Julia Alvarez, a Hispanic American immigrant and a woman, remains a voice for those who have suffered the strife tied to these labels. From her award-winning novels to her passionate poetry, her words eloquently demonstrate a sort of empathetic understanding only available from an author who has experienced these difficulties. Julia Alvarez uses her poetic voice to explain, yet also escape, her multicultural world with a vocalized desire for freedom from oppression both in her home country and her home itself.
Born in New York on March 27, 1950, Alvarez moved to the Dominican Republic as an infant, and moved back to the U.S. in 1960 at the age of ten. Her family sought asylum in the U.S. due to the discovery of her father’s rebellious plot …show more content…
The poem is her version of Pedro Mir’s poem, “There is a Country in the World,” and while Mir focused on the cruelty of Dictator Trujillo, Alvarez chose to focus on the discrimination against Haitians (Torres-Saillant). Alvarez allows the speaker of the piece to ultimately take up a rather doleful attitude for a majority of the poem, mourning the sister countries “torn asunder” by history. She explicates that greed stands as the sole perpetrator: “Greed of Spain / greed of France / each pulling an end / until the land …show more content…
The connotation of “storm” immediately foreshadows a looming discontentment. The beginning, however, carries a more subtle approach, using simpler negative connotation of the “humdrum groundwork” and the “sloppy buckets.” The shift, however, creates a more direct diction with the lines “I wanted to mount that ladder / rung by rung, look down / into the gaping mouths of buckets, / the part in her greying hair.” The burdened and wistful attitude of the speaker best presents itself in the form of alliteration; the repetition of the “h” sound recreates a sound resembling a sigh. The words creating the alliteration also all happen to be one word: “her,” which refers to the speaker’s mother. The exasperated speaker verbalizes her need to elude “her house, her yard, her mothering.” With the strong parallel structure ending the poem, readers clearly understand exactly what the speaker wants and needs out of her laden life. Moreover, the ladder and sky serve as symbolism, the ladder representing a journey and the sky the reader’s holy grail: freedom. The poem as a whole stands as an a thinly veiled metaphor for the desire for a coup of sorts, overthrowing her oppressive dictator of a mother (“Julia Alvarez Poetry: American Poets
Born in New York on March 27, 1950, Alvarez moved to the Dominican Republic as an infant, and moved back to the U.S. in 1960 at the age of ten. Her family sought asylum in the U.S. due to the discovery of her father’s rebellious plot …show more content…
The poem is her version of Pedro Mir’s poem, “There is a Country in the World,” and while Mir focused on the cruelty of Dictator Trujillo, Alvarez chose to focus on the discrimination against Haitians (Torres-Saillant). Alvarez allows the speaker of the piece to ultimately take up a rather doleful attitude for a majority of the poem, mourning the sister countries “torn asunder” by history. She explicates that greed stands as the sole perpetrator: “Greed of Spain / greed of France / each pulling an end / until the land …show more content…
The connotation of “storm” immediately foreshadows a looming discontentment. The beginning, however, carries a more subtle approach, using simpler negative connotation of the “humdrum groundwork” and the “sloppy buckets.” The shift, however, creates a more direct diction with the lines “I wanted to mount that ladder / rung by rung, look down / into the gaping mouths of buckets, / the part in her greying hair.” The burdened and wistful attitude of the speaker best presents itself in the form of alliteration; the repetition of the “h” sound recreates a sound resembling a sigh. The words creating the alliteration also all happen to be one word: “her,” which refers to the speaker’s mother. The exasperated speaker verbalizes her need to elude “her house, her yard, her mothering.” With the strong parallel structure ending the poem, readers clearly understand exactly what the speaker wants and needs out of her laden life. Moreover, the ladder and sky serve as symbolism, the ladder representing a journey and the sky the reader’s holy grail: freedom. The poem as a whole stands as an a thinly veiled metaphor for the desire for a coup of sorts, overthrowing her oppressive dictator of a mother (“Julia Alvarez Poetry: American Poets