Week 10: Alejandra

Never Marry a Mexican by Sandra Cisneros is replete with ambiguity and changing directions. The narrator transitions somewhat abruptly from a focus on her mother, to her father, to her and her sister, to her personal love life. The title is referenced at first as something the narrator’s mother said, referring to her father. However, later on when the narrator is speaking about her affair, she is the Mexican a white man should not marry. Similarly, a lot of information is not clarified or goes unsaid until later, such as that the narrator’s mother and father were dead. Pieces of the short story come together retroactively. Additionally, at times the narrator speaks directly to Drew and his son, and we begin to see the use of “you.” Overall these changes work with the fast pace of the story and making one enthralled.