1. Common Sense By Judith Ortiz Cofer
The Line of the Sun by Judith Ortiz Cofer, is a novel based in the 1950's through the 1960's about story-telling. All the characters introduced in the novel, have some sort of tie or connection to the main narrator, Marisol. The book begins before Marisol is born, and is comprised of stories that have been told to Marisol throughout her life. As one reads through the story, you can begin to see how Marisol is a reflection of, or ties to each character introduced. Marisol relies on the stories which have been passed down through the years as she tries to relate her life to that of her family. The Line of the Sun is a great example of how women do not have a significant role in the world in that time, how they were responsible for the household chores and raising the children, while the men in the novel were responsible for working and supporting the families, with very little variance from this. However, there were a select few characters introduced throughout the novel that tested that theory, Marisol spends a great deal of time looking at some of these characters, and how they were empowered to become their own individual selves.
The first good example of a character testing the boundaries of normalcy in this time period would be Rosa or La Cabra. Rosa tells a story to Guzman of her vast experiences in life and how she came to be in Salud. Rosa tells how she moved away from the island to New York City as a teenager and returned to the island only after the death of her mother, and only to claim the house which her mother had left to her. As a teenager, Rosa gave birth to her only daughter, an illegitimate child of a married man with five other children, as she tired of waiting for the man to join her in New York, she decided to take a job in a factory, and became very close to yet another man. This man, her boss Jackson, found an apartment for her and her daughter and paid the expenses, including medical for the illegitimate child.
"My friend complimented me on my cool handling of the situation " (Ortiz Cofer 95). ... Not everyone can achieve to fight stereotypes, but education gave Ortiz Cofer a chance in life. ... The essay wrote by Judith Ortiz Cofer, presents a social obstacle. ... Ortiz Cofer was part of a Puerto Rican family, living in New Jersey during the sixties. ... Judith Ortiz Cofer comes from a Latin background. ...
The Myth of the Latin Woman In the story "The Myth of the Latin Woman" Judith Ortiz Cofer discusses how she was treated by various people in numerous countries due to their conception of her as a Latin woman. ... Judith Ortiz Cofer believes Latin women are stereotyped as sex objects because of their dress. ... Judith Ortiz Cofer feels the manner in which Latin women dress is often misunderstood and certainly misinterpreted. ... Judith Ortiz Cofer recalls stories she heard from family members as a child about sexual harassment that Puerto Rican women were forced to endured in the factories...
Through both "Casa"" by Judith Ortiz Cofer and "The Real World Consequences of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Cliche'"" by Hugo Schwyzer, we are able to understand how the relationships we form with family and friends influence our way of thinking. ... In Judith Ortiz Cofer's essay "Casa ", she explains her grandmother's negative view towards men and its impact on both her and the rest of the females in her family. ... Though the character in Cofer's essay may have shared a family view that was nearly the complete opposite of mine, it helped shed light on the roll that family m...
The point of views in the essays "The Myth of the Latin Woman" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, and Shirley Saad's "Amina". Cofer's essay is about a Latina women overcoming the cross-cultural stereotypes given to her by society. ... Cofer was brought up in a family where her life was designed by her parents. ... Cofer was lucky to have a culture that allowed her to be personally independent, and to get a formal education. ... Pressures from the people around her make her less independent, whereas Cofer used this pressure to become more of an independent person....
A Memory of My Father Judith Ortiz Cofer's "My Father in the Navy: A Childhood Memory" and Theodore Rothke's "My Papa's Waltz" are poems which were written with a positive theme toward the father figure. ... Cofer and Rothke's poems depict fond childhood memories from each speaker. ... She describes him as, "Stiff and immaculate in the white cloth of his uniform and a round cap on his head like a halo" (line 1-3). ... Cofer used words in his poem to establish a serious tone for the speaker. ... This was evident as Rothke's speaker states, "You beat time on my...
In "Latin Women Pray" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, the writer is looking upon religious customs as a type of joke. ... In the last line, the speaker makes a sarcastic statement about the God that she speaks of. ... Eliot's poem appeals more to the sounds than that of Cofer's poem though. ... In the ninth line when he is talking about what he misses, he even states, "The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces, And the silken girls bringing sherbet." ... However, Cofer leaves us with beautiful sights of the women kneeling and praying. ...
In Judith Ortiz Cofer's "The Myth of the Latin Woman", the "boss-men talked to [women] as if sexual innuendo was all they understood" (161). ... Cofer also states, "Even today some people, including those who should know better, still put others "in their place"' (161). ...
-Judith Ortiz Cofer, "Silent Dancing" In her book "Silent Dancing," Cofer recounts the memories of her childhood induced while watching this short piece of film. ... Each day, like the last seemed an endless sunny paradise, and the feeling of the warm sun on our faces only served to amplify the new feelings that were being introduced to us. ...