Book Review

In the novel by Julia Alvarez, “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents”, the book explores many themes about growing up in different societies and the growth of all the girls in general.

In “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” one of the characters, Yolanda, goes through a exceptional college experience. Coming from the Dominican republic, the American culture is very different then her home. She is foreign and not used to American culture. In the 60s, this age-group was very sexually active, being that sex is something Yolanda isn't used to either. The way she feels relates back to how her family brought her up; woman being modest and sexually inactive until she is married. This may also stem from her religion. I can relate to Yolanda going to college. The atmosphere she describes in similar to college of Alameda. She describes it as being very academic. Showing how other students personalities come out in relation to their studies, her description emphasizes the academic atmosphere. While walking about in College in Alameda and have taken some classes there, I felt a connection to how Yolanda felt while going to college in America. The message Julia Alvarez is trying to send is that everybody goes though phases through their lives where they must accustom to change. Change is a common idea in ife, especially in adolescent and the beginning of adulthood However, Yolanda comes into contact with another thing about growing up: Sex. She feels conflicted as their as sex has always been unimportant in her life. As she comes into this sex-oriented culture, she doesn't know what to do. As with Rudy, she doesn't pick up on his hints inside the poem at first. She is too naive to see his flirtatious approaches. Eventually, her prudence drives him away, and this is what causes emotional conflict within Yolanda. Yolanda's innocence from her chidhopod show through at different times, such as this when she comes face-to-face with something that has been marked as a taboo throughout her life. Another thing I have seen while reading this book is how what content I have read relates to the title of the book. What has been described so far is how the girls learn from there mistakes. The events that have happened have all taught a lesson to the four sisters. Starting with Yolanda, she learns that some people are different than what they seem. Sofia learns that when you disrespect somebody, especially someone as important as your father, it takes time to heal. Hey all went through some sort of process that they have learned form they're mistakes. I expect to see similar themes like this happen throughout the book. They all learn something from each other.

In the second part of “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents” we learn more about their life from their young adult to teenage years. Differing from the first part, which explored a later part of their life, the book explores their young adult and teen years. The theme in this part of the book is also different. In this section, the four girls learn how to acclimate to the teenager lifestyle in America after moving from the Dominican republic, instead of acclimating to college life. The girls also come into their first contacts with close relationships and other adult themes. As the girls are teenagers, they are pressured by the American way to become more American rather than retaining their traditional standards in America. They experience social pressures that other teens in America go through, but have the added stress from their parents that want them to be like. The parents keep them away from boys at every opportunity. whether it be on the way to school or when they want to go hang out. The parents think that if they can keep they're social life from expanding in America, they can keep their heritage intact. They go an extra measure too, as in the summer, the parents make the girls visit the Dominican republic for the whole time. They do this to keep the girls in touch with their family, but to also maintain their cultural image. The father is very resilient to have the girls even be in America, as they think they will blend with the culture and become a “Spanish American princess”. He is also afraid of them “whoring around”, and becoming versions of women he sees in the Dominican republic become unsuccessful. The girls also experience their first serious relationships. Sofia falls in love with a man at the young age of sixteen, and the relationship becomes controlling. Her boyfriend, Manuel, becomes very controlling, keeping her in the house, regulating her contact with other people, and even telling her what she can or can't read. However, she becomes docile and unresistant, letting Manuel control her.

The third and final part of “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents”, we explore the young teen and childhood of the four sisters. The family lives in the Dominican republic in this time and are aught up in the history. During this time, the dictator that held total control of the Dominican Republic is power. The Garcia family comes into problems with the government, and immigration to America in the third part of “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents”.In the first vignette, the family comes into conflict with the dictator. Being part of a supposed plot against the government, Carlos, the girls' dad, flees into hiding into the crevasses of the house as the dictator's agents come to him with questions. The arrival of the agent's sends the whole family into a panic, fearing charges of treason from the government. Trembling against the odds, the family holds up until they receive help from a friend, using code words to communicate to him and their father as the agents question them. The theme of danger is a new theme in the book, as never before has the writer incorporated suspense or thrill. New ideas, different then before which have revolved around growing up and losing innocence emerges. Ideas such as protecting ones family, or fighting for one's freedom occurs as we enter the realm of dictatorship and tyranny. As the family escapes the Dominican republic however, we learn of their struggles of immigrating to America. This is very new to all the children, and is a familiar theme. Growing accustomed to a different culture is a very strong theme throughout the story, . The girls are forced to adapt to the American way from the Dominican culture.

Book Post 3

The third and final part of “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents”, we explore the young teen and childhood of the four sisters. The family lives in the Dominican republic in this time and are aught up in the history. During this time, the dictator that held total control of the Dominican Republic is power. The Garcia family comes into problems with the government, and immigration to America in the third part of “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents”.

In the first vignette, the family comes into conflict with the dicttator. Being part of a supposed plot against the government, Carlos, the girls' dad, flees into hiding into the crevasses of the house as the dictator's agents come to him with questions. The arrival of the agent's sends the whole family into a panic, fearing charges of treason from the government. Trembling against the odds, the family holds up until they receive help from a friend, using code words to communicate to him and their father as the agents question them. The theme of danger is a new theme in the book, as never before has the writer incorporated suspense or thrill. New ideas, different then before which have revolved around growing up and losing innocence emerges. Ideas such as protecting ones family, or fighting for one's freedom occurs as we enter the realm of dictatorship and tyranny.

As the family escapes the Dominican republic however, we learn of their struggles of immigrating to America. This is very new to all the children, and is a familiar theme. Growing accostmed to a different culture is a very strong theme throughout the story, . The girls are forced to adapt to the American way from the Dominican culture.

Blog Post nummer 2

 In the second part of “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents” we learn more about their life from their young adult to teenage years. Differing from the first part, which explored a later part of their life, the book explores their young adult and teen years. The theme in this part of the book is also different. In this section, the four girls learn how to acclimate to the teenager lifestyle in America after moving from the Dominican republic, instead of acclimating to college life. The girls also come into their first contacts with close relationships and other adult themes.

As the girls are teenagers, they are pressured by the American way to become more American rather than retaining their traditional standards in America. They experience social pressures that other teens in America go through, but have the added stress from their parents that want them to be like. The parents keep them away from boys at every opportunity., whether it be on the way to school or when they want to go hang out. The parents think that if they can keep they're social life from expanding in America, they can keep their heritage intact. They go an extra measure too, as in the summer, the parents make the girls visit the Dominican republic for the whole time. They do this to keep the girls in touch with their family, but to also maintain their cultural image. The father is very resilient to have the girls even be in America, as they think they will blend with the culture and become a “Spanish American princess”. He is also afraid of them “whoring around”, and becoming versions of women he sees in the Dominican republic become unsuccessful.

The girls also experience their first serious relationships. Sofia falls in love with a man at the young age of sixteen, and the relationship becomes controlling. Her boyfriend, Manuel, becomes very controlling, keeping her in the house, regulating her contact with other people, and even telling her what she can or can't read. However, she becomes docile and unresistant, letting Manuel control her.

His madness part 2

I turned away from the beatings the Shadow Cloaks inflicted on the mother and her child to the ground. I hold back my tears of fear, a grim respite to what I see, and turn away, talking the long way back To my Mum. The sidewalk, a large pathway between building and street,funneling humans and Pokèmon every which way. It's gray concrete color shines with the materials of industries and the sweat of the workmen who laid them down. Strutting down Rain Corridor, Sun shining being harvested on rooftops by panels of light, turbines twirling, wondering really how all of this is powered. It's not by these sources of course, It's by, the space between you and me.

Sepior the scientist, Sepior the savior, Sepior the Chancellor, Sepior the Madman. Unlocking the strongest energy source we have ever known, he quickly rose from the lowest, most embarrassed part of the scientific community, to a celebrity, known all over the world. Unleashing the negative and positive matter reaction creates so much energy. Completely clean, inexpensive, just what the leaders before rambled on about. Just this time, The right combination for something came up, someone in charge, someone loved, someone totally wrong, a dictator.

~ ~ ~

Has it been hours? Minutes, days? Or has it been a year? Looking back, I don't even remember that walk to the outskirts of the city. I think I closed my eyes, shielding myself from the horror. So many dead. Am I the only one left? My footsteps are a grim reminder of where I still am, a wondering soul in a real limbo. Everything seems like limbo when it's not what you're used to.

The sky, covered in a purple ash, resembles a bomb. Lighting flashing, yet no rain falling. It swirls to and fro, in and out. Near the horizon line, my farthest point, is a blur. Heat waves emanate from it, miles away, as I see the power plant. What used to be a huge building, towering over the city with it's stacks and labs, is now a pile of vaporized rubble. Burning rubble, burning stones. The power of the blast must have come from there.
The power plant exploded. The power existing between you and me, let loose a fiery, cataclysmic explosion. Burning life for miles around.
I look to the mountains, my view clean of buildings and rubble. Me, an oasis in a wasteland, the only one to perceive the horror, sees nothing. Black mountains. Black skies. Black clouds, and a black moon.
So I start my walk, down my endless highway, out from my home, to my unappealing demise.

* * *

Book Post: What they learn.

 In “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” one of the characters, Yolanda, goes through a exceptional college experience. Coming from the Dominican republic, the American stage is a strange place. She is foreign and not used to American culture. In the 60s, this age-group is very sexually active, something that Yolanda isn't used to either. The way she feels relates back to how her family brought her up; woman being modest and sexually inactive until she is married. This may also stem from her religion.

I can relate to Yolanda going to college. The atmosphere she describes in similar to college of Alameda. She describes it as being very academic. Showing how other students personalities come out in relation to their studies, her description emphasizes the academic atmosphere. While walking about in College in Alameda and have taken some classes there, I felt a connection to how Yolanda felt while going to college in America.

However, Yolanda comes into contact with another thing about growing up: Sex. She feels conflicted as their as sex has always been unimportant in her life. As she comes into this sex-oriented culture, she doesn't know what to do. As with Rudy, she doesn't pick up on his hints inside the poem at first. She is too naïve to see his flirtatious approaches. Eventually, her prudeness drives him away, and this is what causes emotional conflict within Yolanda.

Another thing I have seen while reading this book is how what content I have read relates to the title of the book. What has been described so far is how the girls learn from there mistakes. The events tha have happened have all taught a lesson to the four sisters. Starting with Yolanda, she learns that some people are different than what they seem. Sofia learns that when you disrespect somebody, espeically someone as important as your father, it takes time to heal. Hey all went through some sort of process that they have learned form they're mistakes. I expect to see similar themes like this happen thoughout the book. They all learn something from each other.

My Growth As A Writer

My post, “My thoughts and My German” is the post the surprises me when I re-read it. It shows how I write casually with structure and voice, but also it was very reflective to a time where I felt very different about school. I feel accomplished of my writing growth in this quarter based on how effective I communicate my emotions to readers.

The first thing that I find striking when I re-read this in detail is how much structure I wrote into this. It seems more like an academic piece of writing, like I wrote it under the guidance of a prompt. However, I wrote this for myself, a way of venting or emotional processing: “I knew i would go to bed tonight not worrying about what I had to do to make my life better, what I had to do to make tomorrow count the most as it can for my future. A kind of inconceivable joy that can only be describe by laughing out loud.” I didn't write this to be put on my blog and I didn't expect it to be as structured as it is. I have varied types of words, calculated diction; some from my vocab list, while others were words that would be deemed advance by high school standards. Overall, I am proud how my writing, even when written in a casual tone, has grown.

The night I wrote my post, I was coming home from music class, as stated. Music to me is a one of the greatests sources of passion and motivation in my life: “I wanted to stay in that little room, looking over complicated pieces of music, studying keys and scales, making solos and melodies correctly over a series of shifting chords. It felt like love, something that I had aged into a masterpiece, held before all to see.” I am easily swayed by music that touches me; great melodies, smooth bass lines, I enjoy a melting pot of genres. As an artist, listening to music is practicing music, as while I'm listening, I can analyze the bass line for the key, then engineer the song to re-create. But, as a spectator of music, I am dedicated to alternative metal and rock, but jazz is a close second it is an extremely stimulating style to play. In every way, music lifts my emotions and brings me to my own “happy place”. Some people would call it my zone of my zen; I don't know about that, but it is certainly a passion I live for. At a behind-the-scenes perspective of me at the time, I felt very passionate about someone else, and combined with my love for music, you can say that my feelings created a perfect storm for me to write this. Hanging over my laptop, I stayed awake until late at night writing, hunched over. No break for drink, nor for food. I stayed persistent to complete the post, and even when I finished reading it several times over to ensure what I wanted to to say to the reader was being said.

The idea that I shouldn't let other people let me reach depression and to keep my head high because I have more important things to be happy for is what my post truly means. As already stated, music is my passion, it's what keeps my going. “I had the best time in a long time tonight at my music class. I feel proud of what I can do, something I love. I felt like I was flying, high above Starland, high above Alameda. I could even see into Oakland, if you get what I mean. I just felt awesome”. I face ridicule, criticism and harassment everyday as a consequence for not conforming to the mainstream. The mainstream, the male dominant perspective that characterizes men to be beings void of emotions and women to be objects of sensitivity, is something I am truly against; people should be allowed to be what they be. However, the way I want to be can be scorned upon. I wrote this post to spite whoever thinks I should think my inferior because I'm different, that I can be happy without other people not liking who I am.

One thing that I have been able to to do differently this year then from last year is to try new ideas with my writing. Due to the orthodox English analysis education system, many students are limited to practicing their writing craft to just analytical essays. However, with the blog post system, I am able to use new ideas. This creates a chain reaction, now I am able to think up new ideas for things to write about.

My ideas from blog posts come from events or other pieces of writing that cause controversies or things that inspire me. Controversial events, such as abortion in the case of my blog posts, are what I can base my formal ideas on. These events are very important to today's society and writing about them will contribute what I think to the matter. These events also have many differing sides due to them. Due to the clashing viewpoints, there will be a large amount of subject matter to report on, but most importantly, analyze and relate to higher things.

For reflective posts, I draw upon my passions for inspiration. Such as in my post, “My thoughts, and My German”, I write about music as a source of passion: “I had the best time in a long time tonight at my music class. I feel proud of what I can do, something I love. I felt like I was flying, high above Starland, high above Alameda. I could even see into Oakland, if you get what I mean. I just felt awesome” After music, I experience an high of motions. Since music has such an impact on me, I can consider my main source of inspiration. It acts as a trigger to my brain, something that releases stress and allows ideas through.

A Religious Conflict

 Conflict is what makes a story interesting and creates content that attracts the reader's attention. In the memoir “Night” By Elie Wiezel, he uses his experiences in the holocaust as a source of extreme conflict. The most powerful example is his emotions concerning his religions. When Eliezer loses faith, his struggle against god becomes the central conflict on “Night”

Eliezer is traumatized because of his experiences at the concentration camps. Being someone with a love of religion, he struggles with the feeling of being of abandoned by god and feels alone: “My eyes were and I was alone, alone is a world without God and without man. Without love of mercy. I had ceased to be anything but ashes...” (65) Feeling deserted, Eliezer is forced to come to terms with the harsh reality of the situation he is in. His mind suffer as he starts to show signs of depression; seeing no point in his world. The dramatic changes of how he feels because of how feels about god shows how character versus religion is the central conflict of night. He rebels and defies more traditions of the Jewish faith.

Eliezer takes respite, but still from defying traditions of the Jewish faith. On the day of Yom Kippur, He refuses to fast. He thinks, “I no loner accepted god's silence. As I swallowed my bowl of soup, I saw in the gesture an act of rebellion and protest against him... In the depths of my heart I felt a great void” (66), but he still finds anger. The two anomalies are him breaking a sacred tradition and him suffering from a self-righteous anger but still feel guilty about his choice. It is out of the norm for him to break a tradition, showing the he must be having a conflict not only against a supernatural force but also himself. This is further explored in him feeling guilty. He is going against something he had great faith and love for, and instead of feeling good, he feels empty; a great void. He anger festers further as he has controversies with other traditions.

At the height of Eliezer's conflict, he finds great anger. When the people of his block are praying, he is affected by controversies between the status of god and how he feels. He thinks:

“Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because he had had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because he kept six crematories working night and day, on Sundays and feast days? Because in His great might He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many factories of death? How could I say to Him: 'Blessed art Thou, Eternal , Master of the Universe, Who chose us from among the races to be tortured day and night, to see our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, end in the crematory? Priased be Thy Holy Name, Tho Who hast been chosen us to be butchered on Thine altar?'” (64)

The examples Eliezer provides serve as great points for proving many conflicts, but the root of it relates to his anger revolving god.