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Luis Mendez
Mr. Allsup
English 1301.05
Topic: C
Summer 07

Only daughter by Sandra Cisneros recalls my experience

Literature preserves our experiences. Only daughter by Sandra Cisneros certainly

does. I have found that her experiences recall my own: loneliness, perseverance, and

acceptance.

The first common experience is loneliness. In the third paragraph of Only

daughter, she recalls: “Being the only daughter… forced me by circumstance to spend a

lot of time by myself” (142). Similarly, attending college at UTB has separated me from

my family and friends in Mexico. Like Sandra, I spend a lot of time by myself. In the

same paragraph, Sandra proves the advantage of loneliness: “it allowed me time to think

and think, to imagine, to read and prepare myself” (142). As with Sandra, loneliness

allows me to prepare myself for my dream: being an artist.

A second experience is perseverance. As a child, I dreamed of attending and, later

on, finishing college. In the future I want to go to graduate school. Sandra had a similar

goal in her childhood: “plans for college” (142). She wanted to attend four years of

college and two more years in graduate school. In paragraph 13, Sandra points out the

importance of studying hard. She quotes the advice of her father about the difference

between mental and manual labor: “study hard and use this—our heads, instead of this—
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our hands” (143). Her perseverance led Sandra to become one of the most important

authors in the United States. She overcame her father’s ideology that “daughters were

meant for husbands” (142). Similarly, I want to change the ideology in my hometown that

music is just a hobby and not a profession.

Finally, a third experience is that of Success. After many years of hard work and

perseverance, success resulted in her personal life. In like manner, rewards have started

for me, and I shall continue as she did. Sandra revokes in paragraph 17 another reward in

her profession: “One of my stories had just been translated into Spanish” (144). In my

life, the more important reward was my first piano concerto as a soloist on 6 March 2007.

Ironically, her sacrifice along with her hard work has led Sandra to get the finest reward

in her life: her father’s admiration. Sandra recalls the experience on page 145: “Of all the

wonderful things that happened to me last year that was the most wonderful.” Like

Sandra, I, in my chosen field of music, hope to have, soon, some wonderful news to

narrate. In short, I hope that her experiences continue to recall my own.