The book I am currently reading for English is called
"WHEN I WAS PUERTO RICAN"
by Esmeralda Santiago
5 Comments
- The first line of the story reveals their social class.
- The author describes everything to the bone (Wonderful Imagery).
- The family speaks "spanglish".
- The setting isn't in Puerto Rico for too long.
- Esmeralda's dad worked hard for his family.
4 Questions
How old was Esmeralda in the first chapter?
Why was her dad reconstructing the kitchen hisself?
What is a jibara / jibaro?
- Are there guava fruits as sweet as there was in puerto rico in their new community?
3 Vocabulary
- Laden: loaded, freighted, burdened
- Enticing: by exciting hope or desire
- Grimace: distortion of the countenance, whether habitual, from affectation, or momentary and occasional, to express some feeling, as contempt, disapprobation, complacency, etc.; a smirk; a made-up face.
2 Literary Devices
- Metaphor: "The guava joins its sister under the harsh fluorescent lights of the exotic fruit display " (Santiago, page4)
- Foreshadowing: "She was sweaty, her hair struck to her cheek and down her neck. She pulled on the rails of the bedstead as if she were stretching, but her knees folded up to her belly" (Santiago page16)
1 Summary Sentence
- These 19 pages of the biography is about Esmeralda and her family moving out of \Puerto Rico and the basic customs of her family.