Abstract 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."
Tags: julia, alvarez, west, male, female, sisters, synonym, modern
Abstract The paper portrays how Julia Alvarez's novel, "In the Time of the Butterflies," employs brilliant descriptions to depict the severe reality that Trujillo's regime imposed on the Dominican Republic from the 1930s to the 1960s. The paper illustrates how Julia Alvarez humanizes the story of violence and injustice in the Dominican Republic and opens doors into the souls of the Mirabal sisters. The paper highlights how Alvarez stresses the need to see the Mirabal sister personalities as leaders of revolution, as people who fight their own fears to fight injustice in the Dominican Republic.
From the Paper "Of all the Mirabal sisters, Minerva is by far the most confrontational. Minerva has no fear and stands up to anyone, no matter what his or her position of power is, in this case Trujillo's regime. She is the one most identified with the resistance against Trujillo because of her beauty, her public rebellions, her conspicuous intelligence, and her leadership in the underground movement. Alvarez exhibits these same attributes in her Minerva, especially her vehement, outspoken hatred of injustice in any form. Often Minerva's rash actions are a problem to her goal to end the dictatorship of Trujillo."
This paper discusses Julia Alvarez's article "A White Woman of Color" and Abby L. Ferber's article "What White Supremacists Taught a Jewish Scholar about Identity".
Abstract The paper examines the articles "A White Woman of Color" by Julia Alvarez and "What White Supremacists Taught a Jewish Scholar about Identity" by Abby L. Ferber who discuss their experiences related to race, culture and color. The paper describes the cultural difference and clashes and the discriminatory or racial behaviors that are the result of social practices. The paper looks at Alvarez in relation to her American society and her Dominican community and Ferber with her Jewish origin and the White supremacist views.
From the Paper "The issue of race and color has been an important aspect in the history of the United States and in general of the world. This was and still is one of the toughest hurdles to overcome in terms of the complete emancipation of the society. However, this is yet to be fully attained. Although this equality at the level of the society is indeed a lofty goal, there are various aspects which relate to the history and culture of a certain people that make this task to be practically impossible."
A comparison of three literary works by female Hispanic writers, "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisnero, "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent" by Julia Alvarez and "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina Garcia.
Abstract This paper compares three feminist Hispanic literary works: "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisnero, "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent" by Julia Alvarez, and "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina Garcia. The paper investigates how the issues of gender, race, ethnicity, belief, education, family and culture affect identity found in these literary works.
From the Paper "During the last few decades, a new genre has emerged, the female Hispanic writer. These women are enriching the American literature landscape with their lyrical stories and ethnicity. They are telling stories of young girls, mothers, grandmothers, and friends, who have been transplanted from a culture a world away into the American dream. They are telling their own stories. Telling those who read their tales what it's really like to grow up with little or no knowledge of the language and customs, trying desperate to adapt and meld into American life, weaving old ways and new into their own identity."
Abstract This paper examines the influence of race, gender and ethnicity on personality development through a review of three novels, "House of Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros, "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina Garcia and "How Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent" by Julia Alvarez. It explores the problems that immigrant families encounter when they move to the United States as portrayed in these stories.
From the Paper "Race, ethnicity, immigration and their impact on one's personality are serious subjects which need to be studied carefully in order to understand why they cast such profound influence on human beings and their sense of self. In the three books namely, "House of Mango Street", "Dreaming in Cuban" and "How Garcia girls lost their accent", the authors give us unique insights into the subjects of race, discrimination and identity crisis and the role they play in the evolution of one's personality and character. The most important and by far the wisest approach towards these subjects was adopted by Sandra Cisneros, the writer of House on Mango Street. This is because while the other two writers deal with causes of immigration and the disturbing aspects of immigration, Cisneros focuses mainly on the internal conflict, dream and hopes of those who move from poor countries to the land of opportunity. It is very important to understand that all three have given a fictional touch to their own life stories since they all migrated to the United States with their families when conditions in their native countries appeared unfavorable."
A comparison of the lives of women depicted in "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez and "Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Disappeared Children of Argentina" by Rita Arditti.
Abstract Many times the element that makes a book a classic is the fact that the human element become involved and therefore the reader gets attached to the story and the characters that are in it. This paper reviews "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez and "Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Disappeared Children of Argentina" by Rita Arditti and shows how the authors draw the readers in until they become attached to the ladies of the stories. It examines how the commonalty of the stories is the fact that the protagonists have a serious life filled with struggles because of their presidents and how the struggle of one person against something as strong and powerful as a president is a story that can draw out the most maternal and paternal instincts in the most stoic reader.
From the Paper "In Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza De Mayo and the Disappeared Children of Argentina by Rita Arditti the reader has a different approach all together. Instead of getting attached one by one the reader only has to get attached to the cause. It is a noble cause however and the grandmother's search for their grandbabies is heartbreaking to say the least. Each of the books provides an accurate accounting of the way the lives were for the protagonists and the readers are drawn to the plight of all involved. However there are different levels of concerns with each story. In the Butterfly story the sisters are portrayed as those who actually plan to overthrow the government while the story in Searching For Life is about grandmothers challenging the dictatorship."
Abstract The novel "In the Time of the Butterflies" is a fictionalized biography of the lives and fate of a family of sisters who were killed in 1960 during the political turmoil in their native Dominican Republic. The paper shows how the author, Julia Alvarez, a Dominican by repatriation, celebrates the lives and murders of the Mirabal sisters, who are referred to as the Mariposas or butterflies, recreating historical events while recounting some of her own experiences in that time and place.
From the Paper "Around the time that their second daughter was born, the Dominican Dictator, Rafael Trujillo, pretended to reform his government. He invited dissenters back to participate in the political process and promised that he himself would not run in the next election. The couple returned with their two daughters. Consequently, Julia Alvarez spent ten years of her childhood in the Dominican Republic under the repressive regime."
This paper reviews and analyzes the various similarities relating to Latin-American immigration in both Julia Alvarez's "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" and T. Coraghessan Boyle's "The Tortilla Curtain."
Abstract The writer of this paper details the plot as well as the main characters of each novel while focusing on the numerous similarities in both works of writing. This paper examines the manner in which both authors focus on the real-life problems encountered by Latin immigrants in the U.S. This paper delves into the numerous difficulties which awaited the immigrants upon their arrival to America including issues with gender, culture and class backgrounds. The writer contends and explains why the Garcia girls in Alvarez's novel did not assimilate completely in the U.S., even though they lost their native accents they continue to remain stuck between the two cultures unable to fully adapt to either one. This paper also delves into the topic of illegal immigration and the ensuing problems facing the characters in Boyle's novel.
From the Paper "The Garcia girls come to the United States because of political reasons. They are forced to leave the Dominican Republic because their father got in trouble with the Dominican secret police for protesting the nation's ruling military dictatorship. In contrast, the immigrants of The Tortilla Curtain immigrate illegally, rather than with the help of the CIA like the Garcia girls. The immigrants from Mexico of The Tortilla Curtain do so to better their way of life, economically, rater than for political reasons, when they flee their nation to make their way to Southern California via Mexico. The Garcia girls come from a privileged background. They had enjoyed many, if not more of the toys and luxuries of their American counterparts. True, they still have trouble fitting in, when they come to America."
Abstract The paper relates that Julia Alvarez' novel "In the Time of the Butterflies" is based on the real story of the four Mirabal sisters, who take an active part in the Fourteenth of June Movement against the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. The paper discusses how Catholicism is a very important element in the novel and demonstrates how religion shapes the very culture and identity of the Dominican nation.
From the Paper "The main functions of the church in human life are those of kerygma or witness, litourgia or worship and diakonia or service. All of these three functions indicate the roles that the Catholic Church should play in the life of man, namely to witness the religion of Jesus Christ and to perpetuate it, to worship God as the sole divinity and to do service to men, that is to protect and support them at any time. In Alvarez' novel, the Church fails at the beginning in its main functions, as it becomes involved in the political game of power. When the Catholic Church backs the regime of Trujillo, it forgets the essential duties to God and man: it no longer acts as a witness to God when it comes to obey a single man, the dictator."
Abstract This paper discusses how Chicana authors such as Julia Alvarez and Edwidge Danticat seek to gain a voice and have it heard by expressing the meaning of their lives and celebrating the lives of others from the same social order that people otherwise marginalize and ignore. The paper looks at how these authors create a narrative space that includes gender issues and how they reveal their role in the preservation of national identity.
From the Paper "Louis Gerard Mendoza writes about the same topic in his book Historia, in which he offers "an extended analysis of the link between historical narratives and the representation of the historical in fictional narratives and poetry" (Mendoza 38). Mendoza finds that the nature of Chicana and Chicano narratives have changed in recent years in response to contemporary ideas and changing social circumstances, and these changes have also altered "the very substance of past narratives" (Mendoza 38) by expanding our knowledge by which we make decisions. Mendoza also points out that this literature has been largely unexamined, as might be expected for a literature featuring a minority population that itself is often marginalized and ignored. "
From the Paper The story told in the novel In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is a true one, based on the Mirabal sisters, well-known in the Dominican republic for their heroic stand against the Trujillo regime and for what happened to them. Alvarez was born in the Dominican Republic, but she never knew the Mirabal sisters, as she explains in the postcript to her book where she notes that she and her family arrived in New York City in 1960 as exiles from their native land because of the Trujillo regime--her father had participated in an underground plot that was discovered by the country's secret police. Three of the four Mirabal sisters had been murdered some four months before that in what was deemed an "accident," though clearly it was not. Alvarez was a young girl at the time but could not get this story out of her mind, and she sought out more information..."
From the Paper " Julia Alvarez, in her novel In the Time of the Butterflies, presents a fictionalized account of the lives and murders of three sisters who were in fact tortured and killed in 1960 in the Dominican Republic by the secret police of dictator Trujillo for their opposition to his tyranny. A fourth sister survived and her fictional spirit contributes to the telling of this enraging, heartbreaking, and finally inspiring story of tragedy and courage.
As Alvarez writes in the postscript to the novel, she and her own family were exiles from Trujillo's tyranny, leaving the country less than four months before the murder of the Mirabal sisters, known as Las Mariposas, or The Butterflies. In fact, the author's father was active in the underground resistance to Trujillo, along with the four sisters. Alvarez says that she.."
Comparing three articles - "I Want to Be Miss America" by Julie Alvarez; "My Inner Shrimp" by Garry Trudeau and "Victoria's Not-So-Secret Strategy" by Marisa Kula - which deal with how sociey has physical expectations of a person and beauty image.
Abstract Current society is one where body image or looks is central to self image. Movies, television, beauty products, diet programs and exercise programs are all reminders of this. Every person in society is haunted by the image of what they should look like. This paper focuses on three essays, each which argue something different about the impact of our need to look a certain way. Alverez's shows what happens when a person cannot obtain the ideal look society dictates. Trudeau's shows that even if the ideal is attained, the impact on the person lingers while also showing that it is not only an issue for women. Finally, Kula shows how companies like Victoria's Secret project these images and make profit by fooling women into believing they can be the ideal. This paper considers these essays and the impact of body image and shows how living up to an ideal set by society impacts on everyone's life, whether or not that ideal can be attained. The writer concludes that the end result of this is low self-esteem for all individuals, even if some of those ideals can be attained.
From the Paper "1. The Alvarez family's ritual of watching the Miss America pageant is so important to Alvarez and her sisters because it represents what they could be. The Alverez's come from a culture where women can only be wives and mothers. The Miss America pageant represents that in America, they can aspire to more than that. The Miss America pageant also represents what it means to be American, something the Alverez sisters are trying to find out so they can fit into their new environment."
Abstract This paper discusses troubled mother-daughter relationships and suggests reasons why they are so common in female coming-of-age novels. In the process, the author compares the mother-daughter relationship in Dorothy Allison's "Bastard Out of Carolina" with the mother-daughter relationships in Louisa Alvarez's "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents."
This paper reviews Julia Alvarez's "How the Garcia Girls lost their Accent", which is about four sisters who experienced a lifestyle change in coming to America from the Dominican Republic.
Abstract This paper examines the four sisters, their parents, the political backdrop, and the Dominican Republic's male-female nexus, which is so different from what one has come to view in America. The author points out that, in "How the Garcia Girls lost their Accent", which is set from the early 1960s to the mid 1980s, each sister brings her own dimensionality, which is a slice of what constitutes a woman. The paper states that the sisters? accents have completely changed; but, for better or worse, they have been fully assimilated into American culture.
From the Paper "It is in Fifi's relationships with men that we see the most vagaries. The start of the novel shows that she is really a person who would support a stable family. She is headstrong and independent. She generally gets what she wants. She presents her parents with their first grandchildren"a boy. She is the only one among her siblings that does not have a college degree, though there is no lack of intellect. Her husband is the most accomplished of all" ?? the German nobody turned out to be a world class chemist.?(p. 31) She seems to hold equal say in her marriage though her husband's character is not explored. Surprisingly, Fifi can adopt different roles."
