Difficult To Be An Immigrant In Snow By Julia Alvarez

The story “Snow” by Julia Alvarez tells us how difficult it is to be an immigrant in many ways. Moving to a place and being an immigrant creates hardships such as learning everything about a new language, to the change of the area you are used to living in. Another big hardship is a conflict created between different countries such as how Yolanda during the time was living in New York during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Going somewhere new where you know nothing about is challenging to those who decide to move.

The first hardship being told to us in the story “Snow” is how language is very difficult for immigrants who are new to the language. The many different words given to immigrants that they have to learn are difficult for them because they have to learn the pronunciation of the word and even have to learn to write the word. Yolanda, the character in the story “Snow” who is told to be an immigrant, even has to learn how to pronounce her name “Sister Zoe. I had a lovely name, she said, and she had me teach the whole class how to

The change in weather and how the cold or heat makes a difference to one who is not used to it. When Yolanda was introduced to snow for the first time it had shocked her and she got frightened when she had not learned what exactly snow was but just the word snow. “One morning as I sat at my desk daydreaming out the window, I saw dots in the air like the ones Sister Zoe had drawn—random at first, then lots and lots. I shrieked, “Bomb! Bomb!”. The Culture difference for immigrants is also a shock. Being a foreigner to any new place comes with a shock of difference. Changing your schools and living style is also something difficult that comes with being an immigrant. Luckily Yolanda was lucky to have such a great teacher as she described to us. “ I liked them a lot, especially my grandmotherly fourth-grade teacher, Sister