"My sister was in denial. And it wasn't just about her obese friend but about her entire life. She though that if she planned every last detail of her wedding on paper, she could change who she was, who we were" (5).
In Christine Granados's The Bride, Lily describes her childhood with her sister Rochelle who has been planning her wedding since birth. Rochelle plans every detail according to the "five-pound bride magazines" (3) that she buys at the store. She plans the songs, the guests, the food, the dress, leaving only the groom to be found. Throughout the story, Rochelle refuses to accept any traditional Mexican-American wedding practices--no "dollar dance" (6), no over-weight bridesmaids, no El Paso autumnal winds or heat to mess with her idea of the ideal wedding. Basically, Rochelle continously denies her heritage. She, like many children born in America to parents from other cultures, desires to be that American ideal--blonde, thin, and a WASP. What she fails to realize is that her culture is part of what makes her Rochelle. Lily tries to remind her of this many times, but Rochelle has her heart set on being a true "American" bride.
In the end, Rochelle cannot change who she is or who her family is. She must accept that life does not follow her carefully-made plans in her little pink and blue notebooks. Rochelle's downfall is that she spent her life planning details of an event that could not come to pass (especially when one accounts for the change of identity) instead of living. By denying her culture and heritage, she denied all reality, shown in part by her refusal to hear the details of her dates from Lily's perspective while being all too keen to pour over the details of her non-existant wedding. This denial of reality reaches its peak when Rochelle finds herself a junior in high school, married, and pregnant. She planned for none of this, and yet this is now her life and her future.
Question: Do you think Rochelle's behavior during her wedding shows that she will learn to accept her life, heritage and all, or that she will continue to deny reality for the rest of her life?
Showing posts with label Christine Granados. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christine Granados. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
through salmon-tinted lenses
"When the month of June rolls around, I have to buy the five-pound bride magazine off the rack at the grocery store. The photographs of white dresses, articles with to-do lists, and advertisements for wedding planners remind me of my older sister Rochelle's wedding" (3).
I, too, had to re-read the story's opening to discover that the narrator plans to buy the same wedding magazines she used to ridicule Rochelle for buying. Still, this passage is difficult to unpack. Readers can get stuck in a cycle of wondering if the narrator is being forced to buy these magazines, or if she feels compelled to do so out of her own volition. But whether or not the narrator's plans are internally or externally motivated, what is significant in this moment is the comparison that the narrator makes. Somehow, "thick glossy pages" filled with "photographs of white dresses, articles with to-do lists, and advertisements for wedding planners" remind her of a ceremony that was devoid of all of these things.
Considering the narrator describes the wedding as dignified and intimate, I don't think the she draws this comparison as a judgement against Rochelle's failed attempt at her dream wedding. Instead, the notion of personal happiness (or at least contentment) is the similarity that allows the narrator to compare those glossy magazines to a ceremony that "was nothing like she had expected" (4). That is, Rochelle's wedding is much like those in the magazines. The details don't matter if the bride looks at her groom "as if they were the only two people" in the room (8).
But perhaps my lenses are too salmon-tinted. Does the story suggest another reason why the narrator compares these two dissimilar weddings?
I, too, had to re-read the story's opening to discover that the narrator plans to buy the same wedding magazines she used to ridicule Rochelle for buying. Still, this passage is difficult to unpack. Readers can get stuck in a cycle of wondering if the narrator is being forced to buy these magazines, or if she feels compelled to do so out of her own volition. But whether or not the narrator's plans are internally or externally motivated, what is significant in this moment is the comparison that the narrator makes. Somehow, "thick glossy pages" filled with "photographs of white dresses, articles with to-do lists, and advertisements for wedding planners" remind her of a ceremony that was devoid of all of these things.
Considering the narrator describes the wedding as dignified and intimate, I don't think the she draws this comparison as a judgement against Rochelle's failed attempt at her dream wedding. Instead, the notion of personal happiness (or at least contentment) is the similarity that allows the narrator to compare those glossy magazines to a ceremony that "was nothing like she had expected" (4). That is, Rochelle's wedding is much like those in the magazines. The details don't matter if the bride looks at her groom "as if they were the only two people" in the room (8).
But perhaps my lenses are too salmon-tinted. Does the story suggest another reason why the narrator compares these two dissimilar weddings?
Happily Ever After
"Even though Rochelle didn't get her elegant autumn wedding, she stood before Judge Grijalva in her off-white linen pantsuit, which was damp on the shoulder and smeared with Mom's mascara, erect and with as much dignity as if she were under a tent at the Chamizal." (pg. 8)
In this story, Granados uses Lily's recollection of her sister's dream in order to critique the social standards and norms presented within American weddings. Throughout the story, Granados goes on about how Rochelle wanted to have a typical, white wedding. She didn't want anything that could related to her Mexican American heritage. However, in the end, her wedding ended up being completely opposite of what she had imagined it to be. Instead of a classic, conventional wedding, she had a stereotypical, lower class got-married-because-you-got-knocked-up-at-prom wedding. Nevertheless, it seems as if it is not Rochelle that has a problem with this, but Lily. In the end, Rochelle could be described as being satisfied and happy, her love for her husband overtaking her love for her dream wedding. It is Lily that is confused at the end. The tone in which she describes her sister's wedding can be said to be dumbfounded. Furthermore, maybe it is Lily that wanted more than what was given to her by her Mexican heritage. As Lily continues with her life, she seems to keep hold to the idealistic wedding her sister had, for she went back in June to buy those magazines with pictures of women that were "white, skinny, and rich" (6).
Why do you think Lily does seem a bit disappointed in her sister's rushed wedding? Was it because of her sister's own young, foolish mistake or because of the dream that never came true?
Staying True To Yourself
"Rochelle was obsessed. Because all those ridiculous magazines never listed mariachis or dollar dances, she decided her wedding was going to have a string quartet, no bajo, horns, or anything, no dollar dance, and it was going to be in October. It was going to be a bland affair, outside in a tent, like the wedding up North in the "elegance of autumn" that she read about in the thick glossy pages of the magazines" (4).
This quote is the epitome of Rochelle's obsession with the idealized Anglo culture because denies all Hispanic influences in her perfect wedding. Instead of being prideful of her culture she turns against it and only accepts what is in the "thick glossy pages of the magazines" (4). She attempts to shed her Hispanic ancestry in an effort to become something she is not, an overly idealized version of a Caucasian woman. Rochelle casts off all that is unique about her, her family, and her ancestry to try and conform to the magazines caricature of a perfect wedding. She is consumed by the unrealistic and unattainable goal of this one-size fits all model for her life. She does not view Hispanic culture as part of her future because she cannot see this as a realistic model for herself due to the influence of mainstream media on Rochelle. This lack of Hispanic presence in her media is what leads to her demise. Rochelle cannot picture her family, her friends, and culture fitting into this naive and impractical model so she tries with everything she has to deny her true identity.
How much of our identity is attached to our heritage? Do you think Granados is stressing the importance of being true to your heritage?
This quote is the epitome of Rochelle's obsession with the idealized Anglo culture because denies all Hispanic influences in her perfect wedding. Instead of being prideful of her culture she turns against it and only accepts what is in the "thick glossy pages of the magazines" (4). She attempts to shed her Hispanic ancestry in an effort to become something she is not, an overly idealized version of a Caucasian woman. Rochelle casts off all that is unique about her, her family, and her ancestry to try and conform to the magazines caricature of a perfect wedding. She is consumed by the unrealistic and unattainable goal of this one-size fits all model for her life. She does not view Hispanic culture as part of her future because she cannot see this as a realistic model for herself due to the influence of mainstream media on Rochelle. This lack of Hispanic presence in her media is what leads to her demise. Rochelle cannot picture her family, her friends, and culture fitting into this naive and impractical model so she tries with everything she has to deny her true identity.
How much of our identity is attached to our heritage? Do you think Granados is stressing the importance of being true to your heritage?
Secret Shame
"When the month of June rolls around, I have to buy the five-pound bride magazine off the rack at the grocery store. The photographs of white dresses, articles with to-do lists, and advertisements for wedding planners reminds me of my older sister Rochelle's wedding" (3).
I was originally going to write about a different moment, but I realized as I looked back on the story that this was the most important moment in the story, which almost seemed to be lost in the story about Rochelle's wedding. This is not a story about Rochelle wanting to reject her ethnic culture by means of her wedding, but in fact, it is a story about our narrator rejecting her ethnic roots in her marriage.
These first few lines immediately bring our attention to the present: the fact that our narrator is in fact buying the same magazines her sister had when she was planning her wedding. In an attempt to keep from bringing this issue to the surface, our narrator tries to bury this information from us by talking about her sister and all the ways she tried to reject the traditional type of wedding that her mother had.
Throughout the story, our narrator puts a lot of stress on the fact that Rochelle is not following the customs of their people. Is our narrator embarrassed that she is planning a wedding that doesn't follow her culture's idea of a wedding?
I was originally going to write about a different moment, but I realized as I looked back on the story that this was the most important moment in the story, which almost seemed to be lost in the story about Rochelle's wedding. This is not a story about Rochelle wanting to reject her ethnic culture by means of her wedding, but in fact, it is a story about our narrator rejecting her ethnic roots in her marriage.
These first few lines immediately bring our attention to the present: the fact that our narrator is in fact buying the same magazines her sister had when she was planning her wedding. In an attempt to keep from bringing this issue to the surface, our narrator tries to bury this information from us by talking about her sister and all the ways she tried to reject the traditional type of wedding that her mother had.
Throughout the story, our narrator puts a lot of stress on the fact that Rochelle is not following the customs of their people. Is our narrator embarrassed that she is planning a wedding that doesn't follow her culture's idea of a wedding?
Proud in Denial
“I told her that she was ridiculous and that she was going to be a laughingstock, not knowing how close my words were to the truth. She didn’t care what anyone thought. She said her wedding was hers, and it was one thing no one could ruin.” (7)
Rochelle attempts to deny her Latina identity and escape the culture she appears to resent by constructing this alternate reality of an “Anglo” wedding. However, it is Rochelle’s effort to expel this lifestyle from her identity that ultimately confines her to it. The night of her prom she wore “a salmon colored version of her wedding dress,” foreshadowing the night as the closest she would come to having a “classy” wedding. “Ro didn’t have a plan B,” and when confronted with the reality of her pregnancy she was forced to adapt her perspectives in order to survive the clash of her class ideals with the stark truth of her situation and the future it implied. Instead of rejecting her Latina heritage to demonstrate her pride at the wedding, she embraces it, maintaining her dignity in the face of the gender and culture challenges she confronted. Her denial transforms from a denunciation of her cultural roots, to a refusal to admit the tragic nature of being a young mother without a “money tree,” essentially, to the tragedy of becoming the opposite of what she had for so long planned to be.
Is Ro’s denial admirable? As she stands “erect” in the courthouse, ignoring the very things she had declared would never be at her wedding, do you see her as immature in her denial, or brave in the preservation of her pride?
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