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Abuela Invents The Zero Summary

334 Words2 Pages
In the story Abuela invents the zero by Judith Ortiz cofer the main theme of the story is to respect your elders because they have more knowledge on the world and it’s happenings but in the end of the story the main character finds out this lesson too late. To open up, in the story connie never wants to be see with her grandma because she is inbaressent. This is proved by the quote “My father decides that he should stay home with my mother and that i should escort my abuela to church. He tells me if i don’t i can’t go out with my friends to the mall. This quote shows that connie doesn’t want to go with her abuela. Also Connie only agrees to go with her abuela when her dad threatens to take the keys away from her. To continue, when Connie and
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The speaker’s grandmother is originally presented in a way that causes the ending to be a surprise, saying, “Her apron flapping in a breeze, her hair mussed, and said, ‘Let me help you’” (21-22). The imagery of the apron blowing in the wind characterizes her as calm, and when she offers to help her grandson, she seems to be caring and helpful. Once she punches the speaker, this description of her changes entirely from one of serenity and care to a sarcastic description with much more meaning than before. The fact that the grandmother handles her grandson’s behavior in this witty, decisive way raises the possibility that this behavior is very common and she has grown accustomed to handling it in a way that she deems to be effective; however, it is clearly an ineffective method, evidenced by the continued behavior that causes her to punish the speaker in this manner in the first place.

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Have you ever wondered how elderly people feel by the words the younger generations say to there elders? The poem "Abuelito Who", and The folk tale "The Old Grandfather and His Little Grandson" are amazing poems and folktales that let us know how elderly feel when you treat them badly. THE Elderly are still people and even though they need a little more affection and care they are still very nice. Both the folktale and the poem teach the same universal theme: anyone can become sick or old , so treat others how you want to be treated.

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As much as you can wish for someone to change, sometimes it is just easier to accept others for who they are and understand that won’t ever change. In Abuela Invents The Zero, the main character, Constancia, has a hard time understanding this and frequently mentally criticises her grandmother for just being the way she is. “I have to help her the climb the steps, and she stops to take a deep breath after each one, then I lead her down the aisle so that everybody can see me with my bizarre grandmother. If I were a good Catholic, I’m sure I’d get some purgatory time taken off for my sacrifice. She is walking as slow as Captain Cousteau exploring the bottom of the sea, looking around, taking her sweet time.”

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It is apparent that the grandmother practices older traditions when compared to the other members of her family,

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Although it may seem like the grandmother is helping the family by trying to convince The Misfit that he is a good man, she is only doing it for “purely selfish reasons” (Mitchell). She has no reaction and is cold-hearted when her family members are murdered. Another reason why she is selfish is because of how she believes that she deserves special treatment because she is a “lady”. In the beginning of the story, O’Connor makes it a point to illustrate how lady-like the grandmother is dressed compared to the mother by stating that anyone who saw her “would know at once that she was a lady” (617). The grandmother wants to make it clear that she is a lady and has expectations to be treated like royalty solely because of her

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688 Words | 3 Pages

When the family is on the trip, they pass a little black boy with no pants on, and the grandmother says, "little niggers in the country don't have things like we do" (398). This is just one instance where the grandmother shows how judgemental she is. She did not know anything about the boy or his family, but continued to talk bad about people who live in the country. After the wreck and being discovered by the Misfit, the grandmother knows she is in trouble and begins telling the Misfit

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1595 Words | 7 Pages

When Connie refuses to go with her family to a barbeque, everything takes a turn for the worst. She is randomly visited by two strangers, who later become known as Arnold Friend (AF) and Ellie. Connie continuously begs the men to leave, but they refuse, making her feel very uncomfortable. The story concludes shockingly when AF finally lures Connie into his vehicle. Although AF is not

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The Grandmother is a well-dressed and a proper southern lady. She is also the center of action in the short story, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find". The grandmother seems very suspicious at first, and thinks her son Bailey will be forever small and has to abide by her rules. In her eyes she is never been wrong but knows it all. When we become up-close and personal with the grandmother we see that she's this bad person, which she appears to be old-fashioned, manipulative, and self-serving as a whole.

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Grandmother is obviously grouping herself in as a nice person, despite how she has treated her family in the little bit of time that the readers have observed her. This shows her ridiculous lack of

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When I read the short story, “An Hour with Abuelo”, I felt that the character Arturo was very easy to relate to for a teenager. I also thought that the plot was very captivating, especially when Arturo’s grandfather was telling his story from his childhood and World War II. When reading a short story, I usually find it very hard to relate to the characters, but Arturo’s feelings about not wanting to visit his grandfather was very relatable for a teenager like me. Arturo said, “Besides, I hate the place, the old people’s home, especially the way it smells, like the industrial-strength ammonia and the other stuff I won’t mention, since it turns my stomach,” which most teenagers can relate to, due to the fact that stereotypically, grandparents

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We can all learn a thing a two from our elders and can never stop learning. We are all grateful for the sacrifices my father and his father made. Children are treated very strictly by their parents. But aunts and uncles are much nicer to their nephews and nieces. I remember I was not allowed to hang out with certain kids if my mom saw them as the trouble maker types.

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In Eugene V. Debs’ speech, he asserts that nurturing his fellow man is a moral obligation because he would be overcome by guilt if he ignored suffering. The fault in his argument lies in the concept of universal obligation caused by guilt. A sense of ethical duty is shaped by personal experiences, so an altruistic inclination is not a universal value. Because moral obligation changes from person to person based on their personal experiences and values, self-sacrifice is not a universal trait. Some groups feel as though sacrificing one’s own priorities for the less fortunate is negligent, to one’s family, self, or society.

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488 Words | 2 Pages

In Abuela Invents the Zero by Judith Cofer, a common theme would be respect. If you don’t respect others, you can’t respect yourself. To begin, Constancia, Abuela’s granddaughter, shows disrespect toward her grandmother multiple times throughout the story. In the beginning of the story , when connie was waiting for her grandmother at the airport, Constancia doesn’t feel like she is close to her grandmother.

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1287 Words | 6 Pages

The grandma could also be recognized as being the protagonist of the story and as a round character (Hamilton 137 & 141). In the beginning of the story, we are able to see that the grandma believes she is morally superior to everybody. This can be seen from the quote, "I wouldn 't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn 't answer to my conscience if I did" (O 'Connor 205). From

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671 Words | 3 Pages

The stories “Abuela Invents the Zero” and “A Celebration of Grandfathers” follow the past of a very nice, thoughtful man by the name of Rudolfo Anaya, and the present day of a rude, unthoughtful girl by the name of Constancia. Both of these stories give very different points of views in terms of character personality and respect towards their elders. To begin, both of the stories are based off of the relationship between a grandparent and their grandchild. In “Abuela Invents the Zero”, Constancia’s grandmother went on her first trip to America. She went to America between September and March because the story explained that she wanted to see the snow in America before she died.

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