Exile :: Literary Analysis, Julia Alvarez

The metrical composition Exile by Julia Alvarez dramatizes the conflicts of a unripe girls familys escape from an oppressive dictatorship in the Dominican Republic to the freedom of the United States. The setting of this poem starts in the city of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, which was renamed for the brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo however, it eventually changes to bare-ass York when the family succeeds to escape. The speaker is a young girl who is unsophisticated to the world therefore, she does not know what is happening to her family, even though she surmises that something is wrong. The author uses an extended allegory throughout the poem to compare swimming and escaping the Dominican Republic. Through the bank note A hurried bag, allowing one toy a piece, (13) it feels as if the family were exiled or forced to leave its country. The title of the poem Exile, informs the reader that there was no choice for the family but to leave the Dominican Republic, but certain ro w and phrases reiterate the title. In this poem, the speaker expresser her feeling about fleeing her home and how discriminate she feels in the United States. The poet uses four railway line stanzas or quatrains, and this is a fib poem because the speaker tells a story. The speaker seems a little odd in a way because she does not know what is happening confused whispers (6) is an alliteration, and it also symbolizes the speakers anxiety. Both her uncle and father do not tell the truth to the speaker, instead they Sugarcoat it. This is similar to Emily Dickinsons poem Tell all the truth but tell it slant because the children energy get scared if they learn the truth right away. In the line What a good time shell have learning to swim, (11) the poet again emphasizes how adults dwell to children so they do not hurt them. The speaker feels as though her parents are lying to her however, she just trusts them because she believes that what adults do cannot go wrong. Also, A week a t the beach so papi get some rest (15) sounds as if the speakers father has to leave the Dominican Republic because he is some kind of danger. The speaker struggles throughout the poem because she is leaving everything she has cognise behind, and she is going to a new land that she knows nothing about.