Melanie Matos
1. Before Lola discovers the lump on her mother’s breast, she explains, “And at that moment, for reasons you will never quite understand, you are overcome by the feeling, the premonition that something in your life is about to change...you don’t know how or why you know this thing but that you know it cannot be doubted” (53).
If Lola had an intuition that the “bruja” was present, why couldn’t she support her mother? Why did she want to run away?
2. From the outset of the novel, Diaz mentions the fuku – a curse or doom that Yunior and his family encounter throughout their lives. How has the “fuku” affected Yunior and his family, especially Lola?
3. Despite horrible circumstances and not fully knowing the Gangster, Beli still hoped for a future with him. How powerful is love and commitment in chapter three?
4. In a discussion with the Gangster, Beli states that she wants to be free just like him. Are either of them truly free?
Discovering the lump on her mothers breasts Lola felt a tremendous amount of burden suddenly inflicted upon her, already struggling to find her own identity Lola also struggles with whether she should continue a life where she thinks she is destined to be trapped and in a cycle but just merely taking care of her mother. She is in her own way trying to avoid the "curse" that has lingered in her family for years. Her running away is symbolic in the sense that she is trying to be free and break free from a cycle. The issue of being free in constantly highlighted throughout the text although none of the characters are never really free. When Beli references to the gangster that he is free, the reader already knows thats contradictory because he is merely a tool under a dictator's check book. He is not truly free because he is in a marriage where he is compelled to seek out the devotion of Beli and the reader is alerted that he only has prestige because of his marriage and his wife being the sister to Trujillo. None of the characters within the book are never truly free despite all the actions they take to try to make that a reality.
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