Garica Girls: Part 3

Throughout "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents," the main characters have been constantly exposed to new environments throughout their lives. I feel that this constant exposure led to the girls to all become emotionally and psychologically scarred during the process of transitioning throughout different cultures. They were taken from their motherland and were too young to survive without it. This is represented in the ending of the book. The helpless kitten symbolized the daughters of the Garcia girls and their slow and unsuccessful progress throughout their lives. Also, Yolanda's guilt over taking away the kitten's right to grow normally foreshadows the problems she and her sisters will face as they grow up. 

The psychological distress all the girls felt can be reflected throughout the story based on the kittens experience. Just as the kitten was stuffed in the hollow of the drum, time was "folded up." The trouble constantly occurred because time was folded up. It started when the girls were uprooted from the Dominican Republic, their cultures, and their extended family. This can reflect the structure of the book and why is chronologically backwards. 

The kitten is lost and will never be able to find its mother again, just as in particular, Yolanda will never be able to find her roots and culture when she returns home in the first chapter. It will be impossible to regain a place back in the Dominican Republic for any of them. Their personal identities and cultures will be based upon the the negative experiences they experienced when growing up.

At first, I felt that Yolanda was simply experiencing America, that she was developing her culture there. I know realize this was wrong. The backwards chronological order allowed me to eventually see this. Obviously in the ending of her book, she was culturally lost and could not relate the the Dominican Republic. The Garcia Girls would not have ended up this was if they had developed on cultural tie, such as with the Dominican Republic, but they didn't and became lost. Now, her future life, such as her writing, will be focused around her struggle to incorporate her past life into her future life and gain a culture. Her life will be constantly focused on finding her culture, which will never happe

Free Topic-School

I have always been extremely enthusiastic when talking about school. I have always loved to argue about the negative points people always look at, but have never bothered to talk about the positive parts of school.

Particularly, ASTI is a great opportunity to start your college career early. It allows juniors and seniors to reach their full potential in their educational life during high school. Because of ASTI many of their students have gone to extremely prestigious school, many of which are extremely hard to get in to. Its program prepares you for your future college life and what you can expect form a university, ect. . Because of ASTI, I know I am going to become extremely successful in my future life and career.

School is the basis of your life because your future is based on your career. If you mess up school now, you will have a bad career in the future. School has allowed me to realize that my current life is a basis for my future career and how I live it. I know to get good grades and have great study habits. I am preparing myself for my future career and life.

School is also important because it prepares you for not only your academic future, but also your future in society. I have gone through many rough times in school so far, and because of this, I can also expect the rough time I will face in the future.

Although school is a negative experience for many people, it can also be seen as a positive one too. The hard work always pays off in the long run and is shows in your future career. The most important thing is to never give up and remember that it will pay off; you will regret if you don't do well in school because it will severely affect the future job you acquire. I have learned this and am trying my best. I hope you do to for your own benefit in present and future.

Violence In Oakland Responce

I just read an interesting post from Alex Tang about violence in Oakland.

"I am tired of hearing about the on going violence that has destroyed the city of Oakland. People need to grow up and learn how to deal with their problems in a peaceful and formal way. Violence can not be the response to everything because that will only make the cycle of violence continue."

Violence in Oakland is currently a huge problem in Oakland. Much of it is a result from unneeded gang violence. Personally, I feel this violence is petty and impractical. It is all based on small disputes and tension between different gangs. The only results of this are unneeded deaths; many innocent people are killed in cold blood, including innocent people our age. Many people are sucked into gangs; they feel the need to be popular or are faced with peer pressure, ect. . In these circumstances, many people are brainwashed into believing gangs are the right choice.

Obviously, gangs are not a good choice to commit to in life. They do not help your life; they destroy it. Gangs are based on nothing but violence. They are not practical. There is no point to them. I feel that the only reason people, usually young adults, is for the reputation. Gangs are meant to be seen as threatening and a power in cities or regions; when a person is associated with this gang, they are also seen as being threatening and powerful. A gang gives thee appearance of power.

In one word, gangs can simply be described as stupid. They only result in the deaths of innocent people. Gangs need to solve violence and problems in a peaceful manner. For many, violence many seem like the answer to solving a problem, but it is not. It only promotes more violence throughout cities. A gang is irrelevant without violence; they are based on it. So simply speaking, without violence, gangs are pointless.

With gangs gone, a large portion of violence in the United States would be gone. They are unneeded. Anyone in a gang should be ashamed of themselves because they are promotes of unneeded violence and have no excuse for this.

Garcia Girls: Part 2

In the second part of "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez, the four sisters are continually exposed to new culture. This continuous exposure to different cultures caused the four sisters to "loose their accents."

At first, living in America was hard and a big change in lifestyle and culture for the sisters. They disliked it compared to the Dominican Republic. Eventually though, they began to appreciate and enjoy living in America. The girls developed casual attitudes towards sex and drugs, while also gaining ideas of feminist equality. In the Dominican Republic, this was the exact opposite. They had developed a freedom that was not in the Dominican Republic. That is why they felt much resistance to going back during the summer. They felt much resistance to the ideas of how women were seen socially there and views on American social standards. In particular, Sofia, one of the sisters, was faced with sexism towards her boyfriend.

In the Dominican Republic, women were forced to live their lives based on strict social rules. All women were forced to act "properly." America, however, was different. For the girls, it allowed them to explore aspects of their lives they had never faced before. They slowly became exposed to reality and the outside world. With this exposure, they all slowly "lost their accents." They became dependent on American culture; their mother, wanted them to stay in touch with their roots, but soon realized that there was no hope for the.

I feel that this extreme social change was a had negative and positive affects to their future lives. Of coarse, they sisters were taught to free themselves from the strict social standards of the Dominican Republic, but they did not fully learn the social standards of America. Many of the sisters faced many problems, such as taking care of their safety of using drugs. The girls did not realize this. Because of this, they faced many troubles, such as bullying, perverts, ect. . In a sense, they became lost between the two different cultures their mother wanted them to learn and respect.

"Kids These Days" Responce

I am responding to an interesting post from Vanessa:

"Usually, you will most likely see an adult say “What has happened to the kids nowadays.” They think that we have all changed for the worst. To them, we are so different to how they were back when they were our age. I think that the older people think that everything we do is wrong. Apparently to them, every aspect of what we do and how we behave is not right."

I personally feel that the "what happened to these kids nowadays" opinion of elders is extremely overrated and opinionated. This is because of the fact that elders grew up in a different time period as we did. We have been taught to act in society differently, whether it is from our parents or other outside influences. This goes the same to elders. That is why they sometimes look down on us; they see us acting differently based on their impression of how the younger generation of society should act. 


Personally, I feel that elders should accept the fact that we have grown up in a different generation. We do not have to submit to any earlier social rules/requirements because they do not and have never applied to us. This is a different generation, which mean we have a new set of social rules and requirements. For instance, while many elders think it is acceptable to hit children(because they grew up with that mentality), our generation sees this as abuse and as being extremely unacceptable. Earlier and current generations differ in many different ways. 


I feel that elders themselves should also submit to the new society's social standards. This is a new age/generation where different ideas have come into acceptance or have been slowly dwindling. Society is constantly changing, and our elders should accept this. They cannot expect the new generation to follow old rules when society is constantly changing. I feel that instead, they need to accept the new social standards. 


Old ideas are changing. The new generation is responsible for this. We make the decisions because we are the future generation on Earth. We are the future. 

Free Topic-Grant Mehserle Verdict

The controversial Grant Mehserle Case has finally case has finally come to an end. A verdict has been made; Mehserle is going to serve two years jail time, but the catch is that 292 days of jail time he has already spent will count to this sentence.

I personally feel that this is an extremely unfair and unjust verdict. Firstly, everyone has seen the murder video, the proof of the trial. Obviously from the video, Grant was cooperative, yet Mehserle shot him. This was not an accident. How could it have been. This was manslaughter, yet Grand was charged with involuntary manslaughter. This alone caused chaos in the streets of downtown Oakland. Yet another atrocity has just occurred though. Mehserle has been served a verdict of two years, but he has already served 292 days of this verdict. He will only be in jail for about one year. For "involuntary manslaughter."

This is an atrocity. Firstly, I believe that his sentence should have been manslaughter. He did not accidentally shoot Grant. Grant was totally cooperative. There was no reason too. Mehserle shot Grant while he was laying face down on the ground. That is manslaughter. And yet he was charged with two years for involuntary manslaughter.

I believe that this shows the legal system of the United States and how it is operated. A police officer can get away with anything. No matter what, they always have an excuse because they have the law on their side. This is why so many people are upset over the case. They see this connection too and are angered by it. That is why tonight, there are going to be numerous protests, all because of this unjust case verdict.

Part 1 First Impression

The beginning of “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” by Julia Alvarez was not particularly interesting to me. I have two main reasons which have made me conclude to this answer.

Firstly, the story is written in reverse chronological. This was extremely confusing to me. I did not understand any of the events in the story because nothing was explained. When you first being the story, you are introduced to multiple characters and multiple situations without any introduction into the story; I was forced to comprehend and guess throughout the story and how this relates to many of the main ideas introduced into the story. I feel that a story should always be told in chronological order because the reader can understand the story properly then. 

The way the story is narrated was also an extremely confusing factor throughout the whole book too. With each point of view being told, I was forced to guess who was narrating the story. I constantly confused Yolanda and Sofia in the narrative, sometimes reading whole pages mixing up the narrators. If the narrators were defined throughout the story, I would not feel the confusion I feel now while reading. 

Despite these negativities, I also think they bring about a main positive factor to the book. 

With each story that is told, a complex network is formed, connecting the sister’s stories together. Although this network is complex and confusing, it makes you think about the story and big idea’s, which can also be called level three questions. This confusion helps me realize what the big idea of each story is and how, when they are connected together, create a bigger idea. I feel that this complexity of the story is/will greatly help me with my comprehension skills throughout english class. 

I am actually looking forward to the second part of the book. The book has gradually grabbed my attention. This book is difficult to comprehend, but because of this, I can gain from it. I feel that I will learn to analyze and comprehend the book much more easily after the second part.