"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?
The quote that Jeremy points out in his blog also struck me a very interesting. The entire story recounts Rochelle's obsession with having a white wedding, like the magazine photos where everyone was "white, skinny and rich" (4) and the disconsolate outcome of her plans.
ReplyDeleteIf not paying close attention, it would be very easy to miss the first sentence of the story showing readers that the narrator is the one saying, "When the month of June rolls around, I HAVE TO BUY (capitalized by blogger), the five-pound magazine..." (3).
Personally, I didn't see evidence that the narrator was "rejecting her ethnic roots in her marriage" (Birkline), but it is enough to make me suspicious of her reasons for buying the same kind of magazine that she ridiculed her older sister about. In fact, I was left with more questions than answers regarding her intent.
Did she buy the magazine because it's a normal occurrence for young girls to dream about growing up and having a beautiful wedding? Most girls I know daydream about what their weddings will be like for years before even meeting "the one."
She accused Rochelle of being on a "gringa kick" (6). Is it as Jeremy surmises? Is she following in her big sister's footsteps and seeking to escape the traditions of her Hispanic ancestry?
I don't see enough information in the story to make a clear assumption, so my question is:
Do YOU think she is just dreaming like other girls, or is she trying to break free of ethnic practices?