Volar By Judith Ortiz Cofer Summary

In the story of “Volar” by Judith Ortiz Cofer you see two people that want to escape from their lives. The story is narrated by the daughter of an immigrant family, who dreams of flying like a superhero through the town they live in. In her dreams, she is escaping the reality of her life by doing things she most likely doesn’t have the courage to do in her everyday life. First, we see her using her X-ray vision to look in on people she knew, she “sees the landlord, whom she knew her parents feared” (295) when she sees him she blows the money he is counting all over the room to make him have to count it all again. In her own way she is standing up for her parents and the injustice she feels they face from the landlord. As the story evolves, we see her dreams evolve as well.
In the next part of the story our narrator is still having her superhero dreams but now when she is escaping

she is looking “into the secret rooms of the boys she liked.” (295) The bravado she feels when she is Supergirl allows her to peer into the lives of the boys that she would most likely never interact with in her everyday life. She uses her dreams to feel a connection with the objects of her affection. The narrator doesn’t see herself in a very flattering light. She complains of her curls and her skinny arms and flat chest. In her dreams however, she has long blond hair and as she climbs the stairs she “would fill out: her legs would grow long, her arms would harden into steel, and her hair would magically go straight and turn a golden color, and of course she would have breasts.” (295) All of these are characteristics she desires to have, ones that she lacks because of who she is. The narrator feels trapped in her life as an immigrant and longs to be someone she’s not.
Another character in the story is the narrators mother, who we see in the flashback of the narrator’s parents in the kitchen.

The narrator seems to remember her parents fondly but there is a sadness in the memory. The parents are discussing taking a trip back to Puerto Rico, to see the mother’s family. The narrator’s mother longs to return to where she came from, even just to visit, she talks to her husband about “renting a car and going to the beach” (295) You can tell that the mother has thought about going back to visit often, she has already planned out the trip in her mind. The narrator’s father explains that the family cannot visit, he begs her to understand that he “can’t take the time off of work” (295) and tries to dissuade her with the expense of flying to Puerto Rico. The father obviously works hard to provide for his family and while he does a good job, it is just too much for him to take off and return to his wife’s home. It seems that they have had this same conversation before, he answers her almost like he is resigned to the fact that she will never stop asking to

go.
The story of “Volar” takes place in an apartment building in a city, most likely in a Spanish speaking neighborhood. The narrator’s mother is discontent with her life as an immigrant and longs to escape it. In the story the narrator tells us that her parents begin each day together in the kitchen, and the narrator tells us that she knows what her mother will do after she discusses visiting Puerto Rice. Her mother would look at the “view of a dismal alley that was littered with refuse thrown from the windows.” Her mother would then check the time, “sigh deeply and say the same thing the view from the window always inspired her to say: Ay, si you pudiera volar.” Oh, only if I could fly, this is what the mother always says after looking out the window of the apartment. She longs to escape the life she has and return to her family in Puerto Rico. Much like her daughter longs to escape the life she has and become someone she isn’t. Something better, something more. Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “Volar” is a story that we can all relate to where we long to be something or somewhere that we are not, to fly away and escape the reality we face each day.