Julia Alvarez

La Vida De Julia Alvarez

Sometimes life is unpredictable and people need to find a way to cope with the consequences. This is exactly what Julia Alvarez had to do. “I found myself turning more and more to writing as the one place where I felt I belonged and could make sense of myself, my life, all that was happening to me. I realized that I had lost the island we had come from but with the words and encouragement of my teacher, I had discovered an even better world ” (Julia Alvarez Contemporary). Julia Alvarez did not have an ordinary childhood, but thanks to her perseverance she excelled and become an amazing woman; not only was she an exceptional person, but she would later use her wisdom to become an inspirational American writer who

Her first novel was How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (Julia Alvarez Authors). It was published in 1991(Schaefer). Alvarez was inspired to become a writer when one of her English teachers gave them an assignment where they had to write little stories about themselves (Julia Alvarez Contemporary). “Julia Alvarez admits that her critically acclaimed novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents is a semi-autobiographical account of her family as they struggle to adjust to American culture’’ (How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents). The book has 15 chapters and is divided into three major parts - Childhood, Adolescence, and Adulthood. However, it moves backwards in time (Schafer). “The book begins with stories from 1989-1972, and includes tales of Yolanda’s return to the Dominican Republic; Sofia’s unwillingness to obey her father, and Mamita’s troubles with her daughters.” “The second part of the novel, titled 1960-1970, returns to a time when the girls were newcomers to the US. ” Lastly, the third part of the novel consists of the years 1960-1956 (Julia Alvarez Authors). For the most part, the story is narrated in third person; however, there are some sections of the story narrated in first person by one of the sisters. The sister that takes over the most often is Yolanda (How the García Girls Lost Their Accents). This could be because “the most fully dimensional character, not surprisingly, is that of Yolanda, the authors alter ego” (Schaefer). Julia Alvarez structured her book so that each chapter/ short story is centered on one family member and sometimes on several. “The shifting perspectives provide only fragments of each character’s life, never presenting a clear portrait of any one of them.” In addition, Julia Alvarez had several symbols in her work. For instance, the title of the book contains a symbol that is also dominant in one of the