their first steps toward forging their identities. In Julia Alvarez’s “Dusting‚” a girl decides that she wants to be more than a diligent housekeeper like her mother. In Alberto Rios’s “In Second Grade Miss Lee I Promised Never to Forget You and I Never Did‚” a boy catches his first glimpse of romantic love by listening to his unconventional teacher. Both of these children learn important lessons about life from significant adults. And both Alvarez and Rios use strong figurative language to convey
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In the Time of the Butterflies Essay A lot of courage is needed to revolt against a dictator and risk one’s life‚ and possibly other’s lives for a country. In the novel‚ In the Time of the Butterflies‚ by Julia Alvarez‚ Minerva Mirabal (one of 4 sisters in the story) shows a lot of courage by standing up against her country’s leader‚ Rafael Trujillo‚ and for what is right‚ risking her and her family’s lives. She performs in front of him‚ while knowing his secret‚ that he is a horrible dictator
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My mother never taught me sweeping is the opening line in Julia Alvarez’s poem and the one that stand out most in my mind. In the opening line Alvarez use powerful word such as Mother‚ Never and Sweeping to engage the reader and control the sway or sweeping motion of the poem. The word Sweeping stand out the most‚ because to sweep means to clean out at dirty place‚ to rid one’s self of dust. The poem gives the imagery that the Alvarez is ridding herself of dirty. The sweeping motion continues throughout
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The Quinceanera is a traditional celebration of life and gratitude to God on the occasion of the fifteenth birthday of a young Hispanic girl. It is one of the most important celebrations for Latina Girls. The purpose of a Quinceanera is to mark the passage from youth into womanhood in a young woman’s life through ceremony and celebration. It provides a day to honor and acknowledge the traditions of the Hispanic and Catholic Culture and the important transition that every young woman experiences as
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Literary Analysis: By Christian Jones The author of My First Free Summer Julia Alvarez‚ wrote about the part of the summer she had in which she escaped the Dominican Republic for the U.S. I believe that Alvarez choose to write about this important time in her summer because it was a life threatening experience that most may not have been able to weather. Her father’s involvement in an underground plot and its result of surveillance from the “secret police”‚ the airport “security”
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Analysis of Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies In the Time of the Butterflies‚ written by Julia Alvarez‚ is the story of four sisters who take an emotional journey while becoming a symbol of hope in the corrupt Dominican Republic‚ as they seek to make a political revolution. Throughout the story‚ we dig deeper into each sister’s life and learn more about her individual traits. In the book‚ Alvarez makes the Mirabal sisters come alive throughout the book with her use of foreshadowing‚ detailed
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The two stories of my choice are ‘Snow‚’ by Julia Alvarez and ‘Gryphon‚’ by Charles Baxter. What intrigued me about these two stories are the similarities of how they both take place in classrooms; both stories are dealing with elementary school kids and in both stories‚ a kid was frightened by what they saw based on what the teacher told them. The little girl in Snow was frightened when‚ for the first time‚ she saw snowfall and because of the teacher’s description of fallout from a nuclear explosion
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From 1930 to 1961‚ General Rafael Leonidas Trujillo held absolute control over the Dominican Republic. His strategy to stay in power was to simply murder anyone who opposed him. Thousands of people were killed during his reign of terror. Amongst those victims were three—out of four—of the Mirabal sisters‚ Patria‚ Minerva‚ and Maria Teresa. Dede was the surviving sister. In the Time of the Butterflies is a fictionalization of the lives of the Mirabal sisters from their personal views of what happened
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conditions and rules at her school‚ in which pupils had to emulate practices in American schools. The same approach is used to illustrate the society of the Dominican Republic’s suffering under the police officers that induced fear in the society (Alvarez‚ p. 1‚ 12‚ 17). Application of a familiar setting is another characteristic of adolescent literature that is observable in the text. A family set up like Anita’s family for example illustrates a home in which most adolescents are familiar.
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short story‚ “Snow”‚ was written with deceptive intensity and a sincere tenacity that grabs you immediately. It tells the story of ten year old Yolanda‚ a little immigrant New York girl‚ new to the city and to America in general. Author Julia Alvarez‚ captures with pin point precision the emotional turmoil surrounding the feelings of impending doom in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It also unquestionably captures the authors’ love and concern for humanity and her longing for a world
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