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For many of the writers discussed in class, family stories are a guide to live by. The family stories told, give an outline of morals as well as a way to stay close to their true family. Both Cofer and Stone show how family stories give them a very strong form of acceptance. Acceptance is key for each of the writers because they both face the challenge of living as multicultural people in a world that tends to shame diversity. These stories are extremely important to Cofer and Stone; questioning them would violate all they believe in.

However, there is another side to this subject. Maxine Hong Kingston reveals to the reader a different side to family stories. A side that is not of love and acceptance, but more of hate, betrayal, and rejection. In some cultures family circles cannot always be of love and protection. In her case she reveals to the reader a family circle that would murder in order to keep the circle clean of sin, no matter what the cost.

Judith Ortiz Cofer the author of "Casa: A partial remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood" shows how family stories can control a person's life. Cofer was never one to disagree with what she was told. She was raised a Navy brat who was both Puerto Rican and American. Co

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family for generations: stories that became a part of my subconscious as I grew up in two worlds, the tropical island and the cold city, and that would later surface in my dreams and in my poetry. (Cofer 272)

In the short story, "Stories Make a Family" by Elizabeth Stone, she reveals her thoughts on how her family stories kept her heritage in her soul. The stories that her family told her, "were the prologue to my life, and the stories I would live by"(Stone 266). The family circle is also important to stone, who grew up with many of her relatives:

Family stories are thought of, as being something that one can be proud of. Cofer and Stone show the reader how these stories can help guide the youth and teach them to be good-hearted individuals. Although Kingston is facing problems of not wanting to live by the lessons she learned in her family circle. She must question these stories and release the silence in order to better the feelings of herself, and her family circle. Family stories make up our family traits and circle, but in order to adapt to ones self beliefs, these stories, at times, must be questioned.

And they told cuentos, the morality and cautionary tales told by the women in our

fer was never normal and always wondered what normal truly was. She went on to say, "Their weirdness was a measuring stick I used in my serious quest for a definition of normal"(Cofer 273). Cofer was on this quest because she was a "Cultural chameleon"(Cofer 273). While traveling from the United States to Puerto Rico she spoke English with a Spanish accent and Spanish with an English accent causing people to see her differently. This was hard on Cofer as a ch

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1180
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English