Exile By Julia Alvarez Analysis

The “Exile” poem by Julia Alvarez sensationalizes the contentions of a young girl's family's escape from Dominican Republic, an abusive dictatorship, to the flexibility of the United States. The title "Exile," illuminates the reader that there was no other decision for the family except to leave the Dominican Republic, but several words and expressions reiterate the title. In this poem, the speaker express her inclination about escaping her home and how isolated she feels in the United States.
The poet utilizes four line stanzas or quatrains, and this is a narrative poet because the speaker recounts a story. The speaker appears somehow odd because she doesn't realize what is going on around her; "Worried whispers" (6) is a similar sounding word usage, and it likewise symbolizes the speaker's tension. Both her uncle and dad don't clarify the truth to the speaker, rather they obscure it. The setting of the poem begins in the city of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, which was renamed for the severe tyrant Rafael Trujillo. However, it changes to New York because the family succeeds to get away. The young female speaker is unexperienced to the world; consequently, she doesn't comprehend what is happening to the family, despite the fact that she …show more content…
Through the line "A hurried bag, allowing one toy a piece," (13) it shows as if the family members were compelled to leave their nation. In line 11 “What a good time she’ll have learning to swim”, the poet mentions how parents lie to their kids so they don't hurt them. The speaker feels that although her family aren’t telling her the truth, she trusts them because in her opinion that what adults do can't go bad. Additionally, in line 15 " A week at the beach so papi get some rest " sounds that the speaker's dad needs to leave the Dominican Republic because there is some sort of