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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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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Thien Nguyen Professor Hinds English 1153 September 15‚ 2013 The Differences between Learning English from Spanish and Vietnamese. Reading‚ “My English”‚ by Julia Alvarez somehow reminds me the process of studying English. Unlike the author‚ I was born and grew up in a place far from the United States‚ Vietnam. Generally‚ English is our second language. Yet‚ the way we achieve it consisted of both similarities and differences. First of all‚ Vietnamese and Spanish use the same Latin alphabet
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Daniel Greagan Professor Redkey 9/29/12 An Evaluation of Proactivity Julia Alvarez’s novel‚ In the Time of the Butterflies‚ portrays the lives of four sisters who grow up during General Trujillo’s dictatorship of the Dominican Republic. Once of age‚ the four sisters‚ Minerva‚ Patria‚ Maria Teresa‚ and Dede each choose their own level of involvement in the rebellion against Trujillo. In Habit One of‚ The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People‚ author Stephen R. Covey writes‚ “[proactivity] means
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Sacrifice becomes necessary to achieve social change when there is loss of personal freedoms‚ abuse of power‚ and physical abuse. This is demonstrated by the revolutions in Nicaragua and Haiti as well as the novel‚ In the Time of the Butterflies‚ by Julia Alvarez. When people are being severely oppressed and they no longer have any freedom‚ they are likely to sacrifice themselves in the hope of achieving justice. In most nations‚ people have the freedom to act in their own will. For example‚ in the United
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understand different point of views including my own life. For example‚ “Suicide Note” written by Janice Mirikitani helped me to understand more of another’s personal life and what they’re going through. As for my own life‚ “Dusting” written by Julia Alvarez helped me to better understand what I’m going through. I learned through poems that they can help you to understand what another person may be going through. “Suicide Note” by Mirikitani is about a college student who took her life because she
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night every November the daughters turned back into their father’s girls in the cramped living room‚ surrounded by the dark oversized furniture from the old house they grew up in‚ they were children again in a smaller‚ simpler version of the world”. (Alvarez 1991) Well‚ on this birthday Sophia wanted to celebrate his birthday at her house‚ not his. She wanted husbands and children‚ along with many other people‚ not just them alone. I don’t think it was her intention to humiliate her father‚ but with both
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