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Close reading Komplexx södertörn högskola engelska a...

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Volar by Judith Ortiz Cofer – Short story close reading At twelve I was an avid consumer of comic books—Supergirl being my favorite. I spent my allowance of a quarter a day on two twelve-cent comic books or a double issue for twentyfive. I had a stack of Legion of Superheroes and Supergirl comic books in my bedroom closet that was as tall as I am. I had a recurring dream in those days: that I had long blond hair and could fly. In my dream I climbed the stairs to the top of our apartment building as myself, but as I went up each flight, changes would be taking place. Step by step I would fill out: My legs would grow long, my arms harden into steel, and my hair would magically go straight and turn a golden color. Of course, I would add the bonus of breasts, but not too large; Supergirl had to be aerodynamic. Sleek and hard as a supersonic missile. Once on the roof, my parents safely asleep in their beds, I would get on tiptoe, arms outstretched in the position for flight, and jump out my fifty-story-high window into the black lake of the sky. From up there, over the rooftops, I could see everything, even beyond the few blocks of our barrio;2 with my Xray vision I could look inside the homes of people who interested me. Once I saw our landlord, whom I knew my parents feared, sitting in a treasure room dressed in an ermine coat and a large gold crown. He sat on the floor counting his dollar bills. I played a trick on him. Going up to his building’s chimney, I blew a little puff of my super breath into his fireplace, scattering his stacks of money so that he had to start counting all over again. I could more or less program my Supergirl dreams in those days by focusing on the object of my current obsession. This way I “saw” into the private lives of my neighbors, my teachers, and in the last days of my childish fantasy and the beginning of adolescence, into the secret room of the boys I liked. In the mornings I’d wake up in my tiny bedroom with the incongruous—at least in our tiny apartment— white “princess” furniture my mother had chosen for me and find myself back in my body: my tight curls still clinging to my head, skinny arms and legs and flat chest unchanged. Close reading of Volar I chose to do close reading on Volar by Judith Ortiz Cofer because I like the theme of the story and especially this specific passage reminds me of my childhood when I just moved to Sweden. This short story is a fictional narrative prose. It focuses on one event where the narrator is the main character. She also presents three more characters such as her parents and their landlord. I think all of the characters are static/flat since there isn’t any changes that accrued to them during this story. There isn’t any dialogue between them either in this particular passage. But the way the narrator describes herself, from her point of view she seems very innocent and relatable. This passage is also seen from her point of view since this passage is mostly taken place in her dream and having surreal experience. After reading few times it made me think that maybe it was the authors dream or her reality being told here when she was younger as if the author was speaking through the narrator. However, the side character, their landlord is being introduced to us readers in her dream. Her point of view on him is that he is very greedy rich man as she describes him by metaphor “sitting in a treasure room dressed in an ermine coat and a large gold crown. He sat on the floor counting his dollar bills” she perhaps sees him this way because her parents feared him maybe as a result of not paying the rent on time or the landlords’ reaction to that. She continuous in her dream by pranking him, “I blew a little puff of my super breath into his fireplace, scattering his stacks of money so that he had to start counting all over again.” She uses the word “puff” of her breath which means heavy breathing and is also an onomatopoeia. Moreover I think that she is having these kinds of dreams as our subconscious thoughts come to our minds or dream, without we even know

about. She uses the word feared meaning that he gave her uneasy feeling or how her parents maybe discuss about him or their economic issues in front of her therefore he is being portrayed as such, making the narrator not reliable. The narrator herself is a twelve-year-old girl living with her parents in a rented apartment. The narrator never mentions the exact location of where they are living but I could assume that it is in the USA and she and her family are immigrated from Puerto Rico, you can read about it on the second passage. But this particular passage is mostly about her dreams. So, the place it is taking, or the time of period i.e. the setting is very uncertain except the story is written in the past tense. Only place she is describing is their barrio which can be translated to Spanish word meaning neighborhood and also at the end of this passage she tells us “I’d wake up in my tiny bedroom with the incongruous—at least in our tiny apartment” meaning that her family is not wealthy and also implying that she is unsatisfied with her current living situation nor her appearance. The way she describes herself in her dream being a Supergirl and in her reality is very different. In her dream, her idea of being Supergirl is portrayed as “I had long blond hair and could fly” and “My legs would grow long, my arms harden into steel, and my hair would magically go straight and turn a golden color. Of course, I would add the bonus of breasts, but not too large; Supergirl had to be aerodynamic. Sleek and hard as a supersonic missile.” The narrator uses several figurative languages here to make her point. Such as “Supergirl had to be aerodynamic” which is a hyperbole and “Sleek and hard as a supersonic missile” which is a simile. Moreover this is a part of the theme since when she wakes up, she describes herself “as my tight curls still clinging to my head, skinny arms and legs and flat chest unchanged.” She wants to look like the Supergirl maybe an American ideal of beauty at that age of time and also maybe the American dream which can be seen as freedom. Because on the second passage in this short story even her mother dreams away but in a more realistic way, you could say that she dreams in a more grown way. So basically, you could say the word fly has a symbol behind it and it stands for freedom. Volar in Spanish meaning in English to fly is the main theme. The theme here is basically saying that people will always find a way to escape their reality by their imaginations and it’s for everyone young or old, rich or poor. You can notice how she is escaping her problems or reality through her dreams and comic books. Since she is spending her allowance, almost all of it on this specific comic book. Now she has so many that she even uses another simile by saying “tall as I am” since this is bringing her joy and excitement. I’m using the word escaping because when she wakes up from her dream and the surreal reality kicks in. Finally I want to say that the whole passage is written in imageries since it is taking mostly part in her dreams. Such as “the black lake of the sky” or when she is describing her dream of being Supergirl or the description of their landlord. Giving us the readers visual imagery....