Alvarez Blog 2

One of the aspects of this piece I have been thinking about while reading is why the author chose to have Dede talk in third person while all of the other narrators talk in first person. When I first started reading the book, it threw me off. I knew that the chapter titles related to which sister’s perspective the story was coming from. At first, I thought maybe someone was telling it from Dede’s perspective, but that did not make sense. I then realized that it was Dede’s voice, but that she opted to refer to herself in third person.

I think that Alvarez chose to do this for a few reasons. I feel that the most dominant reason is that Dede has had trouble relating to herself and exactly who she is since her sisters have died. Dede tells readers that reliving her sisters death the way she does every year is painful for her and difficult to do. “Now after thirty-four years, the commemorations and interviews and presentations of posthumous honors have almost stopped, so that for months at a time Dde is able to take up her own life again. But she’s long resigned herself to Novembers. Every years as the 25^th rolls around, the television crews drive up. There’s the obligatory interview. Then, the big celebration over at the museum, the delegations from as far away as Peru and Paraguay, an ordeal really, making the many little party sandwiches and the nephews and nieces not always showing up in time to help.” Readers are introduced to the fact that this an obligation remembrance rather than a choice of remembrance. Dede has been ready for a long while to move on from the tragedy that struck her family, but her society is holding her back from doing so. This seems to have caused some disconnect between who Dede wants to be, who Dede is, and who Dede is supposed to be. Perhaps this is one of the reasons Alvarez chose to use third person when speaking from Dede’s perspective.

Another reason I feel Alvarez decided to use this third person technique when writing from Dede’s perspective is because part of Dede died when all of her sisters died. Writing from third person and having Dede refer to herself as Dede is Alvarez’s method for telling us that. Having lost some significant people in my life, I know what it feels like to have part of you go with them. Everyone says you have the memories, but sometimes that just is not good enough. All you want is the person, especially when you feel they have been taken away from you to soon. I think that this is something that Dede definitely struggles with. After thirty-four years, Dede is still trying to figure out who she is after this huge ordeal. She is still trying to put the pieces back together, but cannot because she is constantly forced to publically deal with the loss of her sisters.

Dede’s sister died an awful death well before they were supposed to leave this world. They died fighting for what they believed in and that makes them heroes in my book. With that being said, I can understand Dede’s situation and why she lost part of herself when her sisters were killed. That incident probably changed her whole perspective on life, living, government, family, etc. She is still trying to put the pieces back together and figure out who she is in the shadow of their death.