The Garcia Girls.

Books gives examples that can connect with the audience. Like in the book How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents written by Julia Alvarez, shows that in some events in book can relate to the readers. In the novel she explains the four sisters going through trials in their life and they are the ones that resolves their problems. I started talking about the author’s connection with the book the gradually explains the character’s life in book. The four girls goes through challenges and they are the ones to resolve their trials and links to the reader’s similar experience.

In the book How the Garcia Girls lost Their Accents; Mami, Papi, Yolanda, Carla, Sofia, and Sandra are from the Dominican Republic. Julia Alvarez was also from the Dominican Republic and moved to New York City like the Garcia family. And when she and her family moved to America, they were very much influenced by the American culture and they respect the American cultures. In the vignette The Blood of the Conquistadors, she wrote about some secret agent from the government of the Dominican Republic. She too experienced pressures the government:

“When Alvarez was ten years old, her father became involved with a plot to overthrow the dictator (military ruler) of the Dominican Republic, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina. His plans were discovered, however. With the help of an American agent, he was able to get his family out of the country before being arrested or killed,“ (notablebiographies.com.

Her family was part of a way for the country to be free from a Tyrant with the help of agents. A similar experience to the the family of Garcia when they were suddenly encountered strange agents from the government of Dominican Republic shown in the vignette Blood of the Conquistador. With her connection with the book and her life, she shows a connections with her audience.
The purpose of this book is to share the author’s experience as a fictional character. She also wrote her book backwards meaning the time line is from present to past. She probably did this because she wants her audience to see that the characters has a deeper meaning. One of her ideas to know more of the characters was to be moving back in time. As she talks about the adventures the Garcia Girls has, she gradually talks about one character at a time. When it got to the middle of Part Two and the though out the ending she started to explain less about the four girls, but into the as an individual character. Because in the beginning she was explaining that Mami and Papi are stilling calling them the four girls as it gets closer in the end of she starting to talk about the characters as individuals. For example on the vignette “An American Surprise” it was about Carla wanting to move to America where it is free and has better jobs. Alvarez started to describe Garcia girls as in one group, then towards the ending she started to dissolve the group description and into individual characters.

The book How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents just explained about the adventures in the past years and i have not seen any connection with the girls but they are all related. The only idea that i know is that it is about four girls that are related to one another and the book is structured like a time line but the time goes backwards not forward. I do not see the main point yet about this book about the four girls being treated like they are still children when ever they visited their father. Alvarez wrote,”Even grown women, they lowered their voices in their father’s earshot when alluding to their bodies’ pleasure,”(pg28). The four girls just want to keep on the type of relationship with their father, that they want to keep on respecting him even all four of them are adults. It proves that even though how old the girls are they are still little girls to their father because they want to respect and care for him even they are married and has their own personal life. Their life being controlled by their father has made them respect his.

In the vignette called Daughter of Invasion, the four Garcia girl’s father ripped apart the speech that Yolanda worked really hard on.He thought it was disrespectful,so he ripped it into shreds. In this action the man controlled the house hold and the women did not have a chance to say anything. Because after he ripped apart the speech he did not want to hear any reasons or excuses from Yolanda or the girls. It started with the speech,

“He mocked Yoyo’s [Yolanda] plagiarized words. ‘That is insubordinate. It is improper. It is disrespecting of her teacher teachers-’... She[Laura] stood by Yoyo’s side, shoulder to shoulder. They look down at Carlos... But now , Carlos was truly furious. It was bad enough that his daughter was rebelling, but here is own wife joining forces with her... He snatched the speech out of Yoyo’s hands... he tore tje speech into shreds,” (pg145-146).

It is a sign of controlling rude man. In conclusion, the Garcia has went through many trials in their life that involves men being to controlling.

This essay has been about the author’s life and connection with it and the deeper meaning of the book and the characters. It explains the men in the girl’s life are controlling and how the author incorporates her life to a fictional book. The essay has a lot of ideas mixed together, but it shows that the author is trying to express her feelings though some of her audiences went though the same experience as her in the vignettes. In her examples of going through the father being controlling, showed that there are girls with fathers that are very strict same as the Garcia girls. The book made a connection with the audience through the vignettes.

The End.

Finally the novel “How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” is done. Over the course of three weeks, I am finally done ready the book. Even though the reading was hard to understand because its filled with vignettes and the time line is going backwards, it was worth reading it because after listening from other student during the Lit Circle about the book and reading the novel i there are many ideas why Julia Alvarez, what was the true meaning of the book, and how did all the vignettes connect as one idea. I want to focus on the idea of the author’s life and how she reflected in her book.

As i was reading the book, the main characters: Mami, Papi, Yolanda, Carla, Sofia, and Sandra are from the Dominican Republic. When i was looking over Julia Alvarez’s Biography she was too from a Dominican Republic Country and moved to New York city like the Garcia family. And when she and her family moved to America, they were very much influenced by the American culture and they respectfully the American cultures. In the vignette The Blood of the Conquistadors she wrote about some secret agent form the government of the Dominican Republic. She too experienced about the government. “When Alvarez was ten years old, her father became involved with a plot to overthrow the dictator (military ruler) of the Dominican Republic, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina. His plans were discovered, however. With the help of an American agent, he was able to get his family out of the country before being arrested or killed,“(notablebiographies.com). Her family was part of a way for the country to be free from a Tyrant with the help of agents.

The purpose of writing this book was to share the author’s experience as a fictional character and adding more characters rather than herself. She also wrote her book backwards meaning the time line is from preset to past. She probably did this because she wants her audience to see the that the characters has a deeper meaning and get to know the characters more towards the ending or their beginning of their life in America.

Christmas Time.

I found this response post at Tiffany’s blog post that she responded to Karisssa blog. It is about her wanting it to be Christmas already, trust me she is not the only one. I just wished it was already the month of December and me turning sixteen and let the Christmas feeling and season be falling already.

“It's also nice when you turn on the radio and they have holiday music playing, and even though you've heard these songs a million times from the years before, you don't seem to get sick of them. Christmas day is a highly anticipated event and I am always counting down the days of December until the 25th comes. I'm not going to lie, I do look fo[r]ward to the acquisition of what was put under the Christmas tree the night before, but I also really look fo[r]ward to getting to spend this day with my family.”

When i saw this quote at Karisssa’s blog i immediately remembered the days i had with my family during the Christmas times. I remembered the times i go shopping for everyone i knew: my friends and my family. I remember always staying up until midnight and opening presents with family and seeing their surprised faces and just enjoying the time we have for one another.

I just love the month of December because then it a about three weeks without going to school, and just a break from the ASTI school work and pressure. With the final finished and going straight to break is a nice thing because then all the brain cells that has been burned out during the first semester of school can be rebuild and have full load brain, but the down side of having no work during the break is losing the things i have learned from the first semester. This does not mean i want homework during the break, but a small very thin packet, it is just a way for to review the things. -Still i hate having a lot of work during vacation.-December is fun a month and yet be educational.

The month December is always fun for me because its a time for to gather around, me celebrating my birthday, and create a New Years Resolution. It is a month were everyone can party and change their lifestyle.

After A Sicky Week.

Just went back to school this week, I started school again at Monday, November 8, 2010. I'm so tired, i needed to catch up with everybody else since i did not go to school for a whole week. Even though the week is about to be over i have not finished my missed work from History, so I'm just exhausted from everything at school. This week i had to take a Chapter exam for Anatomy since i missed it on Monday, I had to present to her today the partner Drug Project since i left Wendy presenting by herself in front of the class, and I had to study for a quiz for History and start studying for Anatomy and Math Quiz on Monday next week. I am just out of brain juice, this is why i hate missing school because i do not get to learn new things and i have to catch with everybody else also doing the missed work with the current work. I am just about to quit, but no i have to stay.

This week has just been busy for me. Catching up on all my assignment also doing the current homework, my brain is ready to pop with all of the work to do in school Not just in school, but at home too. My parents has been cleaning the house and i was needed for help and i just could not handle all the work with the teacher giving me and my parents. Including the distraction that has been going on around me for a while. The distraction is killing me i just want to go to a place that is not to quite or to load for me to do all the work and i call that my bedroom. It was a place for me to do all my work. Next thing i knew i was done with all of my work and yet i missed a lot a bunch of stuff that my family and friends did.

Looking back at this week i am just tired and missed on a lot of things. Now I'm ready to hit the covers and just sleep until it hits Saturday afternoon.

The Garcia Girls and The Men

   Reading the novel How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents has been quite a reading. The book is all little confusing because of the time changing from present to the past, and the vignettes are not as helping at all. Some of the vignettes are little confusing because of the transition of going to the past, but so far the reading of part two has been straight forward and understanding.
    In part has been an acceptable reading, and i pretty much understood all the vignettes. For example, in the first vignette in part two it talked about the four Garcia girls being influenced by the American culture, and by the influences they encountered they were all sent to boarding school for punishment. 
      The second vignette titled Daughter of Intervention and it was about Yolanda writing a speech for her school and she wanted to write the speech by herself with no help. When she finished writing her speech she read to her father and he thought it was disrespectful to the teacher, so he ripped it apart and he did not want to hear any reasons from Yolanda. Yolanda ran to her room and her mother voluntary wrote a brand new speech for her. 
      The third vignette titled Trespass talked about Carla experiencing a disturbing moment in her life. Carla had troubles in school because the lack of understating of English and going through some changes that made her feel like an outsider. She went to school and many boys ridicule her because of her appearance and her accent. Then Carla was invited by a stranger to get inside the car, but she refused and ran off. She told her mother and her mother called the police. Police came and asked questions about what happened during that time, but she could only say that the man was driving a green car and the man had little hair. It was also families first year in New York, and it was the first time the family experiencing snow. She was afraid to tell and she did not know a lot of English, so he was frustrated. 
         The fourth vignette titled Snow was about the family's first year in New York and it was the first time the family experienced snow. It was the time Yolanda was growing and developing her English vocabulary that describe her life challenges. 
         Fifth, the vignette explained the family had dinner with the people that helped their father to have a job as a doctor, the Fannings.  they were at a ballet show and everyone was enjoying until Sandra saw the most shocking thing in her life. She saw her Mrs. Fanning put a kiss on her father, she could not believe that her father kissed another woman. Then her father saw Sandra and immediately told her not to tell anyone, it was between her, Mrs. Fanning and her father. It was shocking for a child to see her father kissing another woman. These were short summaries about part two.

By reading all of the short summaries of part two from the vignettes it ends tell me that part two is about men had total control over women. I have observe this because in the vignette called Daughter of Invasion the four Garcia girl’s father ripped apart the speech that Yolanda worked really hard on because he thought it was disrespectful. In this action the man controlled the house hold and the women did not had a chance to say anything. Because after he ripped apart the speech he did not want to hear any reasons or excuses from Yolanda or the girls. It is a sign of controlling rude man. In conclusion, the Garcia has went through many trials in their life that involves men being to controlling.

Winter response.

        Referring back to Wendy Li's Blog Post about winter, she mostly describe the good things about winter. But there is also the bad side of it too. For example, the weather is always either very cold that it looks like its about to snow or there will be a storm and i would be soaking wet by the time i get home. This weather happens at the month December, January, and sometimes February. I just do not like having that weather kind of weather because it ends up with people having coughing, sneezing, and fever. The sickness happens because the people go inside and outside the building where inside the building it is nice and warm and outside it is freezing cold.
          The other things is bad side of winter is that we have winter break. I love the winter break because everyone is out of school and we could just hang with our friends and family any time at any day. But the sad part is that we have homework, and i' m guessing this year that we have to read during our winter break and probably write journals about the book. Sometimes homework ruin all the fun at the wrong time. Since its winter break and everyone is going on with family trips or just hanging around with close friends it can just ruin the fun by saying to the family and friends "i have homework to do." Its better with no homework because then people can enjoy with minute they have with their family and friends.
            The other part i hate about winter is my birthday being on winter season. I just do not like having my birthday doing the winter season. Is that the fact my birthday is five days before Christmas which means i only have one gift. Half the gift is for my birthday and the other half is for Christmas. I'm not complaining, but sometimes i just feel sad on birthday because it sometimes rains on my birthday. I would like to have one birthday that is sunny and bright, but that would not happen because it is on winter. 
              As i observe winter does not only have a good side, but also a bad side of it.

Sick Week.

Right now i am at home because i’m “sick”. It all happened last week when a certain student came to school coughing and sneezing everywhere and now im infected. I blame that student for getting me sick. I’m at home doing the homework that i missed so far and not understanding a single thing. I also hear my stomach growling because im to lazy and scared to go down stairs, and just watching television with non of my favorite shows on. I so bored, and i would rather be in school rather at home.
    This Monday i went to the doctor at exactly five thirty in the evening to get a check up because i have been coughing for about a week a ready. Dr. Stevens asked me questions about how long i have my coughing, what type  of medicine im allergic too, and all the question the doctor ask when people come in. Then i describe to her what is happening whenever i cough; I have dry cough and whenever i start coughing it starts over and over again and when my lungs do not have any air it finally stops then my coughing started again. She said, “your couching sounds suspicious,” so she got me tested for Whooping Cough.-Whooping cough is a type of virus or decease that anyone can be infected, but can make babies die.- After the vaccine shot and the awkward test, she prescribe  two medicines. One is the antibiotics for Whooping cough and that i need to take for five days and cough syrup for my coughing. That was my day of of medicines.

I’am at home watching television and doing homework. If i did not get sick i would not have to leave Wendy presenting by herself and i feel like i made her do all the work. It is sad i did that to her and i am missing a lot on school. But the good side of staying home is that i would not have to wake early in the morning or stay up late because im doing school work, i could do my work in the afternoon, and just relax the entire time. For once i did not feel the the stress of being an ASTI  student and feel like a normal teenager.

How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents: Book Blog Post 1

I just read the first part of  How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, and it was great. The first part of the book mostly talked about the adventures of the four girls, they are: Yolanda, Carla, Sandra, and Sofia. Even though there are many adventures that these four girls had in the first part of the book, there are also weakness in the book. The weakness is that i have noticed that the book it is a Vignette, I personally do not like vignette books because sometimes it does not work with the stories inside the book. Because on the last book that i read had Vignettes and it worked because there was a main idea that mostly talked about it. Not like the book How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents just explained about the adventures in the past years and i have not seen any connection with the girls but they are all related.

Since the book is full of vignettes and not a connective story then it has been confusing. The book is okay, but i just did not see the main idea of it. Even though it is a book of vignettes it should have a certain topic that connects all the ideas together. Because i like a book that has an idea by just reading at least the first part, but in this book reading the first part did not give me any connection that could the entire book me about. The only idea that i know is that it is about four girls that are related to one another and the book is structured like a time line but the time goes backwards not forward. I do not see the main point yet about this book.

The book has been fine, and i think the book connects with the audience that had the same experience as the four girls had in the vignettes. For example the vignette that talked about the four girls being treated like they are still children when ever they visited their father. Probably there are women that are married ,out there that they are still being treated like children when ever they visit there parents place. My point is that this book can relate to readers that has the same experience like Yolanda, Carla, Sandra, and Sofia had.