Antojos By Julia Alvarez Summary

This essay will focus on the analysis of the story Antojos by Julia Alvarez. The setting and characters can be one of the essential parts of a story. But in this instance, we will see how both of these things are of great importance to driving the plot events of the story.
The setting of the story is in different parts of the Dominican Republic. On her way to her family’s home in the north, she stops at a cantina where she meets this lady and a young boy named Jose. The way the cantina is described shows how humble and different from what she is accustomed. The writer describes the place as a “cluster of houses on the side of a road” and goes to say that the cantina has a “thatched roof”. When she sees this difference between where she comes from and the way people live on the island, she feels that Dominicans are prisoners of a social hierarchy. The places she is describing, for example, the cantina where she stops and where she goes to pick up the guavas, helps the reader to understand the conditions of the place and how her status of a ‘wealthy American girl’ affects her interactions with people as well as her. Her descriptions of her surroundings convey the idea of what Yolanda is trying to do in the Dominican Republic. She is trying to find herself and her identity. Find a place to belong to that is unknown to her. The place she goes to, Altamira in the north, also drives the

story because it’s the reason why she takes a different car that breaks down and causes her to encounter different people and situations that perhaps she wouldn’t have to otherwise.

The author describes the place

where Yolanda is when it says “She looks up at the purple sky. A breeze was blowing through the grove, rustling the leaves, so they whispered like voices, something indistinct.” This “new” place feels like home to Yolanda further developing the story and the main points of it.
Characters are also very important to the development of the story. Of course we have Yolanda as the main character. Trying to find herself in this new place. We also read about Jose, the kid that helps her find the guavas. Jose allows Yolanda to see the way people view wealthy ones on the island. He demonstrated that he saw her as if she was more important than himself because she could afford things like a car and came from the United States. His actions describe one of the themes of the story. The two men with machetes that so much scared her show how she as well, was discriminating against the unknown thinking the men were going to harm her. She also demonstrates how she in a way even feels like an American because the first thing that she thinks of doing is speaking rapid English. The fact that this is the first thing she thought of doing further helps the reader put itself in her shoes. She doesn’t feel wholly American, but she also doesn’t feel Dominican. The men then feel ashamed of how dirty they are and look at the ground as if they were servants, to show that they see Yolanda as superior.
As we have seen in this short essay the setting and the characters and the way they act plays an essential role in the story furthering developing the plot and providing the reader a deeper understanding of the story. The story allows the reader to put himself or herself in Yolanda’s position. Divided between two worlds.