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Literary Elements In Susan Pfeffer's Abuela Invents The Zero

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All good pieces of fiction use literary elements to create a riveting story. Short stories such as “Ashes” by Susan Pfeffer and “Abuela Invents the Zero” by Judith Ortiz Cofer use literary elements to help progress the story. “Ashes” is a story about a young girl named Ashes who is forced to choose between her two divorced parents. “Abuela Invents the Zero” is about a teenager who doesn’t want to be associated with her grandma, and therefore makes her feel worthless. The elements of literature such as POV, conflict, and symbols allows the reader to get engaged with the story. “I try to explain what happened. ‘I don’t understand why she’s so upset. She just got lost and wandered around for a while,’ I tell them…She comes out with tears in …show more content…

This shows why the main character, Connie, makes the choice to ditch her Abuela based off of her judgements on her. The author uses this point of view so you can understand the feelings Connie is going through rather than just believing she is a rude teen . The short story Ashes states, “‘You’re one in a million,’ he said to me. ‘The best daughter a man could dream of.’ I got out of the car and ran over to the apartment. I took the elevator to the tenth floor and unlocked the door. The apartment was quiet. It always felt a little colder when Mom wasn’t there. Even with the lights turned on, it seemed a little darker” CPfeffer). This quote shows how the author uses first person so the reader can understand what Ashes was going through while she was deciding whether to steal the money. In addition, it displays Ashes' biased opinion of thinking that the right thing to do was to steal the money for her dad because of how his love influences her. Besides, you can tell Ashes does not just love her dad the most because of the thoughts of loneliness and unright feelings she gets as she is about to steal the money for

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“Oh well, Ashes you can always see right through me. ”P.3. The author used this metaphor to help the reader realize how well Ashleigh knows her dad, and this helps the reader further by understanding that the trust between Ashleigh and her dad is mutual. This is how he knows it’s ok to tell her about his situation and that he needs money. “ ‘Can I help?’

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District Common Assessment Essay “I lifted the lid and stared at her emergency money. ”-pg4. Ashleigh is a character in the short story “Ashes” by Susan Beth Pfeffer. In “Ashes”, Ashleigh is a teenager whose parents are divorced and complete opposites. Her father is a dreamer and not responsible while Ashleigh’s mother is always prepared and extremely responsible.

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In “Abuela invents the zero” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, Connie and her grandmother, Abuela, have many similarities and differences that make each person unique. In the story it says, “My mother and father paid for her way here so that she wouldn’t die without seeing snow, though if you asked me, and nobody has, the dirty slush in this city is not worth the price of a ticket”(Cofer 2). This shows that Abuela would like to see the snow before she dies. It also, shows that Constancia doesn’t think it’s worth coming to see. The text states, “It is January, two inches of snow on the ground, and she’s wearing a shawl over a thick black dress.

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256 Words | 2 Pages

The overall theme of Abuela Invents the Zero by Judith Ortiz Cofer is to always treat others with respect. If you don’t show respect towards others, you won’t have respect for yourself. In the story, Connie is very disrespectful towards her grandmother. In the text it states, “I try to walk far behind them in public so that no one will think we’re together,” (Cofer 4). This quote shows how Connie is embarrassed to be seen with her grandmother, and has little respect for her grandmother’s feelings.

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346 Words | 2 Pages

Ashes Common Assessment “Never put your child in a place to where they have to pick which parent to love.” Don’t ever do this because it puts your child in very hard situation. They might think that if they do something for one parent the other parent might get mad at them. It’s just like this story “Ashes.” Ashleigh took the money because her dad isn’t very wealthy and he needed the money, she’s closer to her dad then her mother, she felt sorry for her dad.

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529 Words | 3 Pages

The most important factor in why people choose to make a decision is the effect it will have on their/others emotions. In the book “Abuela Invents the Zero” by Judith Ortiz-Cofer, Connie chooses to make a awful decision by making her grandma feel like a nothing, which makes Connie feel guilty and Connie's grandma (Abuela) feel sorrowful. Connie states, "‘Abuela points her finger at me like a judge passing a sentence on a criminal. She says in Spanish, ‘You made me feel like a zero, like a nothing’”

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Will Dobert Hour 2 District Common Assessment “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” -Theodore Roosevelt. In the short story Ashes by Susan Beth Pfeffer, a girl named Ashleigh is being pressured by her dad to do the wrong thing; steal money from her mom’s emergency money stash. Ashleigh’s parents are split up and her dad is short on money.

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If you look at pages 1 and 2, you see how not only Ashes illustrates her mom, but you can also see how the dad describes the mom. Ashes says at the beginning that, “she just called me Ashleigh-a name she didn’t even like-and never promised me anything.” (Pfeffer 1). This shows that Ashes probably doesn’t like the mom that much because she never gave the fake promises and hope like her dad gave her. The dad also describes the mom in the same way by stating, “she will discourage you from being all you can be….but she’s not a dreamer….She

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To begin, both texts use the idea of symbolism to show different identities. In “Abuela Invents the Zero”, Judith Ortiz Cofer uses the number “zero” to symbolize what Abuela thinks she’s worth. After she comes back from church, she angrily says to Connie, ‘“You made me feel like a zero, like nothing”’ (Cofer 267). Connie constantly ignored Abuela and tried to stay away from her at all times, and she really felt hurt by that.

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Ashes feels that her father is “like a warm day in January” (Pfeffer 1), he's the kind of person to always be there at the right time and surprises you with happiness. Ashes father always tells her she is “One in a million”(Pfeffer 2) and to not “let anyone ever tell you otherwise”(Pfeffer 2) because he cares about and loves ashes even and believes that she too should engage in following her dreams even if she might not succeed, she might need the confidence. Ashes and her father get along better than her and her mother, she even goes as far as saying “I wouldn't have any other dad” because all of her friends dads “they just tell my friends to study more”, ashes is happy that she and her dad are like best friends and not just formal like her friends and their dads. Ashes believed in her dad and trust he will keep his promise. Ashes was influenced by her father, she and her mother never had a secure relationship and ashes believes in her father and his dreams, ashes stole the money from her mother's teapot.

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The elements of fiction are able to help the reader understand the story as well as give it personality and body. St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves and A Hunger Artist both contain characters that are stubborn

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Authors use literary devices to convey deeper or hidden meanings within their texts. These implied meanings help the reader better understand the background and theme of the text. Poems and Short Stories use a bulk of literary elements because they specifically never come right out and say their themes. In the short story “Where are you going, Where have you been?” author Joyce Carol Oats uses the literary elements of Imagery, Allusion, and Foreshadowing to portray her claim of being careful about what you wish for.

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One of the main personality traits showing in Ashes’ dad in the story is manipulation. On multiple occasions, he tries to butter Ashes up to get her to do what he wants. “‘You look radiant,’ he said. ‘You get more and more beautiful.’ I was wearing jeans and a bulky brown sweater that Mom had given me for Christmas.”

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Every literary work has its own purpose of existence and no literary is the same. There is always literary work for someone to be interested in. the authors use different techniques in order to attract the readers, such as rhythm, rhyme, characters, settings, characters, theme, and conflict and other techniques. One of the elements that literature allow the readers to use is the imagination in order to visualize what the author message is in his story or poem. Some stories, poems or drama are based from the writer’s personal experience, such as the conflict with they have with society because of their race, gender or ethnicity.

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