Overall Thoughts About The Book: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Book Post #3

      When I read the first couple chapters of how the Garcia Girls Lost Thier Accents, I thought that there was something very unique and intresting about it. I picked up a message that the author was trying to send the readers: That men and women are both equal and should have the same rights. I strongly felt like the book was going to become more deep and the understanding more complex and hard to figure out, too complicated just to read and immediately understand the full concept ( like the kind of books I like). However, it got boring which made it harder for me to want to continue reading. I got the message that the author pointed out for her readers to see, but the constant reminding that men were more dominant and had the "upper hand" in thier romantic relations with women started to get played off and annoying to read about. The author constantly told stories around those subjects and made the stories predictable.

    In the story, there are four characters, four sisters more likely, who are stuck between wild America and their  male controlling homeland The Dominican Republic.Chapter after chapter, one after the other, where they are shifted from being in the U.S  back to their homeland and over and over again.  When a writer repeatdily picks at a subject it gets painful to read and tortures those who are assigned to read the story, which was exactly my situation during this piece. It was annoying.

     And finally, the way the book was put together really didnt make any sense in  my opinion. Yes, it was a creative and unique way of writing, but did the author really have to choose that writing style for this particular book where it was already hard enough to read due to the facts I have listed above. This just was not the right book for me and i would not reccommend it to anyone else.

Book Post #2: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

       On the second paper clip section of "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez, one main theme that i picked up as I read was the distinction between America and the Dominican Republic. As one nation has more freedom and more reign to do what one wants, the other is old-fashioned, meaning they still believe in old ways. Men control the women in that nation (Dominican Republic); women barely have any rights or any say in things,  like back in history where women couldnt do the things the opposite sex could. This distinction made the Four Sisters act differently. In America they experienced many things that they probally couldnt back on their Island. For example, smoking weed, and hanging out with boys more often were some things that they got to do. They became independent and showed that they could handle the "American life."
       Back home, the girls experienced things differently. Men had the right to tell a lady what she could or could not do. They had the right to take advantage of a lady and wouldnt be punished for it but instead praised. One character, a male named Manuel Gustavo, is one of those men who was raised in the Dominican Republic and who was taught that men have the "upper hand" in their relationships. Fifi, the sister that is involved with Manuel, is treated poorly whenever he is around her. Blind to the situation, Fifi's other three sisters decided to step in and try and talk some sense into Manuel, telling him that women have rights also in the Dominican Republic. Manuel replies back with a clever response that stumps the three sisters: "Yes, women have rights, but men wear the pants" (122). Once again another example of a man shutting up a lady and her opinion (or in this case a man and three women).
      The girls go to having complete, or almost complete, freedom in America to having almost none at all back on their Homeland. Stuck between these two places i wanted to know, do they ever get the two places mixed up and maybe are too wild on their Island or too conservative when back in America? They seem to be used to both places but i think that the girls may like America more because they feel they have more rights than they would if they were home.

Book Post: How the Garcia Girls lost Their Accents

       Throughout history, women have been considered one group which was looked down upon because of their abilities of doing things. Men have taken advantage of women in the past by scarring them into doing as they were told; Many women were way too obedient to the commands, demands, and to the needs of their husbands or to men in general. In Julia Alvarez's national bestseller book, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, the first part of the book continuously talked about women and their ineractions with the opposite sex, men.
        Yolanda,  one of the four sisters introduced in the story, had a remarkabe experience when she was introduced to a male character, Rudy Elmenhurst the third, and their college romance was based on sexual temptation, at least to Rudy the man of the relationship. Throughout the relationship he always complained that she couldnt keep his intrest because he couldnt have interact with her on a sexual level. They broke up and five years later met again. Still, he wanted to have intercourse with Yolanda; this shows that he still, even after five years, only wanted to get on more than a social level with her, a sign that men mostly think of women as someone they can get pleasure from.
     Yolanda's father, a traditionally old fashioned man, wanted badly sons to carry on his name and instead got four daughters.  He seems as though he still isnt over the fact that hehas no sons and holds a grudge toward his daughters, making them feel like they are not worthy enough for his sentimental love. He shames them for not being boys and for not doing the things men could do.
      So throughout the first part of the story men have been introduced as the "bad guys", the ones who keep women for feeling worthy of being loved.