Quoting Excercise

My first quote is from an essay that I wrote about half way through senior year. The essay was intended to compare Antonio Skarmeta's Il Postino and Laura Esquirel's Like Water for Chocolate by comparing the quality and style of magic realism in the two books.

An important part both stories is the way in which characters directly represent different aspects of political ideologies associated with the political atmosphere during both conflicts. For example, in Il Postino, when Mario is confronted by Beatriz about needing a job, “‘What do you want me to do?’ he shouted, loud enough for the whole town to hear. ‘The poet is in Paris, so I don’t have anyone to deliver the damn mail to’” (Skármeta 61). Mario’s attitude here represents the confusion and chaos in Chile in the years preceding Pinochet’s military coup.

In this quote, although I introduced it with a sentence leading into the actual quote, the significance of the two mentioned characters, Mario and Beatriz, is left unmentioned. By failing to explain their significance as major characters in the book, I left a weak spot in my use of this quote. If I were to reuse this quote, I would explain their significance as main characters in the same sentence introducing the quote. I would also revise my sentence after the quote, citing direct examples of how unemployment was high in Chile leading up to the military coup and how that contributed to confusing, chaos, and discord in the country.

My second quote is from the same essay as the first quote. It is from the same paragraph which means that the same preface applies to this quote. (An important part both stories is the way in which characters directly represent different aspects of political ideologies associated with the political atmosphere during both conflicts)

Similarly in Like Water for Chocolate, Mama Elena can be seen to represent the ideals of repression associated with the Mexican dictatorship before the revolution, “Mama Elena received them in the living room; she was extremely polite and explained why it was impossible for Tita to marry” (Esquivel 13). Mama Elena's attitude towards Tita marrying reflects the strict adherence to tradition and old values associated with the pre-revolution Mexican government.

For this quote, I introduced the quote with a sentence restating my idea, but I feel that the language I used in the introduction of the quote creates a contrast with the quote itself. I also failed to introduce the relationship of characters to one another which distracts from the purpose of the quote itself. If I were able to rewrite this quote, I would introduce the fact that Mama Elena is the matriarch of the household and explain the significance of her position, including the finality of her decisions. By introducing the characters, I would also re-word the introductory sentence and ease the transition by removing either 'dictator' or 'repression' which would ease the transition into the quote. I would also remove 'and old values' in the sentence after my quote, as it is fairly redundant after already mentioning 'tradition'.