Week Five

Welcome to Week Five, and our last week week of blogging. This week's post should be on your overall thoughts about the book. It must be a ten sentence reflection. You do not need to comment on anyone else's blog, but your post should be up here by Sunday, March 29 You should have made up any missing work by then as well.

Question Blog 4

My question regards Father and the Awful Grandmother. Why does the Awful Grandmother call Father mijo, and not her other sons? Also, why does Father do everything the Awful Grandmother tells him to do?

Blog #4

My question concerns all parts of the book. It deals with the great grandmother and grandfather, the mother and father, and the children. How are the different generations of Reyeses similar or different(in their romantic relationships, attitudes, etc.)?

Week Four

Welcome to Week Four!

For this week's blog you will post a thought-provoking question that does not have only one answer. Remember that you must make 10 comments this week, not 5. Please do not leave this until the last minute, you have the whole week to get it done.

Post 3: Literary Elements

Literary elements seem to be the basis of this book as it is completely made up of random anecdotes from Lala’s childhood. There is an immense amount of imagery and many descriptions of the settings and characters. This makes the book seem more real, more complete. There are also some traces of symbolism, as Karen pointed out, with the cars that are red, white, and green – the colors of the Mexican flag. In places like these, as well as other anecdotes, you can sort of see where the author took her creative license to enhance the book. In the very beginning of the book, there is a disclaimer that many parts of the story are often exaggerated, that it is just bits and pieces sewn together. I think this confession of Lala’s allows the author to write more freely and play more with the literary elements that she includes in the novel. It doesn’t have to sound entirely realistic, and the author has more freedom in leading Lala around through the novel. However, I still think that the representations of culture and family are still authentic. Literary elements like imagery, epithets, and other creative touches (like the scattered Spanish) add to the story overall.

Literary Elements Blog 3

There are a lot of literary elements in this book. Lala doesn't use the actual name of the characters, but a nick-name that usually describes them. There's the Awful Grandmother who Lala doesn't like, Aunty Light-Skin who has light skin, Uncle Fat-Face, and Uncle Baby. There is also a lot of similes and metaphors. These definitely help the descriptions, and make it seem like you're right there with Lala every step of the way. Through the use of similes and metaphors, the characters are all well developed, considering that there are so many of them. All of these help the reader understand that the story is being told by a little child. There's also the allusion to the Mexican flag that Sidney pointed out to me when we first started reading the book. The cars that Father, Uncle Fat-Face, and Uncle Baby drive have the colors red, white, and green; the same as the Mexican flag. This adds to the pride they have in their Mexican heritage.

Blog #3

Even though this example is near the beginning of the book, it is the passage that stands out to me the most so far in the book. The example I thought of was from chapter 4 when the Reyes family, in Lala's part of the book, are crossing the border from the United States to Mexico. Lala is describing the car trip and her memories of Mexico using lots of her senses. I suppose you could call the literary device imagery. What I think is so unique about the imagery the author uses is that it includes sound, smell, sight, touch,and taste, which lots of authors don't do. It reminds me of the descriptions in "All the Prettty Horses" since those descriptions were also very detailed. Also, the passage compares items in the United States to the equivalent items in Mexico, like how a spoon is a different weight. I think this expresses how Lala thinks like a child. She is curious and very observant of her surroundings. It also affects Lala when she goes into new places, like her grandmother's house, or when her mom takes her out to lunch. Lala wants to absorb everything new around her.