Exile Poem By Julia Alvarez

'Exile' was originally published in Homecoming in 1984. Throughout, the poet uses clear and like shooting fish in a barrel-to-read language to describe what information technology was similar to escape to the The states from the Dominican Republic from a child's perspective. Every bit a young girl, she had little understanding of the danger she and her extended family were in within the state she knew every bit domicile. This perspective is incredibly interesting, especially equally the poet weaves in an extended metaphor connecting the family'due south movements to swimming and sea-related imagery.

Alvarez was born in New York in 1950 before spending the adjacent ten years of her life in the Dominican Republic. At x years old, she was forced to flee the country along with her family. Her father, who was involved in a conspiracy to overthrow the state's dictator, brought his family to the U.s.a. where they could be safe from Rafael Trujillo's influence.

Summary

'Exile' past Julia Alvarez is a thoughtful narrative delineation of the poet's journey from the Dominican Republic to the United States as a young girl.

In the first lines of this poem, the speaker begins by describing a darkened curfew in her home country of the Dominican Republic. Her family is preparing to flee to the United States. While trying to keep the children calm, their parents have them pack one toy nether the impression that they're going to the beach. They drive along with their extended family to an airport in the middle of the night. They make information technology to the United States, where the speaker and her father argue with feeling out of place and alienated among Americans, American civilization, and their vision of the hereafter.

You tin can read the full verse form here.

Themes

Throughout this verse form, Alvarez utilizes several meaning themes. They include:

Loss. Loss of home and i's identity is one of the major themes of this poem. Every bit the speaker is leaving the but state she's known, she'south as well walking away from everything she understood about life. This loss confronts readers virtually clearly at the end of the verse form when the young girl is standing with her father in front of a Macy's display.
Alienation. Every bit new residents in the United states of america, the speaker's family feels incredibly out of place. This is represented clearly through the depiction of the advertisement in the Macy's window and the speaker's clear interest in how dissimilar she and her father look from the family unit in the image, and the families effectually them. There is a not bad deal she doesn't understand nearly the United states, and, like many new immigrants, it likely took her a long time to come to terms with her dual identity.

Symbolism

Alvarez utilized a few different symbols in this poem. They include:

Water/Swimming — the speaker travels from the but land she's ever really known to America as a young girl and several times describes herself with water-related imagery. She notes how the young children were told they were going to the beach rather than to a cloak-and-dagger rendezvous with an airplane. She describes lying dorsum in "deep water" and floating rather than sinking as they travel. Water and the power to swim symbolize the immature speaker's adjustment to her new life and the various changes she has to contend with. It's possible to float and swim, simply information technology's not easy. When the speaker realizes the danger that'due south alee, she compares it to the "deep end of the pool," where the consequences of non staying afloat are far greater.
The Macy's Display — within the shop window, the speaker and her father encounter "a family outfitted for the beach: / the handsome father, slim and sure of himself." The advertisement symbolizes the ideal American family unit. The speaker feels even more like an outsider when she sees the people it depicts and can't assist only contrast her father'southward appearance and way of carrying himself to the "slim and sure" begetter in the prototype.

Structure and Course

'Exile' by Julia Alvarez is a narrative poem fabricated up of seventeen iv-line stanzas, known as quatrains. These quatrains are written in free poetry. This means that the poet does not utilise a rhyme scheme or metrical blueprint. For example, the end words, similar "Papi," "beach," "others," and "out" in the first stanza do non rhyme. Additionally, the lines are of different lengths and contain different numbers of syllables. But, the repetitive use of quatrains does provide the poem with some unity.

Literary Devices

Throughout 'Exile,' Julia Alvarez makes use of several literary devices. These include but are not limited to:

Enjambment: occurs when the poet cuts off a line earlier its natural stopping point. For instance, the transition between the kickoff eight lines of the verse form. By using this technique, the poet controls how fast readers motility through the lines and how they connect images.
Alliteration: occurs when the poet repeats the same consonant sound at the beginning of multiple words. For example, "highway, heading" in stanza vii and "worried whispers" in stanza two.
Simile: the comparing betwixt 2 unlike things that uses either "like" or "equally." For example, "I permit myself lie back in the deep waters, / my arms out like Jesus' on His cross." Here, the poet's speaker is comparing their body position to that of Jesus on the cross.
Anaphora: the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of multiple lines. For example, "My," "Into," and "To" which each first multiple lines in the final stanza.

Detailed Assay

Stanza 1

The night we fled the country, Papi,

(…)

while posted at a window, you looked out

The poem begins with the epigraph: "Ciudad Trujillo, New York Urban center, 1960." This information tells the reader where the poet was as a young daughter, up until the historic period of ten, and where this journey was taking her. With the epigraph taken into consideration, readers should have a general understanding of what the poet is going to discuss before starting the offset line. She describes the "night nosotros fled" from Cuidad Trujillo (known today as Santo Domingo) to New York.

At the time (from 1936 to 1961), the city was named after the country's dictator—Rafael Trujillo. He was assassinated in May of 1961, and the country resumed its original designation—Santo Domingo. This small slice of context reveals some important information about the place the speaker was leaving and how it can be compared and assorted with the United States.

Throughout this poem, the poet uses the second-person perspective. She is directing her lines to "Papi," her father. She describes how, as a immature daughter, she was directed to go dressed and told they were going to the "beach." During this fourth dimension her father was standing at the window looking out. Through the poet's apply of language, she reveals that at the time these events were happening, she had no idea what was going on or the consequences of their activity. Her begetter's identify at the window indicates he's concerned for their safety.

Stanza Two

at a curfew-darkened Ciudad Trujillo,

(…)

what explanation to give should we be discovered …

The phrase "curfew-darkened" is another indicator of the times. The citizens of Ciudad Trujillo were told to stay inside after a sure time at night. This adds a degree of force per unit area to their situation every bit the family is trying to abscond. With this context, the speaker goes on to describe how her father was speaking to her uncles, discussing who should bulldoze the car, which machine to take, and what they should tell a government official if they were discovered.

There'due south a nifty deal of tension in these lines even as the speaker recalls the memories in the distant past. It's clear that their lives are dependent on their actions in these moments.

These lines also reveal the poem's narrative nature. Throughout, without using a rhyme scheme, the poem tells the story of her youth. The action plays out in nearly a prose-similar manner.

Stanza Three

On the way to the beach, y'all added, eyeing me.

(…)

Back in my sisters' room Mami was packing

The thought that the family is going to the "beach" reappears in the tertiary stanza. Information technology is clear that this is a white lie the speaker'southward family unit is attempting to maintain in guild to go along the speaker, and whatever other children, calm. Information technology seems unlikely that information technology would as an effective excuse for being out later on curfew.

The utilise of the phrase "chuckling simulated chuckles" adds to the full general atmosphere the poet is creating. Everyone in the family is under a corking deal of pressure simply, for the sake of the children, they are trying to maintain an outwardly calm appearance.

The 3rd line of this stanza, "What a good time she'll have learning to swim!" is an example of one of the comments meant to soothe the speaker and make her feel equally though this is a normal, family unit outing.

Stanza Four

a hurried purse, allowing one toy apiece,

(…)

She dressed us in our best dresses, party shoes.

In that location is a great transition betwixt the third and fourth stanzas where the speaker describes her mother packing a "hurried bag." This very clever utilize of descriptive language allows readers to interpret how the mother was moving and the items she might be choosing. This includes "one toy apiece." There wasn't room, this line suggests, for many possessions. The children were forced to choose "one toy" and to do then quickly. The female parent does not provide an explanation to her immature children. Instead, the speaker interprets her agony and fear through her "red eyes." The poet's employ of language suggests that her mother has been crying and is nether a great bargain of pressure level.

There is a skilful example of sibilance in the quaternary line of the fourth stanza. Here, the repetition of the "south" sound a more rhythmic line that helps lead readers into the side by side stanzas of the poem.

The image of the children being dressed in their "best dresses" and "political party shoes" indicates that the family unit wants to bring their most important belongings. This might also assistance bolster the moods of everyone involved and make them feel equally though they are on an important outing. I,t might too remind readers of the pressure of the state of affairs. When facing difficult circumstances it's non uncommon to detect men and women dressing in what makes them feel confident and dignified. Such may be the example hither. The parents are preparing for the worst should they and their children be captured.

Stanzas Five and 6

Something was off, I knew, but I was young

and didn't think adult things could become wrong.

(…)

magically, that night, I could stay up,

In the fifth and sixth stanzas, the speaker demonstrates her trust in her family. She was young, and knew something was off, merely, she didn't recall that the adults in her family would ever let something to go wrong. These were adult choices fabricated by people she trusted and she was willing to go on with them. The speaker drives away, noting how she wouldn't run across her dwelling house once again for "another decade." Here, the implications of their deportment are furthered. They are leaving everything they knew behind, something that upsets the speaker'due south siblings in the following stanzas.

Rather than crying and worrying nigh the situation, the speaker let herself lie back, as if an "deep waters." She uses a simile to compare herself to Jesus on his cross trusting her fate to her female parent, begetter, and extended family unit. That dark, she could "stay up" floating in the metaphorical waters of her present and future. She was at that moment on a very important course/journey, one that had lasting implications.

Stanzas Seven and 8

floating out, past the driveway, past the gates,

(…)

the family embankment house, Mami consoling,

there was a better surprise in store for us!

The extended metaphor comparing their journey out of the Dominican Republic and into the United States to pond and floating in water continues into the next lines. The family heads towards the coast, with the father driving their blackness Ford. The employ of the color "blackness," the depiction of the night, and her father's "grim" aspect all create a very specific atmosphere of fearfulness and darkness. It is juxtaposed against the speaker'due south interpretation of events. Even though the family is in a great deal of danger, she is calm. She continues to metaphorically float forth the "winding…backroads" heading to the coast.

The young speaker's calm mood is fabricated even more important when it is contrasted against her "sisters crying." Her siblings go distressed after the family unit passes past their beach business firm, and it becomes clear that the lie their family was perpetuating is non the truth. Just, their mother attempts to console them, telling them in that location was a "better surprise in store for us." The children, including the speaker herself, are far as well young to understand what the family is attempting and why it is and then important. All they know is that they're leaving everything familiar behind.

Stanza 9

She couldn't tell, though, until … until nosotros were there.

(…)

more danger than the deep end of the pool.

The extended metaphor that depicts the speaker swimming continues into the ninth stanza. It's at this point that she interprets a "danger" that is coming closer. She had guessed at something much larger than she could understand. The only way she could envision it in her heed was something that was more than dangerous than the "deep end of the puddle." This is an allusion to their escape attempt and the loss the speaker is going to endure equally she's forced to exit her home backside.

Stanzas Ten and Eleven

At the dark, deserted airport we waited.

(…)

that a part of both of us had been fix afloat.

Now, the family unit is waiting at the airport. There, they wait tensely for the plane to arrive and for their last leg of the journey to begin. They are far from safe in these moments. The speaker continues her metaphorical swim within a "fitful slumber" that she tin't quite empathize. The depiction of these moments from a child'south perspective means that there are few details in regard to how exactly the family planned their escape or the consequences of their failure. The lack of detail forces readers to see things in the same way equally the speaker and perhaps understand some of her and her sisters' defoliation.

In the eleventh stanza, the swimming language continues. She describes her male parent looking into the distance, trying to spot a swimmer as though seeking out and luckily not finding anyone or anything that's going to stand up in the way of their escape from the Dominican Democracy. In the stanza, readers confront both positive and negative linguistic communication in regard to the family unit'due south journey to America. Their desperation to get away is assorted with their fearfulness of leaving their home and everything they knew behind. A "part of both of u.s. had been set a migrate." The family lost some of their identity in their pick to escape.

Stanza Twelve

Weeks after, wandering our new city, paw in mitt,

(…)

blond hair and blueish eyes: a genetic code.

At that place is a transition between the eleventh and twelfth stanzas equally the poet jumps ahead to describe what their life in New York was like. Again, there are simply a few details in regard to what happened there and what their circumstances were. Through clear and easy-to-sympathize linguistic communication, the speaker describes wandering the city hand-in-manus with her father and encountering all of the marvels that she'd never seen before. These include things that Americans take for granted, like elevators and moving belts. She as well mentions "blond pilus and blueish eyes," a reference to Caucasian men and women whose coloring the speaker had never seen before.

Stanzas Thirteen and Fourteen

Nosotros stopped before a summery display window

(…)

in my storybook waded in colored plastic.

There is an intentional juxtaposition between the contents of the 13th, 14th, and 15th stanzas with the delineation of a family unit fleeing in the darkness that began a poem. Now, the speaker and her father are standing in a decorated New York street, looking in the window of an enormous department store. Nothing could be farther from their previous life experiences. Within the department store window is an advertisement depicting an American family outfitted in beachwear.

Here, the speaker is forced to fence with her agreement of the Dominican Democracy, and their embankment dwelling there, with her new reality. She besides contrasts the epitome of the American father with the paradigm of her own father. The two were so different from one another that the comparison evokes feelings of alienation and distance in the speaker. (This is also seen through the title, 'Exile' which suggests that the speaker has been separated or bandage out from the world she knew.) She does not understand her new home in the way that she understood her previous one.

There is also an allusion in these lines to the character of Heidi, a immature girl who features in Swiss children's books. In that location is something virtually their new earth that reminds the speaker of Heidi's fictional life. Everything is technicolor and vivid and, the speaker suggests, like "colored plastic."

Stanzas Fifteen-Seventeen

Nosotros stood awhile, marveling at America,

both of u.s. trying difficult to feel luckier

(…)

eager, afraid, not notwithstanding certain of the result.

The speaker'southward feelings of distance and separation from her new home proceed into the next lines. She and her father endeavor to learn more about their new home as they signal out the various aspects of a Macy'south advertisement. Only, they're forced to contend with how out of place they feel and even the way they stand autonomously visually from the people around them.

They are dressed "likewise formally," making it clear that they are "visitors to this country." It is difficult for the speaker, and her extended family, to feel prophylactic, comforted past, and happy with the new world they alive in.

This is furthered through the terminal iteration of the extended metaphor that the poet began early on in the poem. She compares herself and her begetter to swimmers looking down at the surface of their isolated waters. They adore their reflection in the drinking glass, seeing themselves eager, afraid, and unsure of what will happen side by side.

FAQs

What is the message of 'Exile?'

The poem'due south bulletin is that 1's connection to their dwelling house is not defined by political circumstances. The speaker feels like an exile in the United States. This is despite the fact that she and her extended family unit were in a great bargain of danger in the Dominican Republic.

Why did Julia Alvarez write 'Exile?'

Alvarez probable wrote this poem in order to share her experiences as a 10-year-former girl forced out of the only dwelling house she remembers in the Dominican Republic. As a child, she did not understand the political implications of the work her father was involved in or why they needed to leave their home.

What is the poem 'Exile' past Julia Alvarez well-nigh?

The verse form 'Exile' is nearly a young girl's journey out of the Dominican Republic and entrance into the United States along with her family. Alvarez was ten years old when she made this journey and describes information technology in clear, narrative language throughout this seventeen stanza poem.

How is the disharmonize in the poem 'Exile' by Julia Alvarez resolved?

There are multiple conflicts that present themselves within Julia Alvarez'south poem. The first is the danger the young speaker and her family are in at home. To resolve this, they flee in the middle of the night to the U.s.. Just, a new conflict arises equally the young speaker and her family are forced to contend with feelings of alienation within the Us. This conflict is not resolved inside the seventeen stanzas of the poem.

What does Julia Alvarez take in common with the speaker from the verse form 'Exile?'

Julia Alvarez based the narrative in the poem 'Exile' on her own experiences as a ten-yr-old girl escaping with her family from the Dominican Republic. She is the usually accepted speaker in the poem.

What kind of poem is 'Exile?'

'Exile' is a narrative poem written in free verse. The text is separated out into four-line stanzas, known as quatrains. Alvarez did not make use of a specific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern within the poem.

Similar Verse

Readers to enjoy this poem should likewise consider reading some similar poetry. For example:

' Parsley ' by Rita Dove – is based on the true story of a mass killing that occurred in 1937 in the Dominican Republic.
' Immigration' by Ali Alizadeh – describes the poet's experience when he and his family left Iran after several years of public schoolhouse in order to escape the unending war and in search of freer, more peaceful lives.
' The Émigrée ' past Carol Rumens – describes the life of a child who emigrated to a new country. The poem speaks broadly about the difficult lives of refugees.

Exile by Julia Alvarez