Only Daughter

Style and Structure

1.     Where does Cisneros interrupt a narrative passage to comment on or analyze events? What does this strategy accomplish?

The author interrupts the narrative to reflect quite often throughout the essay: after talking about her brothers shunning her as a child; after discussing her father's views on her college education; after describing her father's reaction to her early writing. She follows many of her paragraphs with a brief analysis.
This strategy helps the reader to understand why these details are important. Her additional comments give the reader insight to how these moments impacted her emotionally and developmentally, and their long-term effects on her life. 

2.     Are the episodes in this essay presented in chronological order? Explain.

As the transitional expressions show, episodes are generally presented in chronological order.

3.     What transitional expressions does Cisneros use to introduce new episodes?

Cisneros has mostly used time indicated transitions: Once, several years ago, ever since, when I was in grade fifth, Last year, after ten years of writing professionally, and At Christmas.

4.     Cisneros quotes her father several times. What do we learn about him from his words?

When Cisneros quotes her father, she humanizes him by allowing him to reveal his pride in his sons, his hard physical work and desire for an easier life for his children. She also lets us see his doggedness (determination) in reading her story once presented to him in Spanish, and lets us hear his desire to share the copies of that story with relatives.

5.     Why does Cisneros devote so much space to describing her father in paragraphs 17-21? How does this portrait compare to the one she presents in paragraphs 9-11?

The details describing Cisneros’ father in paragraphs 17-21 focus on evidence of his mortality. Although she says he recovered from a stroke he had two years earlier, the bland food, his horizontal position, the vials of pills, etc. these details contrast strongly with details of her father’s mobility in paragraphs 9-11.