"Only Daughter" Response Questions

1. Whenever Cisneros’ father would refer to her as “only a daughter” it meant that she would become someone’s wife and wouldn’t be able to make a life for herself of her own. She wanted to have a profession and wanted to go to college to make a future for herself. Her father thought that going to college was good so that she could find a husband. When she was referred as “the only daughter” she was talking about the times she felt lonely and alone because her brothers were embarrassed to play outside with her. This gave her time to think, imagine, and read and to prepare herself.
2. Cisneros was given time to herself when her brothers did not want to play with her and she was “the only daughter.” It allowed her to have time to think, to read, imagine, and to prepare herself. The aloneness was good in her eyes because it would help her to be a good writer. Being “only a daughter” she was able to go to college and major in English without her father getting upset. He thought girls should go to college to meet their future husband, so he didn’t care what Cisneros majored in.
3. From Cisneros quoting her father we learn that he was very proud that he had sons and he used this to try and get a break from paying so much money for his large family. We also learn that he only spoke a little English.
4. I think that she tries to convey her father in a sympathetic way more so than in an unsympathetic way. She quotes her father many times, and being referred to as “only a daughter” is a part of how their culture views women. I don’t think he meant that he loved his daughter any less, his thoughts about women is something that he was taught and raised to believe.
5. Cisneros is referring to her father finally accepting that she was a good writer and wanting to share with it with the rest of his family. The “wonderful thing” is the acceptance that she got from her father after all those years of him thinking she was just going to be someone’s wife. Her father read her book and enjoyed it so much that he wanted the rest of the family to read it also. Cisneros wanted her father to introduce her as “My only daughter, the writer” and I think she was finally able to be known to as good, educated writer to her father.