Daughter Of Invention Essay

A quick word, a second chance, a hasty decision may lead to an everlasting impact. As human beings we often don’t realize how past events contribute to the shaping of our future. This demonstrates the fact that a person’s individual past experiences often restrict the process of personal reinvention. One’s past confirms the current ideas that affect their decisions and growth.

Personal growth is often delayed or decreased by the ideas a person formed as a child. From a person’s past experiences, they build a foundation of values or morals. On one hand, new information and growth over time can change a person’s basic beliefs. While this is sometimes true, a person can never truly reinvent their mind because of previous thoughts and ideas.

Traumatic experiences could prevent a person from opening their mind to new opportunities. By comparison, experiences early in one’s life can direct and protect them, by keeping them safe from harmful ideas. Although this is often true, a severe shock at a young age, will most likely stick with a person. In the story, The Daughter of Invention, written by Julia Alvarez, the main character writes a speech that she is proud of, and receives a harsh reaction to it. Although her mother is supportive, her father is quick to anger and tears her essay to shreds. This can be proven when Alvarez writes, “He snatched my speech out of my hands, held it before my panicked eyes, a vengeful, mad look in his own, and then once, twice, three, four, countless times, he tore my prize into shreds… What we ended up doing that night was putting together a speech at the last moment. Two brief pages of stale compliments and the polite commonplaces on teachers, wrought by necessity without much invention by mother for daughter...” (Alvarez). The passage clearly illustrates the way a stressful event altered the decisions for the character’s future. All in all, straining situations as a child will continue to remain in one’s mind when trying to reinvent themselves. When a person is placed in a stressful situation, their mind is forced to expand and explore new ideas, never before