Curve Of A Caramel O Candy Cane example essay topic

Caramelo Caramelo has been quite an interesting novel. It describes a Hispanic family to the tee. Sandra Cisneros chose her title perfectly for this book. Life's hardships and possibilities are explored throughout this fascinating novel. The author describes the word caramel o in different ways and in two different occasions.

The first occasion was to describe Candelarias's kin color. Celaya quoted: "Her skin a caramel o. A color so sweet, it hurts to even look at her". (p. 37). She also says: "Her skin is as smooth as peanut butter and deep as burnt-milk candy. The other occasion caramel o is mentioned was to describe the awful grandmothers' rare, old, unique, and unfinished silk rebozo. "The grandfather pulls out a cloth from the walnut-wood armoire of caramel, licorice, and vanilla stripes". (p. 58) These two events are mostly connected by the description of color.

The author describes Candelarias's kin color being so sweet it hurts, much like a very sweet candy would. Much like the candy is sweet, so is Candelarias and her personality. I believe Cisneros chose Caramelo because a caramel o or candy cane has dark and bright long stripes on it. To me the stripes indicate a person's life span. They also symbolize the dark, dreadful times we all go through and the bright stripes would tell the joyous, wonderful times we have in life. In addition, the stripes twirl around and around similar to our lives.

Everyone's life has a curve or turn for the good or bad. If hard times are present, that would reveal the dark stripe and a graduation or birth would be a bright stripe in life. The curve of a caramel o-candy cane would symbolize life's changing point. The caramel o rebozo means a lot to Celaya while telling the story, because her father had promised to buy her a unique and rare silk one one day. (p. 38) It also matters to her a lot since the authentic and original rebozo are not made anymore. The grandmother also said,' ' That silk ones are very hard to come by and that Celaya father would have to find a family that is willing to part with it" The grandmother also had a few original and old shawls with her, but did not part with them. The quality of new factory made shawls did not compare to the quality of the old ones.

The original unfinished rebozo that the grandmother kept under lock and key in the wood armoire had been passed on between generations. The stitch of it was very rare and could not be found nowadays. Celaya being a Reyes wanted to keep the tradition and have the unfinished ro bozo passed on to her generation. Her curiosity leads her to the finding of the caramel o rebozo.

The novel overall was a great experience for me. Life's difficulties can teach us many things in life, also even learning from our great grandparents or grandparents' mistakes. Family plays a key role in this novel. Life can be full of surprises and our destiny an uncertain one.

Bibliography

Cisneros, Sandra. Caramelo. Vintage Books, 2002.