Summary Of The Changeling By Judith Heinz

Charles Booth
Mrs. Dauphin
ENG 102
Feb. 7, 2023
The Changeling: A Girl’s Struggle for Her Identity Growing up, many people struggle with their personal identity. This struggle is unfortunately made worse by people who feel there is a right and a wrong way to express oneself. Worse still is when someone close to them holds beliefs like these. In the poem “The Changeling” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, the speaker struggles with this same problem; to get the attention of her father, she dresses up and plays the role of a man, a Cuban revolutionary named Che Guevara. Her mother, however, disapproves of this, forcing her to change into her usual clothes and dress like a girl if she is to sit with them at dinner. Through its use of symbolism, phrasing,

One major component of this poem is the costume of “the legendary Ché” (line 11) that the speaker dresses up in. This “legendary Ché” is also known as Ché Guevara, a leading figure in the Cuban revolution. This costume of a Cuban revolutionary serves as a symbol of revolution against the wishes and expectations of the speaker’s mother. Furthermore, at the end of the description of the stories that the speaker tells her father, she also speaks of “celebrat[ing] victories para la libertad” (line 17) or victories for freedom. While these “victories para la libertad” would certainly tie in with the tales of the Cuban Revolution that the speaker tells her father, it may also represent the freedom that the speaker feels acting as herself, independent of her mother’s wishes for her behavior. Throughout the poem, some symbols suggest a rebellion against the mother’s wishes and expectations of the

The speaker describes the costume she would dress into in the second stanza of the poem. First, she goes into her “brother's closet”, putting on his “dungarees”, or overalls, which “[mold her] into boy shape” (line 8); she then “hides [her] long hair under an army helmet / [her brother had] been given by [her] Father” (lines 9-10) and emerges as “the legendary Ché / of grown-up talk” (lines 11-12). This description of the speaker’s transformation into “the legendary Ché”, or Ché Guevara, with bits and pieces of clothing from her brother’s closet invokes a detailed image of her costume in the head of the reader. The speaker then describes the stories she would perform to gain the attention of her father. She would tell him “of life in the mountains, / of carnage and rivers of blood, / and of manly feasts with rum and music” (lines 14-16) until they are both called to dinner. The story told by the speaker conjures vibrant images of violence and triumph into the head of the reader, showing not only how much she breaks from a traditionally feminine role, but also how much fun she has while doing it. Finally, after the speaker is called to dinner by her mother, she is forced to change back into her regular clothes. She hates having to listen to her mother, “braid[ing] my hair furiously / with