The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents By Julia Alvarez: Summary

Behind The Story of how the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Hispanic American Literature Summative Assessment
Savannah Blakely
April 27th 2015
English III Honors

Abstract
Julia Alvarez wrote an amazing and spectacular novel, with the name of “Howthe Garcia Girls Lost their Accents.” This paper will take you through a summary of the novel, and how the story begins, and ends. It will surely answer any questions you have after reading the book. By the three articles to help back up different information. The different themes that are shown in the story are very clear. The novel’s major themes that you will recognize includeacculturation and the coming of age. The novel is written in three parts, and in reverse chronological order which
The story is written in reverse order. The first part of the story portrays the four Garcia girls as adults, and facing day to day difficulties and dreams that they wish they were different, sometimes. The second half covers their adolescence, and the third section takes the reader back to when the girls were young children exploring the Dominican Republic. The story focuses on the troubles, and struggles of each of the family members; which is all squeezed into five chapters. The reasons of the flash back motive that she used in her story, symbolizes her memories of how she once
A ‘pseudo memory’ describes experiences that lie somewhere between fiction and memory. “Alvarez provides a useful idiom for understanding the ethos of her autobiographical novels.” It is written around a pseudo- memory that represents the emotional truth rather than a factual memory. The novel “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” is revolved around memory, and their flashbacks. The novel is based on events that happened in Alvarez’s own life. Which explains why the text is written the way it is. It Is to organize her thoughts and memories of growing up in a Dominican Culture then being forced over to America where they know nothing about. The article brings up the gun in the novel, which is a symbol of categorization between the different genres in the story, and the serial nature. It goes into detail of Yolanda’s trauma in her young life. Due to a situation that inquired a gun. This situation was held with the dictator of the Dominican Republic; Rafael Trujillo. It was when the father, Carlos was in the military and the family was forced to fee away from the Dominican islands. This auto bibliography writing, does a fantastic job or explaining the way the