The Garcia Girls: Symbolism

     The ending has finally arrived, or the beginning of the whole story. I thought the ending of the book was very confusing and I didn't understand the part where she says, "There is still times I wake up at three o'clock in the morning and peer into the darkness. At that hour and in that loneliness, I hear her, a black furred thing lurking in the corners of my life, her magenta mouth opening, wailing over some violation that lies at the center of my art." (Alvarez 290). I think this might mean that the mother cat is still haunting over her. I think that this symbolizes how she has lost the bonds to her home and wasn't able to find her own roots. The feeling of leaving the Domestic Republic and adjusting to the surrounding around her just frightens her. This was the part that I don't really understand because the last vignette kind of goes back to her present life and isn't the book going in chronological order. This was something that really confused me.

     I think that symbolism is used greatly in the beginning and the end of the book to explain the events that has happened. Especially in the ending where the kittens incident occurs. Yolanda finds the kittens in the shed without their mothers. I think the kittens has a meaning to this story and it symbolizes the Garcia girls and how they left their homeland; just like how the kittens was left without their mothers. Yolanda names one of the kittens and its name was Schwarz. She was taken away from their mother by Yolanda as it represents how they got taken away from their homes. When Schwarz was wounded, it shows that the girls had a hard time adapting to the American culture suffering through many difficulties on the way. When Schwarz gets lost and could not return to the coal shed, it shows that when they girls came back to their homes as adults, they were not able to find their roots back as it states in the first chapter. I think the symbolism of the kittens kind of shape the whole meaning of the whole book and how they adapted to the American culture.

     I think that there is more meaning to this book than I have right now. I think that if I really want to get the whole meaning of this book, I would have to read it over again because since I kind of know the beginning, I have to connect her history and past together to get her true meaning. I think that this book is intended to be read again to be fully understandable, and it tells readers that books have a big story behind it, and you will only discover the secrets when you pay attention to the details.