the Garcia girls

- Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze relationship between two different characters.

- How would you describe the author’s style of writing? What’s your opinion of the style?

Moving to new places always need adjustments. A new culture must be adapted while struggling to maintain their own. In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez describes the story of how the four girls and their parents moved from the Dominican Republic to the United States. The youngest Garcia Girl, Sofia, easily embraced a new culture due to her limited amount of time in the Dominican Republic.

Out of four girls in the Garcia family, Sofia (Fifi), the youngest, have vague memories of the Dominican Republic. The family left the island to America when she was young. Her accent was the only memory that she have left of their homeland; it was what’s left of her true self before she began to change. Because she is a kid, she will forget easily, not knowing what’s important. herr innocence is still undisturbed because she doesn’t know the many problems adults face. As a child, she possesses huge amount of innocence, “Baby sister Fifi and my sweet-natured cousin Carmencita were everyone’s favorites, a helpful little pair, good for errands, turning jump ropes,”(225). When Fifi is still a child, she was obedient because she doesn’t have the knowledge that can help her decide for herself. As a child, the only thing that occupies her mind are playing and receiving love from adults. It never occurred to her that the adults were making sure that she isn’t doing something that will break the tradition and taking advantage of her with the helping. She grew up in the Dominican Republic in a life where she is the adorable child love by everyone because of her obedience.

As she grows older in America, she becomes more of a rebellious kid. During their vacation, the sisters would act like innocent kids in front of their parents. At night, however, they        discuss the bad things they did, “We took turns being the wildest. First one, then another of us would confess our sins on vacation night … Baby sister Fifi held the title the longest, though Sandi, with her good looks and many opportunities, gave her some competition,” (86). They soon adapted to the custom of sneaking behind their parents’ back and doing many things that was forbidden to them. Fifi, as described by one of her sisters, was the “bad child” because she did things that were worst than her sisters.

It is shown at the beginning of the story that Fifi ran away from home. This was when she got used to the American life. Dating without a parent knowing about it was considered misbehavior because of the traditional life that Carlos, their father, had lived. When he found out that Fif is sending letters to a guy, he, “then wrapped it round and round in a mad effort to contain his youngest daughter’s misbehavior,” (29). Fifi didn’ really know the tradition of her family since she left her country when she was young. Being a child growing up learning new things, she can easily embrace the American culture. Her behavior in doing stuff behind her parents’ back even though she is the youngest out of the four daughters shows that the American culture is part of her identity. In a new place, people needs to adjust and try their best to fit in. her other sisters had a hard time changing because their Spanish culture is already part of their identity and they need to change it. Fifi, on the other hand, was still trying to find her identity when they move to America. She began to mature and took the American culture as part of her identity because she is trying to fit in with everyone.

            These changes are seen through the unique style of writing that Alvarez uses. By using the reverse chronological style of writing, Alvarez recreates the memory of the Garcia Girls’ experience of moving to a new environment and adapting a new culture. She divides the book into three sections: the first being their lives in America and their different experience with men, the second about their experience moving to a new place and the third about their childhood in the Dominican Republic. She divided to three sections to guide the readers and to show the vivid memory in the beginning of the book hinting that it is recent and the blurred memory near the end of the book hinting that it was a long time ago so details will be forgotten.

            In my opinion, I think that this style is confusing to follow at first but is very effective. Reading the book in the beginning was confusing because it is in the present time in the book. Many things were thrown out at once and it was hard to follow with so many events happening. It was hard to grasp all the details but it was interesting. There was a rush for me to continue reading it due to having so much information in the book. I didn’t understand much of what I read at first but the amount of events makes me want to continue reading till the end. Later in the book, much of the events were later explained by going to the past. We get to see why each of the girls turned out to be the way they are. I think that if the book was written in chronological order, it would be boring and it would be hard to show the girls’ memories.

            This is an interesting book to read because I was able to relate to the immigration life that the Garcia girls faced. I was able to understand the hardship that the girls had to experience and adapting to a new culture. American life is different from the Dominican life because of the difference in culture and of the sex rules. In the Dominican Republic, the adults were always strict about a female staying alone with a male without a supervisor. In contrast, in America, both genders can stay with whoever they want because of the mixed cultures in the country.

            While reading, many questions came up. Because of this reverse chronological style of writing, looking in the current life the girls are living in, I ask many questions such as how did they become like this and what happened before. These questions increased my interest for the book. Overall, this book may be confusing but the reverse chronological order shows the transformation the four girls experienced and it was a very interesting book to read.

Garcia Girls Part 3

After reading How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, by Julia Alvarez, I have to admit, I am still confused. Part one was easy to understand but then part two got a bit confusing and in part three, it was really hard to interpret what happened and understand the story. The reverse chronological order isn’t confusing anymore but in part three, there were many new characters introduced and the events that happened were so hard to remember.

            In our group discussion, we talked about how it was much clearly in the beginning because the author purposely wrote it in the way how the girls remember their memories. Since the one closer to the presents were more vivid, the beginning of the book was easy to understand. And the closer the events were toward the end of the book, the more blurry the details are due to the memories, which might be the cause of its confusion.

            The father really left a bad impression on me. He was suppose to protect and support the family, but when guard came, all he did was hid while his daughters and wife had to deal with the guard carrying guns. I think that he could’ve done something else rather than hiding to show his protection to his family.

            The ending was really disappointing to me because the part about the cat didn’t really show up at the beginning of the book to show the impact of the nightmare and the cat doesn’t really symbolize anything. I feel that it is irrelevant because the guy with the gun and the dog and crazily shooting doesn’t really symbolize anything and his words didn’t really affect Yoyo’s future. The mother cat chasing Yoyo and the baby cat’s unfortunate fate plays no role either. I think that vignette really is redundant and useless because it made the book more confusing and it ended badly.

            The beginning of the book was interesting and it slowly got boring near the end to me. I felt that the author could’ve written a much better ending. I thought that the book was going to end with the family event, not just focusing on one daughter. It was really a disappointment and didn’t really end with something that would be memorable to the reader. 

Response: Winter

Summer came and went, and now autumn is about to leave. My favorite time of the year is winter. Crystal love winter too and my reasons are the same as her:

“I prefer cold weather as opposed to hot weather. Another reason is that this season brings an unexplainable feeling of warmth and joy…Winter symbolizes the end of the year and an opportunity to start afresh. This can correspond to how the leaves fall off of the trees in the winter, waiting until spring to blossom again…In addition, the scenery of winter truly emits a feeling of tranquility and peace. For instance when we view a photo of a snowy landscape, though there aren't any vibrant colors, it is the plainness of the landscape that sends the message of peace.”

Winter gives off such a relaxing feeling, the cold rainy weather and the warm of the house. Staying in my bed all day long would be heaven for me but I prefer sitting on a chair just staring outside at my yard along with the rainy scenery. It feels so peaceful that my mind is free of stress and I feel so happy. Relaxing and the cold makes everyone comfortable and wanting to be with others for warmth.

            There are rare chances during winter as well. When it stops raining and when we can see the blue in the sky, that’s when the sky is most beautiful. I do prefer snow and the amazing scenery it makes but the result of the sky after raining is also beautiful. It’s amazing how beautiful nature is, despite the competition and killing from it.

            As Crystal has also said, it is also a new beginning. It is the end of a year and marks the beginning of a new year. It helps students relax and prepares them for school in January. It is where families get to laugh with each other and spends their precious time together. Winter holds many symbols. The rainy weather helps clean the outside house, refreshing the house, and helps wash the car. It gives life to many plants and since spring is next, it’s the beginning of new lives for plants.

Jaejoong

     Due to the events that were supposed to happen this month, I will dedicate my post to a korean idol that I have been stalking a few year ago: Kim Jaejoong. he is also known as Hero, Youngwoong, or Jejung. I prefer Jaejoong and Hero because it suits him. He is the idol that I have been stalking because his band's music video had caught my attention while I was flipping the channels to watch something. Of course, my first impression of him was mean but I thought that he looked too much like a girl and I disliked him at first. Those changed dramatically when I watched variety shows of his band and watch their live concerts in youtube.
     He has a big humor and he was the lead singer in his band, Dong Bang Shin Ki, meaning the Rising Gods of the East. For the first time, I actually agreed with their name because they were rising rapidly and had the biggest fanbase in Asia. he loves singing and due to his childhood experiences, Hero's band member were his family and DBSK is his life. His voice is heavenly although there are some songs that I felt that he shouldn't sing.
     Going back to his humor, on one of the variety show, he is the best Mc because of his way in keeping the audiences' interests. one of his comment on a variety show when he describes how a real man cry on the inside and that a real man must cry three times in his life. His humor caught me laughing hard on my stomach because his demonstration of a man crying inside was a sleeping post and his explanation on the three time that a man must cry was: when they were born, when the girlfriend broke up with them, and when their managers don't feed them. I laughed from the last comment because I thought that it would be something serious.
     He pays attention to his fans and I think that it was nice of him. At the beginning of his singing career, he continued to focus on the camera even if it captures ugly images of him. He wanted to see all his fans and so he wasn't mindful of the camera but to his fans. It was so nice of him to do that. Also with the recent concert in U. S., he and his recent group was so nice to show commitment to fans and helping them pay for all their tickets.

Garcia Girls Part Two

Part two of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents was somewhat boring to me. The first part was interesting although confusing. I finally understood how the book works and the second part is boring me. The second part doesn’t have as much drama as the first part. The first part was throwing all these events that happened quickly and it was really intense; I hope the third part isn’t as boring as the second part.

            After discussing in my group about this story, I realized how the mother’s role in this book affects the girls. When they moved to America, the mother was trying to break free of the cage that limits her life. In the Dominican Republic, the mother was forced to be only a housewife and a mother. She was only a wife and wasn’t acknowledged for other things. Only the men were dominant back in the Island. The daughters think that the mother failed as a mom but by the way I see it, I think the mother is trying to make their daughters proud by trying to be someone who’s not just a mother. She wants to be somebody in America due to her caged life but she tried at the wrong time. She picked the wrong time to be someone else because that’s when the daughters need support from a mother. The role of mother changes depending on the situation and I think that the daughters just want encouraging words from their mother but couldn’t.

            This also relates to how the females of the house were able to embrace American Cultures but the father was the only one who couldn’t. The father is really traditional and he likes the system where the males were dominant figure of the house and the females must obey him. Whereas, the women of the house, like the American Culture because they have power and can use the excuse of culture to rebel against the dominant male. They are able to be independent and since the American Culture allows women to have more freedom, the girls embraced the culture more easily than the father. Even the mother was able to adapt to the American life because she got a sense of identity in America.

Response to Shiyun's blog on appearance

     I think that appearance does matter. It is part of the factor that will create a first impression from people. Image is not everything but it is something that many people will judge you on. Although this is something that cannot change, i agree with Shiyun's comment on appearances: 

  "Out community is filled with people that think about this everyday. They would either look at the mirror and say they they are "ugly" or "fat" about themselves even though they are already gorgeous. To me I don't think that appearance matters a lot to me and I would not judge someone without getting to know them first. I don't think people like you just because you are skinny, but rather it is your personality that really matters. Everyone is beautiful in their own way. [...] I want to tell them that you look fine the way you are."

     I do agree that many people put themselves down but that is only because they saw someone who they is super pretty than them. The media is the reason why people care so much about appearances. The media create standards of a certain image of beauty and those people not in that standard are ugly. The magazines and advertisements are also at fault too. They create a standard of beauty that is impossible to follow and brain wash people to make the people believe that they can also be at that standard of beauty by using the company's products.
     These selfish desires for money are killing our society because the continuous increase of the impossible standard of beauty makes everyone so obsess with their image. Americans wouldn't be so obsessed with image if no one would come out looking underweight saying that they are the definition of beauty. Shiyun mentioned it on her post about there is no true definition of beauty and I agree with it. Beauty is defined through perspective. A person can be ugly to one's perspective but an angel in another's perspective. Skinny is not the definition for beauty. It is the definition for anorexia and can lead to death. It is not a race to be as skinny as possible so that they can look like a skeleton.

Freewrite: ShiYun's evilness

            This blog is dedicated to Shi Yun. Of course, you would think that I would say how nice she is and how friendly she is but I’m going to say the opposite: I’m writing about how EVIL she is (with her permission). Not to be mean, but everyone must be aware of her. She may look innocent and quiet, but that is only to hide her evil side. Her evilness started last year, where she slips with her “innocent” image. She began to show her evil thoughts toward her friends. She also began to develop many contagious “diseases”.

            Her first disease was the Typo Disease. Many people would have thought that it is not a disease since it’s common to have typos, but they are wrong. Shi Yun would chat with me on yahoo. During the chat, every single one of her message had a typo. Her typos increased that every sentence has typos in them. From science, we learned about adaptation. Me and crystal adapted to it and started having as many typos as Shi Yun.

            Her second disease is the Mispronunciation Disease. It wouldn’t be called a disease if she only mispronounced some words while reading, but she does it consistently while talking. Brain cells would turn into head cells, here would be hair, sudoku would be suduku, sodoko, soduko, etc. as her evil friends, I would make fun of it sometimes but I found out that I, too, start mispronouncing it or using those words in sentences.

            Her third disease is the Sighing Disease. It was weird because she would start sighing and then another person would follow and another. This was weird because it’s like sighing is another language. We sighed so much that it’s as common as the word “like” or “um”.

            After spreading these incurable diseases, she wants to create more. She and her evil thoughts began to take actions this year. During the black out, she called me and the first thing she told me was that a person can rob a bank during a black out. She continued to show more evilness in her thoughts. Just this Thursday, Amber Chan told me that Shi Yun stole her electronics without her knowing it during Mr. Sutherland’s class.

            Other than thoughts, her actions seem to show evilness too. When she’s “hyper”, she would hit people’s head and act childish and evil. She is at her most evil form when she’s hyper. She randomly attacks people and as her friend, I consider it torture.

            So….. my main point is that everyone in ASTI should be beware of Shi Yun because she is so evil, that her evilness spreads. She cannot hide her innocent image for long to those she talks to a lot. One random comment I would make is that she and Amber can lead the world to destruction when they are together, and sadly, they do sit next to each other in history. 

            Sorry to Jandi if I wrote your name wrong. I know I am a bad friend.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

The weakness of In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, by Julia Alvarez, was the different events regarding the daughter and the time of the book.

            The book was reverse chronologically meaning that it goes from the future to the past. This kind of time is really confusing because I have to keep reminding myself that a certain event is before and not after the last chapter. Time was harder to keep track of in this book and there were so many times that I had to reread something and remind myself that the book is from the future to the past. Events were mixed up with one another and rereading was common for me in this book than any other book.

            Many of the events were confusing as well because of all the information about the daughters and their husband. The story would talk about one daughter and their husband and later talk about another daughter. This is so confusing because it’s hard to remember specific details. The detail about the husband’s job was hard to remember too. I would get myself mixed up with which daughter is the oldest and which one is the youngest. It was hard for me to remember some of their names because the first part of the book is mostly about the third oldest and the youngest daughter.

            So far, the story is a little interesting but there’s a bit too much information on certain stuff. When I first found out that we were going to read this book, I immediately gave this book a bad impression because the colors were dull, the title wasn’t really interesting, and I didn’t vote for this book.  I thought that this book would make me fall asleep and I dreaded reading this book. While reading the first three vignettes, my impression changed. I like the book a little because it was interesting. The book was very detail written, although I wanted some parts to not have as many details as they have. Even though the book was confusing, I always have this feeling that I want to continue to finish the vignette.