In life, you will always be confronted with unexpected surprises that have the power to positively transform your life, or you can find inner strength to overcome them. Regardless, you will always encounter unforeseen obstacles and face the choice of either evading them or embracing them. Both the book “How the Garcia girls lost their accents” and the story “Hostage” exemplify the trials and tribulations that mold our lives. The underlying theme is the challenges that we encounter in life and how they can permanently alter our lives or how we can develop inner resilience to navigate through various adversities that cross our path.
The main characters in How the Garcia girls lost their accent, Yolanda and Sophia, face a struggle with their internal strength. Their decision to go to America and alter their behavior, followed by their return to the Dominican Republic where they are not accepted, requires them to possess internal strength to overcome this challenge. However, Yolanda does not possess this internal strength. Similarly, in the story “Hostage,” both the narrator and Brutus experience a life-changing challenge.
The book How the Garcia girls lost their accent illustrates the significance of internal strength in overcoming trials. Their challenge has a profound impact on their lives. Upon returning home, they are not fully embraced as Americanized individuals. Yolanda struggles to cope with this and becomes mentally unstable. The author describes a moment when she places a well-dressed kitten into her drum, exchanging it with drumsticks and closing the lid. As the mother cat reacts to this unconventional act, Yolanda tries to distract her with a loud drum roll. Unable to gain acceptance from her family, Yolanda resorts to eccentric behavior to seek attention. However, Sophia understands and strives to prove that her transformation is not detrimental.
In America, she falls in love and teaches her family that American culture is not as terrible as they think. The short story “Hostage” shows that life’s challenges cannot always be overcome. When the narrator is kidnapped and saved by Bruno, who dies tragically, she cannot move on from the traumatic experience. She stays secretly in love with him, but the kidnapping changes her forever. The theme of the story is significant because it shows how life’s trials can deeply affect a person.
The author suggests that the consequences of Bruno Sokolov’s actions were her responsibility, although she recognized that they were unrelated to her. The passage explores how events in one’s life can have a lasting impact. For instance, at sixteen, Bruno Sokolov dropped out of school, at seventeen he enlisted in the army, and by eighteen he was sent abroad and died shortly after. The protagonist continues to struggle with the trials she has endured. However, it is important to learn how to overcome the changes that occur in life.
In the novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, the two girls exemplify the concept of overcoming various challenges in life and possessing the inner resilience to become stronger. Certain trials may be more challenging than others, but having internal strength will always prove beneficial. The short story “Hostage” similarly highlights the consequences of lacking internal strength, as it can irrevocably alter one’s life. However, both narratives reveal that when faced with a challenge, one character loses this inner strength. Nevertheless, in the book, one individual demonstrates the importance of possessing internal strength to conquer difficult situations.
