In the fiction novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Alvarez, Dominican-American novelist, told the story of how the Garcia girls adapted to moving to America and how it affected them. Throughout the novel the third oldest daughter, Yolanda, faces many different problems she must solve relating to her character. Alvarez uses symbolism and motifs to develop Yolanda’s character.
While Yolanda is in the hospital she has a strange feeling in her stomach. After feeling something move up her throat “[a] huge, black bird sprang out” her mouth. This black bird symbolizes pain. Yolanda struggled to say words such as love and alive and Yolanda because those are the words that brings back pain. These words would cause her to have
