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Dusting By Julia Alvarez Summary

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Dusting By Julia Alvarez Summary
Dusting is the type of housekeeping job that almost anyone can do. Dusting is a chore that does not receive much praise or attention. In Julia Alvarez’s “Dusting”, the little girl is not actually dusting, but she is leaving imprints with her hands on the dusty objects in the house. The mother keeps erasing the little girl’s fingerprints off of the furniture. This type of “dusting” is actually a metaphor for a little girl that wishes to leave her imprint on the world. The poem is truly an example in the separation of two different generations: the mother’s and the daughter’s.

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