In silence and in absence, Alvarez offers up a revolution of truth–telling. In ‘‘I Came to Help,’’ she confesses that ‘‘the way we really change things is often through very simple action, small and quiet enough not to draw too much attention.’’ At once painfully diminutive and shockingly potent, the omissions serve to reify the…
Daughter of Invention – Analysis
In Julia Alvarez’s story, ‘‘Daughter of Invention’’ Laura Garcia, the mother in the Garcia family, is strong, creative, compassionate, intuitive and intelligent. When the reader meets Laura, she is straddling two worlds. In the Dominican Republic, women had strictly defined roles and many limitations; in Laura’s own words, in her homeland, she could be ‘‘only…
Daughter of Invention – Setting
Although ‘‘Daughter of Invention’’ is a fictional story, it involves real people and political events. It takes place in 1961, shortly after Rafael Trujillo, the Dominican dictator, was assassinated. The Garcia family has fled the dictator’s violent regime to settle in New York City, where they watched the violence in their country on television. In…
Daughter of Invention – Literary Devices
Autobiographical Fiction Autobiographical fiction is a story based on the life of the author. While events in the story closely follow events in the life of the author, the author is free to embellish or create events to further the themes in the story. Alvarez based the stories in How the Alvarez Sisters Lost Their…
Daughter of Invention – Themes
Acculturation Acculturation is the process of adapting to new cultural norms. In ‘‘Daughter of Invention,’’ Alvarez uses her characters to show how that process can be exciting, confusing, and sometimes painful. Mami, Papi, and Yoyo each adjust differently to the new culture they encounter in the United States. Yoyo and Mami embrace American ways while…
Daughter of Invention – Characters
Carlos Garcia Carlos Garcia, or Papi, has brought his family to the United States to avoid political persecution in his native Dominican Republic. He is haunted by the fear he felt before emigrating that the Dominican secret police would come for him and his family. Nevertheless, despite building a successful medical practice in New York…
Daughter of Invention – Summary
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents takes place in the early 1960s, just after the Garcia family has fled to New York from the Dominican Republic. The family is trying to adjust to their new culture. In the story, there are hints that the family escaped the Dominican Republic because their father had been…
By the Waters of Babylon – Analysis
‘‘By the Waters of Babylon’’ is a story plagued by its uniqueness. It is given too much credit for being a landmark work by some, and yet too little credit for popularizing the science fiction genre by others. Both views are valid, and both must be understood to view the story in the context of…
By the Waters of Babylon – Setting
The Spanish Civil War At the time Benet wrote ‘‘By the Waters of Babylon,’’ a civil war was raging in Spain. In the first decades of the twentieth century, Spain was a country in conflict with itself. Toward the end of the nineteenth century the country was governed as a republic, but this quickly gave…
By the Waters of Babylon – Literary Devices
Science Fiction ‘‘By the Waters of Babylon’’ is considered science fiction by most definitions of the genre. Science fiction is literature that focuses on how science and technology affect humanity and the world around us. Although no single definition is widely accepted, science fiction in general depicts a world different from our own, but different…