The Blue Estuaries Analysis

Initially Julia Alvarez’s description of Louise Bogan’s book shows the beginning of the speaker’s interest and self-discovery. Alvarez starts by describing the speaker’s first sight of “The Blue Estuaries” where she was surprised at the absence of blurbs on back and “mentors musing” (6). She was used to seeing the names of poets such as “Chaucer- Milton- Shakespeare- Yeats” (20). When she sees the name Louise Bogan she is immediately interested by the unfamiliarity of a new name. As she read the book she became inspired as “Page after page, your poems were stirring my own poems-” (23). The speaker discovered through Bogan’s book, that she too loved to write. The images of the speaker’s writing words rose, breaking the surface, awakening an …show more content…
As she looked deeper into Bogan’s poems, she “lost my doubts, my girls voice…”(35) and instead gained confidence in her own abilities to write. This confidence came through only as “I read and wrote as I read” (37). Bogan’s poetry was the key to unlocking her hidden talent. But what if she loses her new talent when Bogan’s poetry isn’t there. The speaker becomes nervous at the thought and she wanted to own this moment, but as much as she wanted and needed the book she had no money. So she starts to consider stealing the book as no one as looking. But as her mind races through her other options, the swans with the question mark necks on the book cover catch her attention. The speaker was asking them what to do. The words they swam over answered. The speaker ends up not stealing the book. She does not need it as she looks at the book and sees “a mirror reflecting back someone I was becoming” (49). She does need to steal Bogan’s book because the experience of reading it has changed her. Her new confidence will not fade away in the absence of the book. In conclusion Alvarez uses various literary techniques to convey the speaker’s discoveries of her own talent and confidence discoveries connected by Bogan’s