In “How the Garcia Girls lost their Accents” by Julia Alvarez is a story of four sisters, who experience a traumatizing event that forces them to move from the Dominican Republic to America. However, in the third part of the story, where all the sisters have reverted back to their child state, the nooks and crannies of the actual occurrence is revealed. Each and every part of the event has a symbolic meaning that “foreshadows” the future (which was mentioned earlier in the book).
For example, in the beginning of the part, the innocence of the girls are shown. They have yet been limited in their capabilities, by the laws of the Dominican Republic which disallowed women to do many things. As a result, the girls were never exposed to the truths and sin of the world. In conclusion, the human right removing laws of the Dominican Republic actually preserved the girls innocence.
However, as fate brings them to the Americas, the freedom that America provides overwhelms the girls, and they lose their self control. One becomes the typical teenage mother, while another falls under the classic story of the bulimic girl. The rights that American provides for the girls cannot be handled properly, and they each begin to drift away from their parents. As a result, the girls’ lives begin to fall apart from their ongoing bad choices.
In sum, the girls started off as model children. But when they move to America, their previously limited lives are now able to roam free, and they cannot handle it, and they are torn apart and ruined. The accents they lose are not part of their voice, but their innocence. Through this, it can even be stated that our experiences, in this case the freedom, benefit our knowledge but hash away at our innocence, until we reach a standpoint of maturity. As our lives progress - our knowledge increasing and experiences expanding - we lose our innocence; our carefree ability to just let things pass without making them into a huge deal.
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