1. Yunior, in chapter 4, decided to help change Oscar's life because he himself was heartbroken over Suriyan; do you think Yunior had every right to get mad at Oscar when he no longer wanted to run or was he still angry at his break-up and was taking it out on Oscar? (Page 178)
2. At the end of chapter five (page 261) there is a paragraph that says Beli had a recurring dream with children in it; do you think there is a psychological connection with her mother and father who both, on page 236, had dreams of children in a house? If not who do you think Beli is dreaming of?
3. Abelard was given advice on page 221 to either sneak his daughters into Cuba, keep them under house arrest, or do nothing; if you were living in the Reign of Trujillo what would you have done to protect your daughter(s)?
4. When it came time to attend the party Abelard decided not to bring his wife and daughter Jackie, do you think this was the right decision?
5. Putting consideration into the fact that Trujillo didn't, as far as we know, sleep with Abelard's daughters but all of his papers and documents disappeared, do you think Abelard's arrest was a conspiracy since no one can give a straight answer about it?
Diego Rivera, Pan-American Unity
Diego Rivera, Pan-American Unity
Shaindy wrote:
ReplyDeleteI think it was absolutely right of Abelard not to bring his wife and daughter to Trujillo's party. One of the major problems I had with reading the book was my inability to stomach the fact that a monster like Trujillo existed. His savage attitude toward women and young girls made me almost physically ill. I was so thankful that we got to see a father defend his daughter to the extent of losing his own life. In that moment, he rebelled against Trujillo's treatment of woman and against Trujillo himself. He saved his family as best he could and I really respected him for that. The decision led to his death but I think it was the right decision to make because at least he died doing the best that he could for his family. Even if he had brought Jackie to the party, I couldn't picture him living any longer.
Lyndsey Rosario wrote:
ReplyDelete1. Yunior, in chapter 4, decided to help change Oscar's life because he himself was heartbroken over Suriyan; do you think Yunior had every right to get mad at Oscar when he no longer wanted to run or was he still angry at his break-up and was taking it out on Oscar? (Page 178) I liked Yunior in this book. I think at first he was only helping Oscar to get Lola to like him and appreciate him more, but after living together I think he really wanted to help him. I think he could relate to him on some level, with the video games for example, but Yunior got girls and he cheated on them and Oscar had nothing. I personally didn't like Oscar, I thought he was just a big idiot throughout the story. He had people trying to help him all the time, but he did his own thing, which is okay of course but it didn't turn out very well for him. He falls in love with a prostitute to has a boyfriend who just beat him up and then he goes back to see her. It just doesn't make sense to me. If I was Yunior I would be mad at Oscar because he's doing this for him, to help him and then he just gives up. I wouldn't appreciate that.
4. When it came time to attend the party Abelard decided not to bring his wife and daughter Jackie, do you think this was the right decision? I believe Abelard did make the right decision. I don't even know what I would do in that situation. I would have taken the advice of his mistress and sent my family to Cuba for their protection. He decided to stay, which was very noble of him, but look how his family turned out. From that point on nothing good happened to his family or him. I'm sure he wanted to stay because of everything he's worked so hard on in his country, but it didn't turn up to well anyway. His family was split up and killed and none of his works, not even his signature remained so everything he worked so hard on vanished anyway