The Daughter of Invention by Julia Alvarez

The daughter of Invention is a short story written by Julia Alvarez.

1. The Daughter of Invention
Julia Alvarez:
Julia Alvarez was born in 1950, emigrated with her family from the
Dominican Republic to the United States. As a ten-year-old in New York
City, she felt out of place and was sometimes subjected to name-
calling. It was at this time that Alvarez began to write, finding comfort
in recording memories of her old life in the Dominican Republic. “I
found myself turning more and more to writing as the one place where
I felt I belonged,” Alvarez has said.
Julia has won many awards for her writing, which includes novels and
poetry as well as short stories. Her fiction often centers on the grim
political history of the Dominican Republic, as well as the experiences
of Hispanic immigrants in New York City. Her poetry and short stories
have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies.
Summary:
The Daughter of Invention, a short story by Julia Alvarez. This story is
about a family that immigrated to America in New York. That had
moved from the Dominican Republic and wanted to start a new life
because the government was corrupt, in the Dominican Republic, and it
wasn’t a good time to be living there, it wasn’t safe. All the daughters
went to an American school, it was hard at times, but all of the teachers
were helping them with the English language. The father found a good
job. The mother was always inventing things and showing them to her
daughters, who were never really encouraging. There was one

2. daughter in the family who they called Cukita. She was going to the
High School and still learning English, but she had the nuns at the
school to help her. He teacher assigned her to deliver the teacher’s day
address. Even after weeks Cukita was still thinking of what to say. The
night before, she got inspired from some poetry called Whitman. It
was beautiful. Cukita’s mother was so proud of what her daughter had
written and how well she had learned English. When she read it to her
father, she pronounced everything right and spoke clearly. Her father
was not happy when he heard the speech, though. He thought it didn’t
show any gratitude and was disrespecting of her teachers. He didn’t
want his family to fit in and forget their Spanish culture. He told Cukita
to not deliver the speech and ripped it up. Cukita was so angry that she
ran to her room and locked the door. That night, Cukita and her
mother stayed up writing the speech again. She gave it and came home
with news of her success. Her father, on the other hand, felt sorry for
the way he reacted. He got her the typewriter that she wanted; it was
better than the one she had been asking for. Cukita thought of the
speech her mother helped her with, as her mother’s last invention. It
was like she was handing over the buck, telling her to give it a shot.
Themes:
• Freedom – Cukita’s father doesn’t want Cukita say her speech
because he thought it was showing no gratitude. He doesn’t realize that
in America you can say what you think without having bad things
happen to you.
• Guilt – Her father felt bad about what he said to Cukita that he got
her a typewriter to say that he was sorry for the way that he acted.

3. • Responsibility – Cukita knew that she had a speech to write and wrote
it twice. She had to write it a second time because he father ripped it
up.
• Fitting in –Cukita’s father didn’t want them to forget or lose their
Spanish culture. He didn’t want them to fit in, even though it was what
his daughters wanted.
• Adaptation – Cukita had to adapt her speech to the way that her
father wanted it. They also adapted to the new culture. Her mother,
father and herself adapted to each other’s ideas.
• Stubbornness – Her father thought that only he was right and his
daughter had to do what he wanted, which was to not deliver the
speech. It didn’t matter that he was not in country with a dictator.
Cukita thought that her father was being a dictator even though he just
had a different point of view.
Conflicts:
The conflicts in this story are external conflicts (person vs. person, and
culture.)  
It is person vs. person because Cukita is having different opinions
from her father about fitting in.
It is person vs. culture because Cukita is trying to fit in which
means giving up her culture.

4. Figurative language:
Alliteration: I was on my knees widely weeping.
Imagery: my mothers eyebrows shot up and her mouth fell open.
Simile: In barely audible Spanish, as if secret microphones or informers
were all about, he whispered.
Idiom: I put my nose to the fire, as my mother would have said.
Opinion:
In my opinion the story negotiates the pursuit of someone’s failure, the
outcome can be successful. Although Cukita’s mother failed to invent,
in making of the speech she practically told Cukita that it’s her turn to
invent. To fulfill her dream and be an American, and be successful.