Professor`sName
Summary
Thestory revolves around the family environment exposure in developingthe social life of a child and setting basic instincts that areimportant in life. The book “A cup of water under my bed” gives asequence of what happens in lives of different people. Love is one ofthe main themes in the story, and it is portrayed through the lovethat parents give to their families. Feminism is also evident in thestory. The author has projected life experience and the antagonismthroughout the novel. The story juxtaposes the new things in lifewhich were an adverse opinion to the author`s teaching. The writerhas used different aspects of literature writing, for example, thereis symbolism among another aspect in the story. Nevertheless, thestory portrays the school and the church as the ones to support andfacilitate the social teachings in life despite the western culturewhich has taken root in the State. Mostly, the career path haspossessed the life goals and the ambition the author achieved in theprocess of growing to her dreams.
Theplot of the story thereby revolves around the Daisy Hernandez, who isthe main character together with his parents. She began writing in2000, when she was twenty-five, after receiving a page in themagazine MS. The story is about a Colombian –Cuba girl who tries todiscover herself as a result of good interaction between her and herfamily members. Her parents with her auntie taught her on how to growup with better morals and culture upholding. It is evident from thestory that family relationships with a child since childhood have agreat impact on determining who he/she will be in future. Therefore,parents have a great role to play, to ensure their children arebetter persons in future. Daisy’s parents are the main point ofreference as portrayed in the poem. They taught her about sex, lovefor others, proper use of money, and culture upholding. This isevident from different contexts in succeeding paragraphs.
Culturalaspect in the memoir has been portrayed through language use. Daisy’sparents are of different race. Her father is a Cuban while her motheris a Colombian. They only spoke Spanish at their home, while theirchild insisted on speaking English since it gave her somefascinations. This gave her difficult time in communicating with herparents since some words were difficult to translate from English toher parental language. Her father wondered when she told him that shewanted to be a writer. This is a clear indication of cultural belief.Being part of the family, Daisy learned her parental language,Spanish even if she did not understand it all. Daisy’s mother attimes gave her stories about her immigration from Colombia. Theyhelped to strengthen her moral upbringings and relationships witherfamily too. Parents should teach their children about the culturesthat exist in their families and communities to enhance their moralgrowth.
[TopBun] The family of the author has absolute values of guiding a childwhereby the mother is the crucial person who teaches the morals andculture of the Spanish that was her parental ethnic group beforemigrating to the United States. The set-up of the story is inColombia where the author seeks to address the essence of the familyas the central theme. [Quote] For instance, “my father worries thatI might become like him and my mother warns me not to drown myself ina cup of water”. [Lettuce] This portrays protection and care of achild by the parents at a tender age. Moreover, the poverty inColombia and the high rate of illiteracy was a challenge in thecommunity hence the mother of the author takes a step in introducingthe school to eliminate the poverty and to bring in greater dreams ofthe author in future. The Holy Family School was a clear indicationof care on religious morals since the Catholic school is to range theprotagonist with the immoral behaviors in the society. [Bottom Bun] The family is the theme that revolves around the author in ensuringthat his goals in life are achieved.
Thenovel of Daisy Hernandez, A cup of water under my Bed, portrays amusical and comic rhetorical situation that is displayed by theauthor from childhood to the adulthood. The shift in location fromColombia to a two-storied building in Union City was to satisfy thefamily`s social life. The family has a role in raising a child in astable environment that brings joy to the members. The author`sschool live progresses well despite the existence of English languagethat was mandatory in her school. However, Alicia Hernandez, theauthor’s mother, plays an important role in advising her childrenusing Spanish idioms and proverbs. For instance [Quote] “over theyears, the writer literal translations in English for everything myfamily says in Spanish. Échate la bendición. Throw yourself intothe blessing. God offer meat to the persons who have no teeth”.[Bottom Bun] The family has been the central theme that supports theauthor’s growth towards her goals since it is the one that educatesher.
However,the family theme is also portrayed in the moral teaching that theauthor’s mother gives to the writer. [Quote] You should not confusetap water with swimming pool water with a literal meaning of caution.Furthermore, the writer flashbacks on the difficulties incurred inchoosing new friends in school and she takes a glance at her youngersister. The glance was sarcastic since the protagonist views theyounger sister as innocent in life and has nothing in mind. [BottomBun] The difficult situation in school on friends and the racialdifference was a challenge to the writer. Despite this situation, thedaily encouragement by her mother took a role in molding her dream inlife. The Christian school has been a symbolic genre in the life ofthe protagonist in relevance to the theme of family whereby thefamily trusted in the existence of God being the overall guide inlife. The Holy Family School primarily teaches the prayers and how toretain the trust in God since the family has a Christian setting.These teachings clearly indicate that her mother was aware of theeroding morals in the society and culture and wanted her children tobe morally upright.
Thecareer dream of being a writer after school came in at the course ofstudying whereby as she introduces this path, her parents are curiousabout this choice at childhood. The exposure of a child to schoolsignificantly promotes good morals and facilitates knowledgedevelopment of a child. The principal of her school receives threatsfrom her parents since they believe in writing to expose their sociallife. However, they do not directly condemn the choice but nature theauthor towards the career path. This shows that her parents wanted anacademic excellence for their child by giving her the best option.Nevertheless, the rate of unemployment was highly affecting the lesseducated people who associate the Latin Americans with a high rate ofpoverty. It indicates the need for education to acquire the sameopportunities with the residents in the State. Despite the generaldrunk nature of her father, his presence in the family was essentialand shown care to the children. Moreover, the presence of extendedfamily such as aunties to the author in the story was another themeon bond and relationship that bring together people in a community.Tia Church, Tia Dora, and Tia Rosa, who are teachers by profession,provide the social teaching to the author thus enhancing good morals.
However,the author portrays rhetoric situation from the social teaching fromthe family and antagonize the moral teachings. The plot of the storyfurther gives a rhetoric circumstance at the adulthood of the authorwhich satirically possesses the opposite of expectation. The moralteachings of the family fall apart as she gets into a relationshipwith a man known as Julio. Alicia Hernandez gets worried about thesituation and develops a bitter feeling on the relationship whichlater broke up. It coincides with the warning which her motherportrays during childhood. The story talks about the author’sindependence in life which was not the expectation from the parents.For instance, the writer gets into a bisexual relationship which wasagainst the cultural values of the Spanish. The protagonist laterdiscovers the significance of the family where she decides to addressthe issue to the mother for guidance. The writer also gets back toher mother language after being taught English in the school. Knowingboth languages is important for the writer as it gives her theeducative ideologies in the two ethnic languages.
InStory has a different experience with Amy Tan similarly possess thesame experience of school and English language. They both undergo thesame experience in school and try to interpret their mother languageon the idiomatic lessons. Daisy Hernandez was Spanish while Amy Tanis a Chinese writer with the same environment exposure to The Englishlanguage. Despite their foreign language learning, they both came outof college proficient in the language. Amy Tan comes out of collegein New York as a writer in the English despite her influence on heroriginal language. Her mother has significantly been her motivator inthe school experience. Thus, she strives to correct the brokenEnglish her mother and father could speak in the United States ofAmerica. The positive attitude has radically boosted their studies inschool with career choices that are similar. [Bottom Bun] the centraltheme in the two different stories of life is the family and thegenre on guidance and ambition on their children. The story furtherillustrates the achievement that the author fulfills at herIndependence age. At a tender age, she dreams of being a writer andlater at adulthood she becomes a writer at New York Time magazine.The family has been a crucial factor in settling the future of theauthor with a series of events in life and the social life.
Finally,the story has a set of themes that captures the audience and frame acritical thinking on the possible analysis of the story plot. Theessence of this story is the social life that Daisy Hernandez isbrought about and the possible morals. Therefore, the family as thecentral theme has played its part from childhood to adulthood with asequence of lessons to the audience. Nonetheless, the environment hasalso supported the social life and the motivation to achieve a betterfuture. The author recalls all the social teaching and the dailystory by her mother which significantly portray the feminism. Thefeminism genre mostly addresses the experience her mother imposes onher child. It is to prepare her to be an instinct woman at adulthood.
Conclusion
Everyfamily should be responsible towards ensuring their children receiveproper care and grow with required moral standards. Daisy’s parentsplay a major role in ensuring their daughter is morally upright. Theyteach her on different aspects of life and how to conquer them. Inthis story, the author has clearly indicated that her parents taughther on how to relate with others through love, how to use the money,and how to relate with other races. Parents should teach theirchildren not to be easily convinced with pastries when being seduced,just as Daisy’s parents did. Racism is against human rights.Parents should teach their children on how to relate with people fromother races just as the poem has illustrated. Regarding love, thereis a need to love each other, because the Bible states that love isthe greatest commandment.
Workscited
Hernández,Daisy. A Cup of Water under My Bed: A Memoir. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
O`Keefe,Sherry. FromChina to America: The Story of Amy Tan.Greensboro, NC: Morgan Reynolds Pub., 2011. Print.