Rebecca Myers Professor LaKeya Jenkins English 102-80 2 June 2017 Short-Fiction Essay In Julia Alvarez’s “Snow”, an immigrant schoolgirl named Yolanda is experiencing her first time in New York. Her catholic school teacher, Sister Zoe, is a kind woman who is dedicated to teaching Yolanda the English language. As time progresses, Yolanda learns of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Not only does Yolanda have to become accustom to a new environment, she also fears the threat of bombs and must be prepared for a catastrophe. In the short story “Snow”, the author symbolizes the word snow by showing that the protagonist, Yolanda, feels a sense of fear and joy through first time experiences as she adjusts to a new life in New York during a time of crisis. The main character of the story, Yolanda, is new to not only New York, but America too. If being in a new surrounding and learning a new language is not scary enough, she also learns that Russian missiles are supposedly going to be trained on New York City, her new home “soon I picked up enough English to understand holocaust was in the air. Sister Zoe explained to a wide-eyed classroom what was happening in Cuba” (Alvarez 83). The wide eyes imply that Yolanda and her classmates are fearful about what they are learning. Yolanda imagines what would happen if a bomb did hit. Knowing the possibilities if this catastrophe occurs frightens her and she prays that it does not happen “at home, Mami and my sisters and I said a rosary for world