Abuela Invents The Zero Summary

In Abuela Invents the Zero by Judith Cofer, a common theme would be respect. If you don’t respect others, you can’t respect yourself. To begin, Constancia, Abuela’s granddaughter, shows disrespect toward her grandmother multiple times throughout the story. In the beginning of the story , when connie was waiting for her grandmother at the airport, Constancia doesn’t feel like she is close to her grandmother. She is constantly embarrassed to even be seen with her grandmother.One piece of evidence that points to this is,”Right up to the time when we’re supposed to pick up the old lady at the airport, my mother is telling me stories about how hard times were for la familia on la isla, and how la abuela worked night and day to support them after their father died of a heart attack” (Cofer 2). This shows that from the very beginning constancia has no respect for her grandmother and is ashamed of her. She calls her “the old lady” instead of her grandmother. She also does not have much sympathy for her grandmother considering her difficulty at home.

Likewise, she continues to treat her grandmother with disrespect. While they were at the church, the grandmother got lost after taking communion, walking idly. Very embarrassed

In the text, it says,” I can feel myself shrinking right there in front of her. But I can’t bring myself to tell my mother that I think I understand how I made Abuela feel. I might be sent into the old lady’s room to apologize, and it’s not easy to admit you’ve been a jerk—at least, not right away with everybody watching. So I just sit there not saying anything” (Cofer 19). Although, she does feel resentful for what she did, she cannot get herself to apologize. Not only can she not apologize,but she still calls her “old lady”, which is very