Queen of Denial

"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?