Silent Dancing Analysis

She demonstrates the meaning of Silent Dancing through perspective, imagery, and repetition which depicts how her culture goes through discrimination. Her thoughts become based off on the “typical” immigrant Puerto Rican decor. Furthermore, she includes the history of a girl–Niña– mocked by people in her hometown. She wanted to change who she was, not accepting who she was and the culture she was born in. Initially, the repetition of “la gringa” would overwhelm her mind. Niña becomes traumatized daily by the repetition of “la gringa” which means white female because she wanted to become more Americanized than being Puerto Rican. There is irony in this piece since she never ended up in the U.S., but isolated in the village far away from communities

Chick critiqued Judith Ortiz Cofer’s Silent Dancing by advising that it is a collection of fourteen essays and poems. It talks about Cofer’s adolescence and how she did not achieve the expectations for her to become a traditional Puerto Rican woman (AEW 381). Initially, Mamá is portrayed as an authority figure because she keeps her family in control just by the use of storytelling. With Chick’s point of view, I cannot disagree since it is accurate. Cofer, also disagrees with becoming the traditional Puerto Rican woman from receiving an education and going on her own path to becoming a writer. It is interesting how some of the characters are perceived, although they are considered as fiction since their identities are hidden. Cofer achieves her storytelling by being half fiction and auto-biography since it is written by herself. She reevaluates how women should be known as, but specifically the means of the life of a Puerto Rican

Cofer would occasionally reference the Bible “I suffered biblical torments,” this would describe the pain she went through is torture (39). It creates a scenery of hell since it gives the description of torment. Her suffering is caused by her father since he read her poems. She felt more than embarrassed. Through this torment, it describes her feelings towards her father-no affection. Furthermore, she releases the guilt she built up over years and forgave her father. Eventually, she demonstrated personification comparing her dad to a starving spirit. It is known that her father is not living, “I’d take my books of poetry as an offering//to your starved spirit//that fed on my dreams in those days” suggesting that he can’t really feed on her dreams (40). Her father’s soul walks by her and encourages her to continue writing as if she were writing to him. Initially, tone characterizes that she is sad, upset, and hatred because of the loss of her father. She overcomes the the hatred when he reads her poems since some were meant for him. She feels at peace once she forgives him “the decade is over, time to begin forgiving old sins,” there is no need to hate him since it was a decade that passed by (39). His death encouraged her to write more than before. Cofer recognizes that there should be forgiveness to live life in peace rather than