"How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines Alvarez's novel "How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents" illustrating how the 'accent' is mostly a metaphor for the evolution of several facets of the sisters. 'Accents', become synonymous with a modern, west-influenced lifestyle where equality is introduced into the male-female nexus. The author concludes that the relationships of the four sisters really mirror the male-female relationships of the west and their accents have completely changed they have been fully assimilated into the Western culture.

From the Paper:

"Interestingly, Julia Alvarez presents several unique characteristics in the narrative. The novel is set from the early 1960s to the mid 1980, but in reverse chronological order. Such a description helps develop the characters of the four sisters: Carla, Sandi (Sandra), Yolanda (YoYo aka Joe) and Fifi (Sofia). To put the plot in the right order: Carlos is a doctor in the Dominican Republic. Carlos is married to Laura. They have four daughters. Carlos's nuclear and extended family is wealthy and influential one of a few in the entire nation situated on an impoverished tropical South American Island. Fearing reprisals in the dictatorial reign of Trujillo Ciudad, called only Trujillo in the entire novel (assuming that every Dominican is familiar with the name), the family escapes to the United States."

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