Only Daughter Analysis

What kind of father sends his daughter to college just to meet her future husband? This is a similar question Sandra Cisneros wants readers to ask themselves while reading her essay. In her essay, Only Duaghter, Cisneros describes the lack of support from her father while attempting to find success as a writer. Using descriptive language, she tells of the struggle between her Mexican-American heritage and her supposed place in the household and her love in writing. With dignified feeling she constructs a picturesque essay that in the end is able to encapsulate her father's acceptance through her optomistic writing.

Cisneros begins her essay, "I am the only daughter in a family of six sons. That explains everything." This passage gives astrong example of her father and the image he has of his daughter. The use of italics symbolizes a family based on gender, in this case male. Her growing up a female dominated by males "was good for a would-be writer," but made her future merely a housewife based on her culture but mainly her father. She goes on to state when she was young (in the fifth grade), her father misunderstood her future plans for college as he staes "Que bueno, mi'ja, that's good." This cultural miscommunication acts as an impetus for academic and professional success. She soon discovered, that he thought was a way for girls (or at least Mexican-American girls) to meet their husbands. He even had the nerve to say she "wasted all that education." This passage vividly depicts her father's emotions and seeing her as a failure.

"This is my daughter.