Poem analysis - Analyze the poem \"Quinceanera\" by Judith Ortiz Cofer PDF

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Analyze the poem "Quinceanera" by Judith Ortiz Cofer...

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In the poem, “Quinceanera” by Judith Ortiz Cofer the wording and the tone of the poem come off as very dark. Cofer takes a very happy and joyful moment for most Hispanic girls and turns it into a very frightening and awakening moment for the readers. The description that she allows the speaker to give, showcases the reality and the emotional feeling that a young girl endures during the turning point of her life. The quinceanera is the moment that a young girl is pronounced a women in her community and to the church due to the European Christian culture and how it is orchestrated throughout generation to generation. What Cofer is trying to allow the reader to see is that the moments that go into the quinceanera are more dreadful rather than enjoyable. That there is more aching and heartache for the push of reality and adulthood, rather than allowing a child to be a child. Throughout this poem, there is the constant use of figurative language. The use of figurative language that stands out the most to me is the use of many hyperboles. How Cofer describes the pain that she is going through and how she emphasizes her beliefs and what she thinks is right. In lines one through eight, Cofer emphasizes the heartache and pain that she is having as she is about to head into adulthood. She describes this as she talks about how her mother “nailed back...hairpins to my skull.” This figurative language of hyperbole is used constantly throughout the poem to depict the mood that the speaker/narrator is feeling and what the audience should feel as well when reading. The meaning that is showcased through this use of figurative language is the grief that the speaker is being put through. It shows that this is something that she was not expecting and that this feeling is not something that she wants to endure. She demonstrates this as towards the last few lines, she states that she counts down the hours until she is released. I believe that Judith Ortiz Cofer uses this figurative language in the poem rather than just stating the obvious because it allows a person that is reading the poem to actually visualize the pain and the moment that is going on. With the hyperboles, it overreacts what is going on but it gives the speaker a more well-rounded characterization and allows the emotion that she is going through to almost jump off the page with the amount of detail and exaggeration that is given. The figurative language that is used emphasizes the theme because it strings together the thought that the young girl is losing her childhood. It shows the process that the speaker describes as painful, with such words as “nailed” and “shameful” along with the way that the speaker feels about the whole situation and how she is being forced into adulthood....