Dientes for Dentures

Dientes for Dentures is a story that is narrated by the granddaughter of a crazy Abuela, giving short examples all throughout her life to help the audience understand if she is truly crazy or not, and why.

The subgenre of this passage was a memoir, talking about the moments in Abuelas life and how they effected the people around her. The narrator gives specific examples about abuelas life, like the writing about the dog attack, and the protesting in favor of communism, to give the readers a view at abuelas life and how she lived it.

The sentence structure and paragraph choices are important in this passage because in the beginning the granddaughter states how crazy and old her grandmother is, but later on we find out she has dementia. The sentence structure of this passage is also important to make the writing not cliché. The author did not just throw in examples of experiences from abuelas life, but slowly related them into what she was talking about. For example, the granddaughter was talking about how abuela rarely screamed, but when she did, she barked at the granddaughter like a rottweiler, leading into the story of the rottweiler attack.

Throughout the English passage, the author throws in some Spanish words, to really show that their roots are in Cuba and being Cuban is a big part of who they are and how the culture might be different.

The dentures represent how abuelas family thinks she is a little bit crazy. They state that she had an infection in one tooth, and the told the doctor to get rid of them all. Then the plot advances because after they call her crazy for the dentures, the granddaughter states that many people think she was crazy because she was a communist also.

The abuela has strong beliefs and stands up for things the believes in. The passage states that she supported communism, and in Cuba, Fidel Castro was a huge controversial topic, but abuela supported him anyways. The author’s verb choice gives us a good image of what abuela was like back in the day, or how her granddaughter pictured her. The granddaughter states she pictures abuela in “black and white, imagine old movies of her in a tight, pencil skirt that slithered to a classy just-below-the-knee, a tucked-in blouse with tasteful ruffles, her hair jet-black and cut under large ears,” when protesting in support of Fidel, screaming through the streets that the town is with him.

The paragraphs slowly deepen the story as we find out about abuelas dementia. Before we find out, the author writes of how strong headed and passionate she was about many things. There was a part of the reading where the author states she fought without hesitation to save her granddaughter from a mean dog, showing how she was not afraid of much and ready to put up a fight.

Although she was a communist, her family still was there for her. The narrator quotes that her mother “warmed the turquoise pleather chairs in abuela’s room, more than I did.” This is a clever way of the author saying that the narrator’s mother was there for abuela more than her. This helps the readers understand that family is a strong and important aspect in Cuban life.