The Character of Yolanda Garcia in How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Acce

The Character of Yolanda Garcia in How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and Yo Julia Alvarez develops the character of Yolanda Garcia in close to different and similar ways in her two books How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and its sequel Yo. The reasons for the differences in the two characterizations of Yolanda is that there is almost no continuity concerning her character in the two books-meaning that all the specific details of Yolandas life given to the reader in the prototypal book are different (not continued nor elaborated upon) in the sequel. It was almost like reading about two different characters that just happened to confirm the same family and happen to have immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic. For example, in the first book Yolanda goes to graduate school, becomes a teacher, and only shows interest in writing poetry. She also marries a man named John after having fallen in delight with a young man named Rudy in college. In the se cond book Yolanda does not go to graduate school, in fact, she almost does not get her bachelors horizontal surface because she elopes with a young man named Darryl Dubois. She does become a teacher, but she publishes mainly prose-short stories and novels-not poetry. Whereas, the similarity in the two different characterizations of Yolanda is that she is definitely assimilated to American culture, yet her honest-to-god World values and lifestyle also influence her. In both books it is clear that Yolanda has successfully assimilated to American culture. Unlike her parents-first generation immigrants-who never gain a complete mastery of the English language, Yolanda masters the language and excels in school. In the second book, one of her college professors has the f... ...Old World roots and that its traditional values still have a significant impact on her. Yolanda must continually reconnect with her Old World roots to fulfill her destiny of passing on her familys heritage/ them e to future generations. Works Cited Primary Sources Alvarez, Julia. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. New York Plume, 1991. - - - . Yo. New York Plume, 1997. Secondary Sources Alvarez, Julia. Something to Declare Essays. New York Plume, 1998. Barak, Julie. Turning and Turning in the Widening Gyre A Second sexual climax into Language in Julia Alvarezs How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, MELUS Spring (1998), http//www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2278/1_23/53501904/print.jhtml. Accessed 04/07/2001. The Author Project. Julia Alvarez. http//ahs.aps.edu/authorproject/juliaalvarez.html. Accessed 04/07/2001.