Literary Devices in The Moths
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
City of Angels"The Moths" takes place in East Los Angeles, in the neighborhood where the author grew up. First Street really does run alongside the Evergreen Cemetery between Lorena and Evergreen,...
Narrator Point of View
We never do get the narrator's name, though her evil sisters call her "bull hands." We'd never do that, though, unless we wanted a serious beating in return. Despite being nameless, the narrator is...
Genre
Time to Grow UpOftentimes characters in the coming-of-age genre go from childhood to adulthood in terms of years. This story's so short that this isn't the case for our narrator, but that doesn't m...
Tone
No, we're not describing a candy bar (though it sounds delicious); we're talking tone. In "The Moths," the narrator's attitude is tough; she doesn't take guff from anybody and generally acts like n...
Writing Style
"The Moths" is written in stream of consciousness, where the reader gets to find out what the narrator is thinking as she thinks it. Sometimes stream of consciousness can make texts a little chaoti...
What's Up With the Title?
"The Moths" refer to the little flying insects that come out of Abuelita's mouth after she dies at the end of the story. While still living, Abuelita told the narrator that the moths live in the so...
What's Up With the Ending?
The story closes out with the narrator crying in the tub with her dead grandmother's body: There, there, I said to Abuelita, rocking us gently, there, there. (16) Of course, Abuelita has already pa...
Tough-o-Meter
The story is pretty straightforward and easy to understand—no fancy twists and turns or million dollar words here. And while we're definitely not saying that all short stories are easy reads, the...
Plot Analysis
Misfit Mission The narrator makes it clear that she's the outsider in her family. She's always hitting her sisters, and they make fun of her because her "bull hands" are too big to do anything gir...
Trivia
Viramontes's use of magical realism is true to her Latin American roots, but she wasn't always treated well for it. Once a professor even called her "a cheap imitation of Gabriel García Márquez."...
Steaminess Rating
Nothing to see here, folks, except a granddaughter in a bath with her dead grandmother. Yes, really.
Allusions
Pinocchio, 3