Lit Analysis #3

Topics and Events

1.       A. The book I read was about a young girl from Mexico and her life story all the way up to her death. The title of the book was Chicana and it went into depth about her life and what she had to go through from when she first crossed the border to her abusive marriage she was forced to into. It is kind of sad what she had to go through especially because that is my grandmother.

  B. The story Chicana is a gripping journey of a woman and the decisions she makes to survive a life filled with heartache, violence, and poverty.

2.     The authors name is Debra Burroughs and she wrote this memoir because it is her grandmother and she wanted to get the story of how she touched the hearts of us all and how one little woman could change so many people’s lives.

3.     I chose this book because the main character is my great-grandmother and I never knew all of the struggles that she went through and it completely shocked me. My mother had told me about the book and she was very upset about it and now I can understand why she was so sad and to me it should not have been published at all.

4.     Yes it’s very realistic and I personally know most of the characters and I might not have been around during these wonderful moments with my great-grandmother but I have seen how this woman has positively affected all of my family around me.

People

1.     The author didn't really create new characters that I knew of but all of the main characters had different names than their real names. She changed the names of the main characters because she revealed a lot about them but didn't want to go and say their real names because that is a little too much.

2.     A character that is very interesting to me is my great grandmother. Her name in the book is Carmen Rodriguez but her real name was Cruz Rodriguez and the memoir goes into depth about how she had a really difficult life as a child and as a young woman. She was a very sweet, innocent woman who definitely didn't deserve the life that was dealt to her. If I had to create her as a fictional character I would have probably left out some of the horrific things that were said in this book. Another character that was named Elena. She is my Aunt and her real name is Juanita, she never met her real father and her stepfather hated her and just treated her like she was another mouth to feed. She was a very strong woman and decided to move out and be safe at a very young age. If I wrote a fictional book and had to include her in it I would have created her the exactly the same.

3.     They both went through a lot of things that most people shouldn't go through or even worry about in their lifetimes. They deserved to be written about because many people would just give up and stop trying to help themselves and their kids but not these women.

Style

1.     The author used a more journalistic view and used evidence and first hand interviews instead of fiction writing tools.

2.     She focuses more on action and dialogue because she was able to talk with all of the characters and interview them firsthand.

3.     She doesn't really create a mood because she isn't a very good author and it just seemed like a very sad story. She never wrote a book before and she probably didn't know how to use tools to create a mood and a tone

4.     I think she wanted to be informative but you could tell some of the time some of the events in the book saddened her. It made her sad because it was her mother and her grandmother who she was talking about and is understandable to see why the author seemed sad at some points.

5.     She just talked to her mom and my great grandma supposedly told her everything that happened to her even though she never even told some of these things to her own daughter. There is some controversy in my family if Mrs. Burroughs told the truth about all of these things but that didn't really matter to me.

Enduring Memory

          One thing that I will remember for a long time is what my great grandfather Pablo did to his wife and my great grandma Cruz. He did things that no man should ever do to a woman and it disgusts me. Even after all he did to my grandma Cruz, he had the balls to leave her for another woman and have a whole other family with her. Another thing that really got to me was how she was able to deal with all of this and still raise 10 kids the best she could. She is one of the strongest people I had ever met or heard about and it crushes me that I never got to meet her or even talk to her. Even though I never met her she has changed my life greatly and shaped my whole family’s life. She gave us many of the opportunities that we have to this day and led us to our wonderful lives.