaphors/similes puts you right in the middle of the story. You are wrapped around everything that is going on in the lives of the dwellers of El Barrio. You get a taste of their culture, personality, and their daily
Professor Dievler
English 14/ 008
December 5, 2007 Novel Essay
“That’s what it was always about. Shedding your past. Creating yourself from nothing, Now I realize that that’s what attracted me to Willie Bodega. Willie Bodega didn’t just change me and Blanca’s life, but the entire landscape of the neighborhood. Bodega would go down as a representation of all the ugliness in Spanish Harlem and also all the good it was capable of being. Bodega placed a mirror in front of the neighborhood and in front of himself. He was street nobility incarnated in someone who still believed in dreams. And for a small while, those dreams seem as palpable as that dagger Macbeth tried to grab. From his younger days as a Young Lord to his later days as Bodega, his life had been triggered by romantic ideal found only in those poor bastards who really wanted to be poets but got grafted and sent to the front lines. During that time Bodega would create a green light of hope. And when that short-lived light went supernova, it would leave a blueprint of achievement and desire for anyone in the neighborhood searching for new possibilities.”
In the quote from Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quiñonez, what he means with his quote was that the people from the neighborhood can start a new life when it comes to Willie Bodega. Though the whole drug selling thing is look down upon society, Bodega is making the community better. He uses the law to make sure that his Puerto Rican Neighbors are having a good life. He is a bad and good man because he breaks the law to make life for people easier, he sells drugs to buy property to let poor people live there for a very cheap rent. Overall, in the novel, Ernesto Quiñonez’s use of imagery, character analysis and metaphors/similes puts you right in the middle of the story. You are wrapped around everything that is going on in the lives of the dwellers of El Barrio. You get a taste of their culture, personality, and their daily