American Legal System In Daughter Of Invention By Julia Alvarez

Daughter of Invention Essay

Kaitlyn Lum

West Career and Technical Academy

English 9

Trinity Xu

May 9, 2023

Daughter of Invention Essay Oftentimes, based on people’s traditional beliefs or values, individuals believe that they have the ability to control others into doing what they feel is right, which defeats the purpose of letting them find their own way. Julia Alvarez (1991) wrote Daughter of Invention, a short story, to inform readers that through many of our differences, there’s always something moral we can get out of it. Although Carlos' life experiences and flashbacks had a negative impact on how he perceived the American legal system, his disagreement with Yolanda’s speech has the potential to strengthen the Garcia’s relationship

To begin with, Alvarez (1991) introduces the idea of how Papi’s recollections shape how he feels about America when she states, “I suppose it was bad enough I was rebelling, but here was my mother joining forces with me. Soon [Papi] would be surrounded by a house full of independent American women” (Alvarez, 1991, p. 5). Back in the Dominican Republic, males were the superior gender whereas females were subservient, to obey. As Carlos realizes how independent his wife and children were getting, he enters a state of shock. We can gather that living in a free country allows the women in his family to gain respect and authority. Secondly, another example of how memories affect how we think is when Papi exclaims, “What is wrong? I will tell you what is wrong. It shows no gratitude. It is boastful. ‘I celebrate myself’? ‘The best student learns to destroy the teacher’?” He mocked my plagiarized words. “That is insubordinate. It is improper. It is disrespecting of her teachers—” In his anger he had forgotten his fear of lurking spies” (Alvarez, 1991, p. 5). Inspired by Song of Myself, written by Walt Whitman, a piece about autonomy and independence, Yoyo gets the inspiration to illustrate a speech about freedom and authority for other people. Originally, Carlos and his family fled the country because they were put in danger, so he fears that Yolanda’s speech will put his

Alvarez introduces the idea of impacts from the quarrel with “What we ended up doing that night was putting together a speech at the last moment. Two brief pages of stale compliments and the polite commonplaces on teachers, wrought by necessity without much invention by mother for daughter late into the night in the basement on the pad of paper and with the same pencil she had once used for her own inventions” (Alvarez, 1991, p. 6-7). Yolanda and her mother work cooperatively to recreate her speech for the assembly. Through this, they build up a mother-daughter bond, which they’ve never experienced before. Because of the disagreement, Yolanda and Mami were able to reconnect as a mother and daughter while constructing the speech together. In addition, another reason how positive impacts are established from Yoyo and Papi’s argument is when Alvarez quotes, “She clapped her hands together as I recreated the moment for her. “I stole that from your father’s speech, remember? Remember how he put that in at the end?” She quoted him in Spanish, then translated for me into English” (Alvarez, 1991, p. 7). Once again, Yoyo and her mother share a laugh as she mentions how she stole Papi’s line from his speech. This strengthens their relationship as a whole because they are not only working together, the two are also bonding splendidly through laughter and