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.