Main Characters In Gary Soto's 'Growing Up'

Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies is a work of historical fiction set in the Dominican Republic under the rule of Rafael Trujillo. The tragic story depicts the life of four sisters rebelling against a deadly dictator and trying to make a justified society. Dedé, Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa Mirabal unit together to fight against an oppressive and destructive government. These four individuals are composed of different and unique characteristics form together to create a threatening power towards an unjust group of leaders. The theme of coming-of-age and identity in the novel In the Time of the Butterflies is best exemplified through the character of Maria Teresa because of her character development from a immature and

The book I chose is called Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto. The plot of the book is based on a Latin family of three celebrating Christmas. We know that it is Christmas due to the weather outside, the presents the relatives bring to the dinner, the names of the characters, but mostly because of the food that the mother and daughter are preparing; tamales. A Christmas tradition in many Latin homes. The young daughter (Maria) and mother are preparing the tamales by adding and kneading the mesa (a flour-like mixture) portion of the tamales. The mother goes to answer the phone and Maria sees her mother’s ring on the table and puts it on. The mom comes back and Maria forgets about the ring. The father is called and together, as a family of three, they finish the twenty-four tamales and steam them.

Many times people take things for granted. For example, we think since food is always provided to us we shouldn’t be thankful for it, or for pure drinking water or even for our freedom. Most of society receive this benefits, and we assume everybody gets them too, unfortunately that is not the case. Not all people can afford these privileges. We may not perceive them as that on the contrary, we think of them as needs, and fortunately for us we can afford to enjoy them. However, in the past this was not the case for most people. Even today people can't afford them. In the Devil’s Arithmetic, Hannah a 13-year-old girl realizes this after a spiritual awakening at the end of the story.

In “Half Walls between Us,” imagery is strongly expressed through Maria Said’s choice of words. For example, Said says, “On my first visit to Agordat, a small town in Eritrea, a country in the Horn of Africa, I fell in love with its mystery, its quiet, its soft sandy colors,” which gives a strong image of the setting (Said 79). To express strong imagery is to give great detail, explain settings, and compare and contrast the surroundings. To have imagery in a story or essay is to give visual effects for the reader to see while being intrigued into a new story.

In the essay “The Storyteller”, Sandra Cisneros describes how her identity was shaped by goals that she had for herself. Starting from a young Cisneros dreamt about living in her own silent home that fitted her taste. Years later after coming home from college she still had the dream of living on her own and also with a career goal of becoming a writer. Cisneros determination to follow her dreams was strong, however, her father’s did not agree with the dreams and even had a different idea of what he wanted for her. Even with her father’s wanting her to live at home until marriage, have children or to become a weather woman. Cisneros continues to go after her dream of living on her own. Although Cisneros had conflict with her father’s, she did not let it stop her from reaching those goals that set out for herself in life.

Maturity is the feeling of needing to prove that one is sophisticated and old enough to do certain things. In the short story “Growing Up,” Maria’s family went on a vacation while she stayed at home, but when she heard there was a car crash that happened near where her family was staying, she gets worried and thinks it is all her fault for trying to act mature and angering her father. Society wants to prove how mature they are and they do so by trying to do things that older people do and the symbols, conflict, and metaphors in the text support this theme.

There is only one person in our lives who loved and protected us from the moment that we born, our mothers. Thinking about that important person, Willie Perdomo wrote the poem “Unemployed Mami” in 2002 as part of the book Postcards of El Barrio (Poetry Foundation 2015). In “Unemployed Mami” and Postcard of El Barrio the author explores the culture, traditions and even the patriarchy that characterizes Puerto Ricans. Moreover, Perdomo shares the life of a son and the life of his beloved unemployed mother, in a time where women stayed at home without having a job, living from what their husbands earn. In order to enjoy and appreciate the content of this poems it is important to discuss what it means, where it takes place and what it tells about Perdomo’s life.

A Summer Life by Gary Soto is a story about the time where he sinned at six years of age. In this story he steals an apple pie from a market and goes to back to where he lives. He starts to feel guilty about the sin that he committed. During this experience he goes through three personal stages of fear. Soto goes through the details of his guilt for the incident and shares fear of divine punishment, anxiety about the community’s reproach, and disappointment in himself.

In the short story, “Seventh Grade” by Gary Soto, Victor is a seventh grade boy who is a big daydreamer, shy, and somewhat ignorant. For example in the story Victor tries to impress his crush, Teresa, in French class and attempts to respond to the teacher’s statement in French, “La me vave me con le grandma,” his teacher asks him to speak up and he mumbles, “Frenchie oh wee wee gee in September.” Embarrassed, Victor stays silent for the rest of the period. This shows that Victor was more focused on impressing Teresa than the class itself which led to this event. He was unprepared, raised his hand and realized he didn’t understand French at all but, it was too late. After French class Victor is ready to head to his next class then, he remembers

In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the author Khaled Hosseini emphasizes the importance of education in woman. With the importance of education in women comes the endurance of woman. Hosseini displays the endurance of hardships that women face in Afghanistan through his female characters in the novel.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a historical fiction novel published by Khaled Hosseini in 2007. In the novel, Khaled Hosseini emphasizes the vicious acts of cruelty and punishment bestowed upon Afghan people, particularly children and the women of the households. This book will change your perspective of life and how you view it and the people around you. In this novel , Hosseini helps the people who are outside of Afghanistan acknowledge and be aware of the treacherous events and despair that takes place inside of Afghanistan. Can you imagine you no longer being an outsider? Once you step inside the life of a “harami”,you’ll never be the same with your new insight.

It is the late 1930s in Austria and Maria, played by actress Julie Andrews, is desperately trying to become a nun. Maria took care of the children belonging to Navy captain Georg Von Trapp as a hired governess. The captain and Maria weren't to keen on each other in the beginning, but over time they fell in love, which created issues due to Maria being a postulant and the captain engaged (and eventually widowed). Soon later, more problems arise when Austria finds itself being overun by Nazi Germany and the captain discovers he may be drafted into the German navy and be forced to fight against Austria. Maria, the captain, and the children decide to escape Austria and begin a new life together.

“Desiree’s Baby” is a twisted and heart wrenching story that takes place during a time of great racial inequality. The Devil seems to be very busy throughout the world as he escalates situations and spews lies into the thoughts of men, tearing them from their beloved families. The story “Desiree’s Baby” summons up a very saddening irony that the prejudiced Armand learns that it was his mixed parentage and not that of his wife which produced their mixed-race child whom he detested and rejected.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, centers around characters of the Buendia family with not only the same first names, but also similar traits to those of their ancestors. Although studying these identical pasts is an important part of understanding the overarching theme of solitude, it also

Jawaharlal Nehru once said that “Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.” This is the case in the story “The Medicine Bag” by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve. When Martin, the protagonist became more and more involved in his culture he learned more about it and he gained more character along his journey. Maria on the other hand had been in touch with her culture for the entirety of the story and had respected the traditions that they had celebrated. Because these two stories had different types of plot structures, they are surrounded by different environments, have different types of relationships with their grandparents, and have differing views on their cultural heritage.