In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Julia Alvarez uses literacy devices dialect and indirect

characterization in order to advance a message over the course of the novel. A literacy device is a
technique that produces a specific effect in literature. The message in How the Garcia Girls Lost Their
Accents is that when one is moved to a different environment with time one can learn to adapt to the new
environment. If Julia would have not used any literacy devices it would be impossible to get across any
message to the reader.
In the beginning Julia introduces Yolanda who is visiting Dominican Republic after living in the
United States. Yolanda is having trouble speaking Spanish and understanding some vocabulary. Here
Julia uses dialect, dialect is a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group. Julia uses
dialect to show that humans have difficulty remembering their native language once they acquire a new
language in which they interact with everyday. This device helps form the message that introduces how a
person can always adapt to anything including language itself.
In the middle Sofia stays in the Dominican Republic for a year and by the end of the year, she is used
to the morals that are brought up in the Dominican Republic. One moral that Sofia learns to live by is that
the male wears the pants in the relationship. Julia uses indirect characterization; indirect characterization
is when the author describes how the character is by stating what they wear, what they do, revealing
private thoughts and feelings, and by revealing how the characters affect others. Julia uses indirect
characterization to describe how only after a year Sofia is a changed person because of how she now
looks and how she thinks. Julia yet again gives an example of how one can change drastically in order to
adapt to the environment.
In the end Yolanda is haunted by a mother cat before moving to the United States. Julia uses indirect
characterization in order to advance a message over the course of the novel. Yolanda moves to the United
States leaving behind her haunting nightmares of an event that occurred in the Dominican Republic. After
moving to the United States she has no more nightmares concerning the cat, and changes to a renewed
person due to the new area she lives in. The fact the one can disregard a nightmare made in a certain area
by moving to other shows how one can adapt and change their way of thinking in a matter of time.
Julia uses literary devices to advance a message over the course of the novel How the Garcia Girls
Lost Their Accents. If the reader does not recognize that Julia is using literary devices, then one might not
fully understand why she described all main characters in depth and how these characters changed when
switching back and forth from their homeland to the United States. Which backs up her message that one
can always adapt.