Kara-Journal 5

The story that stood out the most to me would be “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark”. I thought they all were well written, but I felt that I connected with this one the most. I remember going through a similar situation when my papa died when I was little. For the first time in my life, I saw a vulnerable side of my dad that I had never seen before. Just like Cisneros said, “My brave Papa cries. I have never seen my Papa cry and don’t know what to do” (Cisneros 56). The little girl feels for her father in the same way that I did. To a little girl, her dad is the strongest, coolest, toughest man on the planet. They do not realize that their daddy is only human until things like this happen in life. It may happen sooner than we want it to, but it is all bound to hit us eventually.
Something else that also stuck out to me, was the imagery the author used in this passage. “My Papa, his thick hands and thick shoes…who combs his hair with water, drinks his coffee, and is gone before we wake, today is sitting on my bed” (Cisneros 57). This characterization of the little girl’s father makes it easy to picture the scene exactly. You can see her restless father no longer trying to put on a show for his kids, he knew this could happen, but not to him so early in life. He wakes up tired and restless in the night because he has been caught off guard by the reality of the loss he just went through.