73 pages • 2 hours read
Julia AlvarezA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Ultimately, Alvarez has written a story about storytellers, and the novel therefore examines the potentially negative consequences of being exposed to a story. In the opening chapter of the novel, for example, Alma and her writer-friend both struggle with the sense of overwhelm that arises when important stories remain stubbornly untold. As Alma tells her friend, “We don’t get free until we write our stories down. […] If you bring forth what is inside you, what is inside you will save you. If you do not bring forth what is inside, what is inside you will destroy you” (9). She equates creative energy to a flow of electricity, something that must be grounded and channeled so that it does not become destructive. When her friend dies, Alma believes that “[w]hat killed her friend was that novel she could neither write nor put aside” (10). This central belief in the destructive capability of an untold story sets the novel in motion, especially when Alma realizes that she must ritualistically separate herself from her own untold stories. Unfortunately, the clutter of stories in her head worsens even after she buries her untold tales, and her mental health suffers from this overload.
By Julia Alvarez
Before We Were Free
Julia Alvarez
Homecoming
Julia Alvarez
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Julia Alvarez
How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay
Julia Alvarez
In the Name of Salome
Julia Alvarez
In the Time of the Butterflies
Julia Alvarez
Once Upon a Quinceanera
Julia Alvarez
Return to Sender
Julia Alvarez
Something to Declare: Essays
Julia Alvarez
The Daughter of Invention
Julia Alvarez