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Free Point of View in the Moth Essay Sample
It's a short story by Helena Viramontes that shows the life led by the Latin American women and shows how the Chicana women are subjected to a lot suffering due to their sex. The story reveals the remembrance of the care that a teenager provided to a dying grandmother. The story does not focus much on the creature on the title but on a young girl who became of age being faced with the ailment and death of her beloved grandmother. The girl runs away from her home which is dominated by her fathers' harsh rules and the mockery she experienced from the family due to her inability to perform some chores. Her grandmothers' place is a place where she finds refuge .the relationship between the moth and the major characters is not about the story of the death of a loved one but a spiritual and maturing experience that the granddaughter underwent. The point of view is the way through which the author allows you to perceive and understand of what is going on. In the story, the author brings to our knowledge some lessons where she uses different styles to make us understand her point .In the story there are various elements to make us understand the social set up of the story and the spiritual rebirth and maturing of a teenage.
The central idea in the story is spiritual and the growing experience of the granddaughter. The moths advance the issue of spirituality in the story. The grandmother uses some old remedies which are from a religious or spiritual form to heal bodily sickness like the scarlet fever and other ailments. Though the granddaughter is doubtful of their healing nature they would work out anyway. She said "Abuelita made a balm out of dried moth wings . . . [to] shape my hands back to size".This way the teenager began to believe and accept the spiritual belief and hope.The spirituality is not only present in the wings of the moth, but they are also evident during the deathof the grandmother.There was the spiritual aspect when she died as from the story, " Small gray ones that came from her soul and out through her mouth fluttering to light".The light in this context represents heaven.The moths are like the angels who are carryinng the grandmothers' soul to a better place.These actions brings to light the issue of rebirth where the grandmmother uses the sun to illustrate rebirths: "There comes a time when the sun is defiant . a second when the sun is finally defeated, finally sinks into the realization that it cannot with all its power to heal or burn exist forever although endings are inevitable, they are necessary for rebirths".It shows that there are rebirths because the sun dies and its reborn every morning.The spiritual aspect of the light being heaven is even profound when the doors of heaven first opened for the grandmother.Her rebirth is of a spiritual nature and it started when her soul was taken by the moths to heaven.The grandchilds' spiritual rebirth is seen in that after her grandmothers death she matures or sees the light.Some proof of her maturing is seen in the contrast between the starting remarks were she says she was disrespectful and doubted the power of the grandmothers use of some slices to cure and her respectiful deeds at the closing of the story. As she towels her grandmothers body she regrets alot by the way she had acted previously .Her change of attitude is seen by her remarks when she is astonished by the scars she sees on her back and she realized of how little she knew of her.It shows of the regrets she has of not utilizing the moment she had and not learning from her.Her change of attitude is also seen from the difference from how she at first felt no need to show any love toward her grandmother and how she finally treats her at the bath tub and she wants to be cradled in the womb in order not to feel alone.When she dies the moths emerges from her mouth and the grandchild shows maturity when she says that dying is lonelyand that she wanted to go where the moths were aand be wtih the grandmother.The moths represents the grandmother and the comparison is most influential as it influuences and aids the grandchild in her spiritual and maturing. The author refers to the moth as gray and refers to the granmothers gray eye.She reveals that she always felt her gray eye on her. That made her feel, in a strange sort of manner, safe and protected and not alone. Like God was supposed to make one feel .it revealed the grandchild's peace and comfort when she is at her grandmother's place.
It becomes clear from the story that the girl is trying to run away from the social and religious rules that have been enforced on her , and she is looking for a person , to whom she can look up to for comfort and help . And she finds this in her grandmother . Basically the girl 's family was strict , and she and her sisters were afraid of their father . The girls had to help around the house , and one of the jobs was to do embroidery , at which she was very poor but her sisters could do it pretty well , and they in turn made fun of her .She said that "my hands were too big to handle the fineries of crocheting or embroidery and I always pricked my fingers or knotted my colored threads time and time again while my sister laughed and called me bull
hands with there cute waterlike voices".The point of view of the author is to show how the girl faced all the hostile events ather very home and most of all her own family members.Its this very reason that she opted to leave her home and go and leave with the grandmother.Its from the grandmothers encounter that the theme of the story becomes evident.
Its plain that she didn 't get along well with the family . This girl was misbehaved , and she knew that any fault in her day to day chores would only reward her wuth whippings . To help her get out of these whippings ,her mother would send her to her grandmother 's house , where the girl finds peace and comfort , which helped her to move closer to her cancereous ailing grandmother .she says, "she had seen me through several whippings, an arm broken by a dare jump off Tío Enrique's toolshed, puberty, and my first lie Abuelita made a balm out of dried moth wings and Vicks and rubbed my hands, shaped them back to size and it was the strangest feeling. Like bones melting. Like sun shining through the darkness of your eyelids. I didn't mind helping Abuelita after that, so Amá would always send me over to her".This again brings in the picture of how the grandmother used to treat her injuries from the whipping and the spiritual aspect of the healing power of natural means the grand mother used.
If the variuos points of view had been different,the meaning of the stor would be distorted all together.if the girl had not been the reporting that she was disrespectful at first ,we couldn't perceive clearly of her chabge of attitude when the grandmother dies.Again if she didn't received the nistreaung at her own family there could be a very good reason for to move toi the grandmothers' place.if the grandmothers healing means could not have involveed the use of the moths wings ,we could not realize of the renewing power associated with the moth which in the story is a spiritual healer.if the grandmother could not have died in the arms of the girl ,it could have been impossible to understand the rebirth and maturing experience the author intended .therefore the point of view of the author has worked in line to reveal the authors intended theme. It is apparently clear that "The Moths" is not only the title, but also an important piece of the story which encompases its central theme. The moths become the catalyst that gives identity to the grandmother and her granddaughter, bringing revelation, security, rebirth, and the desire to be reunited. The grandmother, in becoming a moth herself, leaves some of herself behind with her grandchild.
