![]() ![]() Through the writing of that speech, she discovers her real voice in English and her desired new identity. The content of the poem, though quite against the traditional Dominican values, touches Yolanda deeply and opens her eyes to a new, liberal, and creative world. ![]() Instead of accepting her father’s advice by praising the teachers, Yolanda composes a speech inspired by Whitman’s poem, endorsing the idea of celebrating oneself (Alvarez 142). She finally sounded like herself in English!” (Alvarez 143). When Yoyo was done, she read over her words, and her eyes filled. However, Yolanda’s wish to detach from the Dominican standards for women starts to show when she writes a bold speech for school: “That night, at last, she started to write, recklessly, three, five pages, looking up once only to see her father passing by the hall on tiptoe. She was used to being obedient to her father, as well as to other men in the household, at all times. Though Yolanda was hesitant, she did what he asked because Mundín was in a more powerful position both in the trade and in the Dominican society. When trying to trade toys with her cousin, Mundín, Yolanda obeyed his inappropriate request that she physically show him that she’s a girl: “I lifted up my cowboy skirt, tucked it under my chin, and yanked my panties down” (Alvarez 235). Before moving to the U.S., Yolanda lived in a patriarchal society where women were expected to submit to men. Yolanda’s English-learning process has offered her new insights and has reshaped her old perceptions, giving her an American voice she desires. because, like Afridi, she is unable to leave her roots behind. Learning English has helped Americanize Yolanda to some extent, but it fails to give her a sense of belonging in the U.S. By examining the connection between language and identity, we can gain a bigger picture of the globalization of English and analyze its effects on non-English speakers. Yolanda, especially, strives to be proficient in English and its cultural connotations so that she can fit into American society faster and establish a new “self.” However, her eagerness to consume American culture through English has trapped her between the two cultures. #Julia alvarez aha moment seriesAfter immigrating to the U.S., the sisters undergo a series of transformations to assimilate into the new environment. Like Afridi, the García sisters in Julia Alvarez’s novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, also leave their homeland, the Dominican Republic, at a young age and struggle to find their true cultural identities. She realizes that although she has moved to many places later in life, her early memories of Pakistan still follow her and shape who she is. Can a person have a harmonious multicultural identity? In her essay “A Gentle Madness,” Humera Afridi explores this question by reflecting on her childhood experience of leaving her homeland, Pakistan, at the age of twelve and how it affects her identity. ![]()
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