Analyzing language is a way to deepen your analysis and make quoting the author’s words worthwhile. Explanations move from most specific to most general.
(1) Observation about language
(2) Analysis of meaning
(3) Connection to the topic sentence
TS: Rosaura misinterprets her role at the party by thinking she is a guest when she is actually treated as a maid.
C: Rosaura feels special when she passes out cake, even though this is traditionally a servant’s job.
E: Passing out the cake reminds Rosaura of “a story in which there was a queen who had the power of life or death over her subjects” (Heker 3).
R: (1) The implied comparison between Rosaura and a powerful queen highlights that Rosaura feels as though she is superior to the other children. (2) Ironically, though, serving the cake can be seen as placing Rosaura below the other children, as a servant rather than as an equal. (3) Rosaura and Sra Ines thus have opposite understandings of Rosaura’s power in relation to the others.
C: Rosaura finally realizes she has been working when she is offered money at the end of the party.
E: When Sra Ines holds out Rosaura’s payment, Rosaura’s “arms stiffen, stick close to her body” and “she pressed herself against her mother’s body” (Heker 5).
R: (1) The kinesthetic imagery here highlights Rosaura’s physical response to realizing Sra Ines sees her as a maid. Pulling her body into itself and up against her mother, Rosaura physically rejects the money and relies on her mother for protection. (2) In resisting taking the money, Rosaura symbolically rejects the suggestion that she is a maid. (3) The intensity of her reaction shows how thoroughly she has misinterpreted her role throughout the story.
CS: After thinking she is powerful and special throughout the day, Rosaura eventually realizes that Sra Ines has been using her as a servant all along.