The Vignettes Of Rafaela Analysis

Cisneros uses writing as a way to escape the bore of reality, and helps to relieve her of past experiences. This can be seen in the vignettes of Rafaela and Mango Says goodbye. In the former, her character is symbolically escaping reality by wishing to escape literally, while in the former, she states how she passes the time when mail comes by thinking up stories, and tells a story in a fashion similar to a flashback.

Cisneros uses her writing to both escape reality and vent about events that have happened to her. “I like to tell stories, stories in my head sometimes. Sometimes when the Mailman comes by-” (Cisneros 109), in this quote, Cisneros is using her stories to escape the boredom and drudgery of everyday life, passing the time by imagining a story. “I am going to tell you a story about a girl who didn’t belong” (Cisneros 109) In this quote it seems like she has some things to get off her chest in the form of a story. Normally when authors use this style of introducing a story when reflecting on something.

Cisneros uses the story of Rafaela to symbolize a need to escape, in her case literally. “Rafaela leans out the window and leans on her elbow and dreams her hair is like Rapunzel’s. On the corner there is music from the bar, and Rafaela wishes

Humanity as a whole needs escapes such as writing to cope with our boring lives. We are outside of the food chain now, we are no longer in a constant battle for survival. If we want food, we needn’t hunt a wild animal in a game of wits and reflex, we just walk to the store. Our lives are boring schedules of work for pieces of rag and chunks of metal, trade these useless items for life necessities, then go home and wait until tomorrow until we repeat the process. Escapes like writing help us cope with the boring repetitiveness. Thinking up a story while talking to the Mailman is just another way to do