She shows stress in herself and her family at various points. One such point is right before her family leaves their house; Julia describes her father, saying, “you looked out at the curfew-darkened Ciudad Trujillo, speaking in worried whispers to your brothers, which car to take, who’d be willing to drive it, what explanation to give should we be discovered…”(Alvarez 4-8) This detail displays the worry her father and uncles face, as they stress over whether they will escape safely. This event would likely have caused Julia anxiety as well; considering her naiveté in the adult world, she would be understandably alarmed by her family’s fear. Alvarez exposes her childish rationalization and assumptions of the present tension by saying, “I had already swum ahead and guessed some loss much larger than I understood, more danger than the deep end of the pool.”(Alvarez, 34-36) This displays the turmoil in her mind through the repeated reference to a pool. In her attempt to cope in an anxiety-ridden world, Alvarez’s juvenile self attempts to convert recent events into terms she understands. Due to the Alvarez family’s stress in this story, it can clearly be concluded that “Exile”follows the common theme of immigrants’
She shows stress in herself and her family at various points. One such point is right before her family leaves their house; Julia describes her father, saying, “you looked out at the curfew-darkened Ciudad Trujillo, speaking in worried whispers to your brothers, which car to take, who’d be willing to drive it, what explanation to give should we be discovered…”(Alvarez 4-8) This detail displays the worry her father and uncles face, as they stress over whether they will escape safely. This event would likely have caused Julia anxiety as well; considering her naiveté in the adult world, she would be understandably alarmed by her family’s fear. Alvarez exposes her childish rationalization and assumptions of the present tension by saying, “I had already swum ahead and guessed some loss much larger than I understood, more danger than the deep end of the pool.”(Alvarez, 34-36) This displays the turmoil in her mind through the repeated reference to a pool. In her attempt to cope in an anxiety-ridden world, Alvarez’s juvenile self attempts to convert recent events into terms she understands. Due to the Alvarez family’s stress in this story, it can clearly be concluded that “Exile”follows the common theme of immigrants’