It comments on ways in which people can’t possess any actual knowledge of what is and isn’t possible since nobody is granted the ability to see the future. The transformation from a girl determined to never resemble her mother to another version of the same pattern is solemn and curious. By concentrating on the work at home and dedicating her emotional and mental energy to it, she learned to perceive it as a form of art, despite previously hardly considering it possible. And yet, with a cruel sense of irony that is perhaps somewhat autobiographical to the author, it becomes apparent that she is wrong.Īs the narrator grows into a woman, she notices with a sense of apparent regret and irony that she has become much like her mother. Naturally, the girl in question does not believe that one day she would resemble her mother in the approach to housekeeping and women’s work in general she can’t believe such a thing is even hypothetically possible. Her mother, the lyric heroine feels, was used to keeping a house “much better” than her daughter’s heart (Alvarez, 15). She doesn’t believe that one day will resemble her in any way or capacity, which is evident from the semi-resentful approach in several lines of the poem. This may be interpreted as part of a culture that the young should not challenge, even when it justifiably appears senseless to them.Īs a child, the heroine resents her mother’s outlook on life and wants to distance herself from it as much as possible. The mother is perpetuating the pattern by training her daughter to clean at such a young age. Indirectly, she is imprisoned at her mother’s house and forced to sweep the floor until granted permission to leave. The little girl is irritated she would rather be outside, spending time with friends and otherwise being a child. In her memories, the mother is talking to her back when she was a little girl and teaching her the ways of what she considers a woman’s work. Housekeeping and cleaning are used as easy markers for this similarity, with the memory of a mother in a lyrical heroine’s head proclaiming that they are to be considered forms of art. The poem is told from a woman’s perspective, realizing she has way more in common with her mother than she once thought. Questions about familiar relationships with other women, housework and heredity are discussed with fascination and resentment. Photo by Jocelyn Augustino.Julia Alvarez’s poem “Woman’s Work” is an example of feminist poetry, both thematically and emotionally. President Barack Obama presents the National Medal of Arts to novelist, poet, and essayist Julia Alvarez in a White House ceremony on July 28, 2014. In 1997, with her husband, Bill Eichner, Alvarez established Alta Gracia, a sustainable coffee farm/literacy center in the Dominican Republic. She is currently a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. Alvarez has won numerous awards for her work, including the Pura Belpré and Américas Awards for her books for young readers, the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature, and the F. Julia Alvarez is the author of novels ( How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent, In the Time of Butterflies, iYo!, In the Name of Salomé, and Saving the World), collections of poems ( Homecoming, The Other Side/ El Otro Lado, The Woman I kept to Myself), nonfiction books ( Something to Declare, Once Upon A Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the USA), and numerous books for young readers (including How Tía Lola Came to Visit/Stay, Before We Were Free, finding miracles, and Return to Sender). She illustrates the complexity of navigating two worlds and reveals the human capacity for strength in the face of oppression. Alvarez explores themes of identity, family, and cultural divides. Julia Alvarez is recognized for her extraordinary storytelling.
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