An Analysis Of Essay, Research Paper

An Analysis of Only Daughter

Many things contribute to the development of a child as it grows up. In return these same things can affect a way a person acts as an adult. Everything from family heritage, friends, and relatives influence children as their minds develop. In the essay, Only Daughter, Sandra Cisneros credits being the only daughter in a Mexican-American

family for making her the writer she is today.

Cisneros was the only daughter in a family of nine. Not only was she the only daughter, but she was only a daughter she explains. She was often over looked by her father because she had six brothers. This made her constantly try to please him and get his attention and respect.

As a girl, her brothers found it beneath them to play with a girl. This left her with a lot of time alone to herself. She would often read or write poems during this time. Eventually, this alone time turned out to be a good thing. It allowed her to expand her mind with books and perfect her writing skills, which helped her become the writer she is today.

When Cisneros was young, she nervously told her father her dream of going to college. He thought it was a good idea, which was shocking to her. She soon came to realize her father found it a good idea because college is a good place to meet a husband, not because she needed an education. But in its own way, it was good he thought that; because this enabled her to major in something silly to him like English.

When she graduated without a husband, her father thought all that education, wasted. This drove her to try even harder for his approval and respect as she made her name as a professional writer. Though he was not able to read English words, everything she wrote was for him. Eventually an article she wrote was published in Spanish. She gave it to her father to read, and sat next to him nervously seeding his approval of it. When he finished, he said where can I get more copies of this for relatives? At that moment she knew all her hard work had paid off.

Growing up being the only daughter in a Mexican-American family, helped make Sandra Cisneros the person and writer she is today. The essay Only Daughter explains how having time to herself to read and constantly seeking the approval of her father helped her become this person. And eventually, by finding her dads approval she was not just only a daughter, she was a writer.

Work Cited

Cisneros, Sandra. Only Daughter . Patterns for College Writing . 7th Edition. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. New York: St. Martins, 1998. 70-74