This story, which is told from the first-person point of
view, focuses on the narrator's immigrant family from the Dominican Republic. The story
reveals interrelated conflicts that arise out of the family's Dominican heritage: the
pressure to assimilate into US culture, and the creative ambitions of both the narrator
and her mother. The story opens with the narrator's recollection of her mother's nightly
"inventing" of time- and labour- saving gadgets and of how the rest of the family
scoffed at them. When the narrator is chosen to deliver a speech at school, she puts off
preparing the speech for weeks. Finally, some lines by Whitman inspire her to write a
passionate and personal speech. Although her mother approves, her father is infuriated
by the speech, which he sees as dangerously disrespectful of authority. In the story's
climax, he tears up the manuscript. The narrator's mother intervenes and helps her
daughter construct a new speech saying all the "right" things. The next day, the
narrator's revised speech is a success. That night the narrator's contrite father brings
home an electric typewriter, which the narrator will use to become a writer, following
her mother's creative tradition.
This story is
interestingly very like the fiction of Amy Tan, which focuses on the experiences of
immigrants moving to America. Key to this story then is conflict. It takes its strength
and much of its fun from the clash between the anxious values of Latin American parents
and the liberated values of their New York - raised daughter. Each major character
experiences internal and external conflict, and if you are wanting to analyse this story
further, this would be a great place to start.
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