When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago is a bad memoir because it very negative. Even though she had a very tough childhood, she could have made the book more positive.
At one point, her mother leaves her with her cousins in order to fly to New York to seek medical treatment for Raymond’s foot. The entire time though, she is completely miserable at her cousin's house. Even though she does chores there, as she does at home, she feels as if she is being treated completely unfairly. She feels abandoned by her mother for leaving her there. She said “it wasn’t fair. Mami had given me away to Evangelicals who would make me peel potatoes all day long” (p.168) She also got to hang out with her cousins all day, yet she doesn't talk about any of the fun they must have had.
In another part of the book, when Esmeralda moves to America, she complains about she is almost forced to stay back a year. Because it was her first year in America, the school want’s her to stay back a year and repeat seventh grade. However, Esmeralda objects and argues with the principle to let her go on to 8th grade for 6 months. In the end, she ends up in the dumbest group of eighth grade, and she wishes she could have stayed in 7th grade. After all that being rude to an adult, she is still complaining about how she was with dumb people in 8th grade.
When her spoiled cousin Jenny got a bike, and was offering rides to the children, Esmeralda refused, and tried to force the children to not take the rides. This was because she was the boss, and thought she should be able to tell everyone what to do. One of her brothers, Raymond, eventually gets a ride against Esmeraldas will, but then gets hurt bad. Even though Jenny takes the blame, and everyone blames her, Esmeralda wants everyone to be mad at her and blame her, even though it wasn't her fault.
Throughout the book, Esmeralda talks about just about everything in a very negative manner, even though it wasn't always that bad.
I do think you're right with that some parts she was negative and could have been ore positive but I think the overall theme of her overcoming her struggles from when she was a child is the main theme. When you look at the big picture, the memoir is positive although i do agree that there are times that she could have looked for the positive things opposed to the negative. I think when she was telling her brothers and sisters not to ride the bike, it was to protect them. Her job from her mom was to look after the children and she just didn't want them to get hurt riding a bike where 90% of the time they would get hurt.
ReplyDeleteNick brings up some good points that while Santiago does detail many of her difficult experiences, she focuses mainly on how they have made her into what she ultimately becomes. Try to connect your thesis even more closely to Zinsser's criteria for a memoir. In your points, consider bringing up moments when Santiago includes details just to shock the reader.
ReplyDeleteI think that some aspects of your argument are correct such as how Esmeralda complained about wanting to be in seventh grade even though she said she wanted to be in eight grade. One of the points in your argument that are incorrect is the point about the bike. She only told her brothers and sisters not to ride because she was supposed to keep them safe. She knew it was unsafe for two people to ride a bike that was only built for one person, so she told her brothers and sisters not to do it. She did not tell the other kids not to.
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