Paper details
Answer the Following Questions:
Ocean Blue — The first paragraph is just packed with information about Celia del Pino. Read it very carefully. What are we being told? What are the implications of — everything?
Page 10 — Note how Garcia dovetails the Soviet tanks in Prague and the del Pino family. She does this throughout the book — place these people in history. Why?
Pages 13-15 — The Chapter ends with a Santurce ceremony. Describe, please, and discuss how it links with the Nigerian/Ibo religion in Things Fall Apart.
Going South
Page 18 — There are two wonderful paragraphs describing Lourdes walking and her bakery. Discuss how everything here has a history.
Page 19 — What do you make of the supernatural phenomenon, the astral projection, the fire on the East River?
Page 24 — Discuss Pilar’s birth — and what her Nanny does. What’s going on?
Page 32 — Discuss Pilar’s memories of coming to New York. Talk about the tugs of two cultures on her.
The House on Palmas Street
Page 42 — Discuss Lourdes’ birth. Why do they give her that name?
Page 44 — Celia falls in love with the Revolution. Why? How?
A Grove of Lemons
Page 58 — Discuss Pilar’s problems with Catholicism. Why does she have them? Why does she want to go back to Cuba?
Page 64 — Does Lourdes’ father really come back to see her? If not, why not?
Pages 71-72 — The rape is particularly horrible. Why does he do it? How can she read his entire future? Why can’t she read what he’s carved?
The Fire Between Them
Pages 75-77 — Talk about Felicia’s so-called delusions, especially in the contexts of Religious Mysticism and Magic Realism. What are delusions anyway, and are these delusions?
Celia’s Letters — To whom does she write? Why? What dimensions do the Letters add to the novel?
