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Themes In Sandra's Only Daughter By Sandra Cisneros

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In the short story Only Daughter by Sandra Cisneros, Sandra is challenged by being the only daughter in the family of six sons. Her father believes that Sandra should go to school so she can find a good man. While Sandra believes she should go to school to complete her education goal. Because the different beliefs between the two, Sandra 's father fails to acknowledge he has only one daughter and refers to her as a son. Sandra Being referred to as a son puts her in the place where she has to compete with her brothers to gain her father 's approval. By the end of the story, Cisneros overcame three major obstacles. Cisneros beat the statistic of a traditional hispanic household, competed with her brothers to gain her father 's approval, and sought her father 's approval throughout the story in order to finally make her father proud. Sandra’s family was …show more content…
Cisneros would scribble words hoping her father would understand what she was writing.Cisneros expresses her feelings saying “In a sense, everything I have ever written has been for him, to win his approval even though I know my father can’t read English words.(563)” In that passage it is clear to the reader Cisneros would like to win over her father 's approval by writing for him. Sandra’s was desperate for her father 's attention as she says “I wanted my father to understand what it was I was scribbling, to introduce me as My only daughter, the writer. Not as this is my only daughter. She teaches.(563)” Sandra 's father was not impressed that she went to school to be a writer and labels her as just a teacher. Cisneros eventually started to believe that she would never gain her father’s approval, but she kept working at her purpose hoping she could make her father proud some day. I agree with Cisneros seeking for her father 's approval but I don 't think she should make changes in herself just to make him

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