Monday, 24 April 2017

Homework for April 26 - Otravida Otravez by Junot Diaz

Answer one of the following:

1. What are the main stylistic features of the narratorial voice, in your opinion?

2. Do you find any symbolism in the narrator's profession? If so, explain.

3. How do you account for the title?




2 comments:

  1. Joana Rita Santos Janeiro25 April 2017 at 16:14

    2- I suppose her job can represent the way she is helping other people "clean up their act" in a sense. In her day job, she cleans the linens of the hospital. Some of the stains are big, deep, and old, others are fresh and small. She helps her boyfriend the most, with the life and wife he left behind. She encourages him to build the new life he wants to build. She helps him get a fresh start, just like the helplessly stained sheets. She helps the new girls adapt to the hard work, the the life of strife in America. She does little acts of kindness (such as lending Samantha some money), and like the little stains they are removed from the picture. She does what she can, but some people are beyond help.

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  2. Catarina Coelho1 June 2017 at 13:43

    3- I believe the title might be related to the narrator and Samantha. In my opinion the narrator sees a bit of herself in Samantha. We know that when the narrator arrived in the US she did not have many friends or anyone to guide or help her. Samantha is kind of in the same boat. She's very young, she went to this new country in search of a better life, but she's not accostumed to the work yet, it takes her a while to adjust to the country too, just like it took time for the narrator to grow accostumed with her new reality. The narrators first year was not any easier than Samantha's ("I remember my own first year, how desperately I wanted to return home, how often I cried." pg.66). That being said, I believe "Otravida, Otravez" means that the narrator is watching another life going down the same road, it's all hapening again.

    Catarina Coelho
    Nº146208

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