Essay Questions

How do “First Love” and “Casa” converge? What is the implication of the convergence?

Firstly, “First Love” incorporates minimal explanations of Mama’s ‘Casa’.Cofer expounds, “my brother, and I would be sent to Puerto Rico to stay for half a year at Mama's (my mother's mother house). I was devastated. This was the usual routine for us.” Correspondingly ‘Casa’ expounds the activities that transferred in the ‘Casa’ including the appearance of the casa. Specifically, Cofer relates Maria la Loca’s story which was recounted in the Casa.

Secondly, in “Casa”, Cofer hears the story about “about the woman who was left at the altar” first when she is “ eleven or twelve.” Comparatively, In “First Love”, Cofer falls in love first when she is fourteen. Arguably, “First Love” a continuation of “Casa.” The convergence between “First Love” and “Casa” makes it practicable to amalgamate the two stories into a single, cohesive plot.

How does “Casa” endorse feminism? (“Casa")

Cofer’s grandfather met Mama’s terms on how she desired her house to be fabricated. Cofer explains, “ In Mama’s house was a large parlour built by my grandfather to his wife’s exact specifications.” The grandfather listen to Mama’s views, thus, he accorded her respect notwithstanding her gender. Arguably, Cofer’s grandfather was not a chauvinist because he would not have taken Mama’s input into consideration. Besides, Mama galvanizes her daughters and granddaughters through feministic tales so that they should not permit their affection for men to wreck havoc on them.

How is Maria la Loca’s predicament, in “Casa”, similar to and different from the predicament of the Cofer in “First Love” ?

Maria la Loca and Cofer alike in the sense that they are frustrated by men. In “Casa”,Maria La Loca’s suitor fails to turn up for their nuptials. By the same token, the narrator’s ‘pioneer love’ in “First Love” does not reciprocate the love.

However, Maria la Cola “allowed love to defeat her” whereas the narrator in “First love” did not give love the option to trounce her. In “First Love,” Cofer asserts, “Later, much later, after what seemed like an eternity of dragging the weight of unrequited love around with me, I learned to make myself visible and to relish the little battles required to win the greatest prize of all.” Cofer’s resolution validates that unreturned love did not overpower her. Instead, it made her apprehend what the focus should be in the ‘battle of love’ and buoyed her up to accede to visibility.

Define the binary oppositions in Maria la Loca’s tale (in “First Love”) and in “Casa”

Maria la Loca’s tale employs the Beauty versus Ugliness binary: Initially Maria la Loca holds an allure akin to that of a princess. However, after her disenchantment, she converts to a grotesque woman.

“First Love” follows the Visibility versus Invisibility binary. Cofer recalls, “In my mind there was no doubt that he would never notice me ( and that is why I felt free to stare at him—I was invisible). Cofer’s mind set of invisibility emboldens her to gaze at her crush. However, her crush verifies that she is visible when he smooches her without warning.

What is the ramification of Metafiction in Maria la Loca’s tale? (“Casa”)

Cofer explicates, “That day Mama told of how the beautiful Maria had fallen prey to a man whose name was never the same in subsequent versions of the story; it was Juan one time, Jose, Rafael, Diego, another.” The variation of the suitor’s name is a Metafiction which endorses that Mama’s tale is imaginary. All the same, the tale propounds insights that are applicable in Cofer’s adult life.