Lessons Of Love Judith Cofer Analysis

The warm fuzzy feelings, the constant daydreams of “what ifs” and the smiles that come after everything they say. Crushes tend to make your day better just by appearing in your everyday life, but they are called crushes for a reason. The sudden anguish you feel when you realize they don’t feel the same way about you is demoralizing. In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s short story “Lessons of Love,” she tells of the time where she met her first love who used the way she felt against her. Her momentary infatuation is one type of character used in the story to leave anticipating readers hoping for something to happen all the while epitomizing how your own fear can trick you into seeing things differently from what they really are. Judith Cofer also uses herself to portray the ordinary character who may or may not share characteristics with yourself as a reader, and an immigrant from Poland to represent envy and one’s insecurities. These characters describe the mindset of young Judith and many other people throughout the world.

Judith Cofer is the main character in her short story.

“In my mind there was no doubt that he would never notice me…He could not see me because I was a skinny Puerto Rican girl, a freshman who did not belong to any group he associated with,” is how she described herself (Cofer 159). Fiction or nonfiction, the main character of an intimate love story is usually described as ordinary as possible. They’re someone that the audience can relate to and share similar characteristics. Since Judith Cofer was writing about herself, it more than likely wasn’t that hard to make up. She is an ordinary, everyday person and her readers can relate to the way she sees herself. People love to see the beauty in the things around them but often refuse to see it in

themselves.
We’ve all had big and small crushes that we’ve hoped would lead to something more yet knew they never would. Judith Ortiz Cofer didn’t name her secret love but we were certainly given enough details to know how big of a crush he was. “I relished the shadow of his eyelashes on his rubby cheeks, his pouty lips smirking sarcastically at the ridiculous sight of our little play” (Cofer 160). The way she describes him makes him sound nearly perfect. He’s the boy that’s way out of your league but hope will notice you anyway. Characters and people like this draw others in in hopes that something more will happen but at the same time show how you degrade yourself. When a character has a crush in a story, frequently you will see the character bash themselves for not being good enough for their crush. We don’t realize it as much when we do it ourselves, but the same thing occurs in real life. We see someone that is perfect in our eyes and immediately see our own flaws that they potentially could grow to resent. Our fear turns against us and becomes our own worst enemy.
Sophia was a beautiful, Polish immigrant who was envied by the girls and feared by the boys at her school. In the words of Judith, “...whose features, classically perfect without a trace of makeup, enthralled us. Everyone talked about her gold hair cascading past her waist, and her voice, which could carry a note right up to heaven in choir” (Cofer 159). Although she doesn’t play a major role in the story, Sophia is a perfect example of an envious third party character. To Judith, Sophia looks like a real goddess. She’s perfect in the looks category and is innocent enough to be wanted by the guys. Judith envies what Sophia has, probably believing that if she were to be Sophia, she’d have what it takes to get noticed by any boy she could possibly have a crush on. A character like Sophia’s may not have much significance in a story, but they can tell you a little about the main character’s insecurities and desires, many of which the readers can share.