When I Was Puerto Rican Lesson Plan

Consider the language Santiago uses to describe Don Luis’ behavior during her final piano lesson. Why do you think she chooses this imagery?

Strong responses will note that the imagery Santiago uses, such detailed and specific descriptions of his scent, the feeling of his breath, the feeling of his touch, and the way his fingers look, seems to eliminate space between them and create an uncomfortable closeness, almost like he’s suffocating her.

• He was as fragrant as the flowers outside his window, as slight, but he trembled with a warmth I’d never felt before, an almost imperceptible tremor that somehow transferred to me. I nudged him, respectfully, as if by accident.
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