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Summary
TheNovel, "A cup of water under my Bed,” has a series of sociallife experience that reflects the contemporary world. The plot of thestory portrays a sequence of the author, Daisy Hernandez’sactivities from childhood to adulthood. In these events, we see howparents are determined to guide their children to achieve aprosperous future and in particular the author’s mother.Furthermore, we find a series of events that make the audienceanalyze the roles of the characters in the story and relate them toone’s life experience.
Theflow of the book possesses a range of rhetoric situations in the lifeof the author when you compare her childhood and adulthood in respectto her parents’ guidance. As the author grows up, a series of herlife experience helps to answer some situations and the challengesshe experiences in the school. The story also draws an analogy ofseveral themes and the central theme being the family and other minorantagonists in the story. Moreover, the story life of Daisy Hernandezis brought in contrast to June Jordan in literature cases, inwriting. Hernandez develops the theme of feminism that portrays theevents and challenges of the female gender over the male.
Thebook Of Daisy Hernandez, “A Cup of Water under My Bed,” capturesan emotional journey life of an illiterate girl who became prolificwriter, when you reflect her events in Colombia and New York. Thebook portrays the experience of Daisy Hernandez with the help of herfamily from the time she was dependent on her parents, to the pointof her independence in life. Also, this book is organized in ahistorical theme that illustrates the power of poetic language thatdepicts facts in the livelihood of the author. In this thematicexpression, the author subjects herself to the growth and developmentexperience basing the family as the central theme in the plot of thestory. Nonetheless, the book also illustrates the life experience ofthe author at different points in life, and the possible inspirationin the diverse environment set up. The author, therefore, gives acomparison of school experience with an insight knowledge acquiredand the self-goals of life.
Thecentral theme of the story, being the family, elaborates on the basisand the life experience of the author alongside the parentalguidance. At a tender age, the family introduces the author to schoolto eliminate stupidity and make her learn about the Western cultureand the English language. The author initially knew few words in theSpanish language that was the mother-tongue. The family saw a brightfuture in Hernandez through the formal education despite their socialand economic status of life. Hernandez mother was a cautious andambitious woman in life. She had a dream of making Daisy Hernandezfocus in life towards achieving a brighter future and a happy life,just like any mother would do for her daughter.
Thestory elaborates on the daily idioms and proverbs of the Spanishculture, such as God gives meat to those who do not have teeth. Theproverb was to encourage Daisy on her schoolwork and to make herbelieve in her academic potentials. Furthermore, the author’smother further cautions her daughter that she should not confuse tapwater with swimming pool water, with a meaning always to be carefulin life. The author is introduced to Holy Family School here she isacquainted with the English language. Despite the challenges shefaces in school trying to learn English, her mother became a pillarof emotional support, encouraging her to persevere in life, thusmaking her optimistic.
Furthermore,the family plays another significant role through threatening DaisyHernandez for her desire to be a writer after school, which was herfirst career thought. As she tells her father about the career dream,he seems unsatisfied on the career choice since the first thing inhis mind was that she was to expose her family to the public domain.Though her father was a drunkard, he remained cautious of his familywellbeing. In this aspect, her mother also warns Daisy to avoid menwhile in school that seduce ladies and take advantage of them. Thelesson comes from the author’s mother experience of migration andthe modern lifestyle of the people.
Thedaily diminishing of cultural values in the contemporary world makesher mother wary of the situation that her daughter may face in thefuture, a genuine concern. However, the rhetorical situation comesin, when the author disregards her mother’s advice, and she getsinvolved in sexual relationship, the very thing that her motherwished her daughter to avoid. Nonetheless, the author’s motherchooses the school as a factory for the girl, hoping to transform herinto a woman of substance in the future, rather than the ordinarywoman in the society whose roles were best confined in the kitchen.The usual stories crowded with monster characters were to givelessons that would instill fear to Daisy. The intention was tocaution her of dangers of life and also to make her set goals thatshe could always achieve in life.
Anotherscene in the story is the shift of location to a better house in NewYork. The scene puts the author in a better environmental status thanshe was. When in Colombia the author was surrounded by a lot ofilliterate people, which would have had an adverse impact on hermindset and even life in school. The living standards in LatinAmerica were so poor, and the environment could negatively affect thestudy life of the author at the tender age than in the newenvironment. As the author settles in the new home, she isaccompanied by her aunt in the town. Tia Church, a teacher, was thenext person who brought in the social teaching as part of the family.The kitchen stories significantly raise positive life and socialstatus in the society considering the restriction that her motheralways expresses.
Theplot of the story uses the social and environmental exposure tothreaten the children on the importance of school. In the localhometown, unemployment was a threatening factor whereby the Spanishcould change their unemployment status by learning the Englishlanguage as depicted by Daisy’s life. It places a theme ofcoincidence with the career choice of Daisy Hernandez, which requiredher to learn and to gain knowledge of the English language whichhappened to be the national language in the new home. Therefore, tobe a writer, the possible option was to keep her education valid witha deeper knowledge of the English language which could be essentialin transforming her ideology to the citizens of the country.
Asthe author grows, she reflects on the daily report on the New YorkTimes and how she literally analyzed stories with plagiarizedcontent. It guided her in the goal of heartfelt explorative characterin her community and to create new queer life according to herparents. Nonetheless, the author’s mother was a role model to herchildren she lived a moral life and dressed decently, as to therational society expectation of a cultural woman. She was lessaffected by fashion trends and the use of lipstick and hoped to passthis trait to her children in the future.
Consideringthe experience of June Jordan and Daisy Hernández, they bothpossessed bold characteristics and did not shy away from thestereotyping words and conventional language. Jude Jordan came from aminor ethnic African American community, while Daisy Hernandez was aSpanish immigrant into the United States. Nevertheless, their topicof interest differs despite the social aspect of life. Jordan’swriting is about the real life character of social injustice,oppression and the diverse denial in the society.
However,Daisy faces family blood rejection when she betrayed her mother onthe moral life aspect through a bisexual engagement. Moreover, thedifferent part, [Bottom Bun] for instance, is the condemning natureof bisexual by Jordan which Daisy Hernandez once involves her tobisexual behavior. For example, her contemporaries’ sexuality ofAudre Lorde and Adrienne Rich attributes to self-expression ineroding the world’s culture and the abuse of power in recognitionof bisexuality. In the same aspect, Daisy Hernandez addresses theissue of HIV and AIDs in the book as a lesson in life and the havocof the disease in the society.
Therhetoric situation that the author depicts is the experience of hermother’s life which has been a lesson to her. It pushed her towrite, about her life experience and that of her mother throughseveral stories of life and the theme of feminism. Moreover, hermother could not answer these questions since they were more oftheoretical explanation, but to allow the author to learn for herselfwith time. The choice of church was also to give the moral teachingin life and always to live according to religious morals. Theattitude of the writer at this point presents an optimistic characterin life that places interest in several situation of life, more sothe Catholic Church teachings. The motivating factor that the authoraddresses in the book to the audience, is to flashback all aspects oflife and to literary bring in the change to the society in other newways.
Moreover,the author gets insight skills in the English language, but later gotto learn Spanish language which her mother did not concentrate onteaching her. The author finds it essential to learn the language totranslate several phrases, which her mother used while teaching herat a tender age. The protagonist, therefore, uses the two languagesin achieving a writing career in life which portrays an aggressiverole in life. It has significantly posed a rhetoric situation in lifeby her mother not emphasizing the importance of the mother language.
Despitethe existing situation that has led the author into the freedom ofchoice in life, family is depicted as an immediate option incorrecting a person in particular circumstance of life. For instance,[Patty] her mother breaks out into the prayer of Hail Mary when DaisyHernandez broke the morals of her mother by dating another girl.Moreover, the author`s mother developed depression that led to apersistent headache. The protagonist thereby reflects on the warningthat her mother has been saying to her like a daily music rhythmwhich falls apart in adulthood. Moreover, the cultural belief thatauthor’s mother instills to her came to pass after the introductionof high school with different friends such as Julio, Dominican, andJudith Krantz among other friends.
In conclusion, the rhetoric situation is the broader aspect of thefamily that reflects later in the life of the author as a writer inthe New York Times. For instance, Barrack Obama depicts the variousfamilies in life such as the church family, the blood bond family,and the political family. It, therefore, indicates the differentcircumstances of family that the writer has exposed herself i.e.school life, work environment and the presence of morals all alongwith the experience in acquiring a new family. Her life experiencehas a series of coincidences from the childhood to adulthood themoral teachings reflect over as she becomes an independent woman. Asshe fully takes the career as a writer, she identifies the lifeexperience as the possible study and the theme of feminism in thecommunity and the challenges behind women.
WorkCited
Hernández,Daisy. A Cup of Water under My Bed: A Memoir. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Kinloch,Valerie. June Jordan: Her Life and Letters. Westport, CT: Praeger,2006. Print.