The irony of language used by the character of Pilar in Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia

Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia is a novel where the reader can approach the characters and make his own opinion about them by their language, their feelings, their thoughts, their background, etc. Furthermore, the narration gives to the reader the impression of being close to the characters. Some of them narrate the story in the first person and others on the third. Obviously, the first person brings the orality to the novel and the third person makes it more “formal” or more poetic. In this work, we will focus on Pilar Puente who is a round character that uses the first person. The passage at page 62 beginning with “I get discouraged […]” until “[…] here to complain” page 63 shows the relationship Pilar has with her mother (Lourdes Puente). The use of irony is recurrent and this has an impact on the text, on the meaning and on the reader. The effects of irony also have an impact on the nature of the relationship of Pilar and her mother.

Based on the feelings of Pilar, she seems being tired of what she is doing; she asks herself “Like what am I? A fugitive from my mother’s Bakery?” (62), the direct speech and the rhetorical questions she uses, express what she feels and reveal her tiredness towards the events happening. These rhetorical questions also reveal her need of identity; all along the passage, her identity is questioned. She went to Miami to ease her escape to Cuba but once arrived, she seems to have forgotten her objective: “I get discouraged. I look in through the rest of the windows without even trying to hide” (62), again her tiredness can be felt by her discourse and it avoids her capacity of staying focused on her purpose. Even though, the personification “the clouds speed through the darkening skies, probably headed to Cuba” (62) divulges that she watches the clouds and thinks about Cuba. There is a kind of paradox between her search of identity and her sudden questioning. Later in the passage, she also thinks her mother cannot change her “She tells me […] is more frustration at what she can’t change. I guess I’m of those things she can’t change” (63). The repetition of “she can’t change” reveal the certitude of Pilar of being a problem for her mother, so it can be interpreted again as the identity Pilar is searching.

Despite her search of identity, similes are a characteristic of Pilar’s language, “she can look like the dogs guarding hell, except she sounds more like a terrier or a Chihuahua” (63). In this sentence, Pilar talks about her mother and imagines her mother’s face when she will discover that her daughter ran away. The first part of the sentence, “she can look like the dogs guarding hell”, in many religious beliefs, the dogs guarding hell are the symbol of ferocity and animosity, it emphasize on the fact that her mother just “look” like them but it does not make her a bad person. Actually, the comparison: “she sounds more like a Terrier or a Chihuahua” reveals that Lourdes is not as mean as the reader can think because these two breeds of dogs are known to be only bad-tempered dogs and no aggressive. The opposition of those dogs is manifest and Pilar uses this simile ironically. By applying the irony, the narrator portrays Lourdes’ personality. Moreover, the metaphor “In her hands, bedroom slippers are lethal weapons” (63) puts the severity of Lourdes forward and the fact that she “can get pretty violent” (63) reveals that Lourdes even though has a certain authority on Pilar, this power is developed later by turning back to the past.

The authority of Lourdes is accentuated with a contrast between the past and the present; Pilar describes how her mother was respected in Cuba and how she is not in the United States: “Back in Cuba, everybody used to treat Mom with respect. Their backs would straighten and they’d put attentive faces like their lives depended on the bolt of fabric she chose” (63). “Back in Cuba”, is the reference to the past and the hyperbole of “like their lives depended on the bolt of fabric she chose” is used to show how much respect people had for Lourdes in Cuba. The sentence intensifies the link between the word “lives” and the second part of the sentence, “the bolt of fabric she chose” and these statements have their own grade of significance. Actually, “lives” is more important than the second part of the sentence and the hyperbole shows the reader the power Lourdes had in Cuba. Quite the opposite in the United States where: “These days, all the neighborhood merchants hate her” (63). We are back to the present by “these days” and then this ironic metaphor made in direct speech: “Where are the knobs, kid?” they ask me when her volume goes up” (63), is linked with her bad temper and the similes of the “Chihuahua” and the “Terrier”. The irony of Pilar’s language is also visible when she makes a joke about her mother and the fact she is always complaining about the items she buys. “One day, she’ll walk into a department store […] Congratulations, Mrs. Puente! This marks the thousandth time you’ve come in here to complain!” (63). The irony of language that Pilar uses, creates humour. In other words, it can be interpreted as she is mocking her mother. Again, the fact this joke is told in the first person brings orality to the text and makes the reader closer to it. Pilar is telling that because she reports the fact her mother is hateful when she wants to complain or even when she tries to straighten out Pilar.

In conclusion, the irony Pilar uses, is to bring a certain orality to the text; every word of the first person has a humoristic impact on the reader. He understands quickly that Pilar is very serious about what she thinks. That also makes the meaning and the form connected to each other, and that the novel Dreaming in Cuban is written without any artifices.