Mama's Retelling of Familiar Stories - Essay Example

Cofer shares the significance of Mama to her in these words, “I saw her as my liberator and my model. Her stories were parables from which to glean the Truth” (Cofer 69). The characters in Mama’s stories might be fake, but they were knit into stories that depicted the realities of life. The girls were in the age of adolescence and thus, in a state of transition from childhood to adulthood. They needed an interesting way of being informed of the challenges lying ahead in their lives, and Mama’s Cuentos exactly addressed that concern.

Cofer shares how she would reflect upon Mama’s stories together with Sara to draw conclusions from them in these words, “Sara and I discussed everything we heard the women say, trying to fit it all together like a puzzle that, once assembled, would reveal life’s mysteries to us” (Cofer 70). Mama’s house was a very suitable place for the cuentos to be narrated in as there was no intrusion of any sort from men in there; “Then Mama’s house belonged only to us women…and the women telling their lives in Cuentos are forever woven into the fabric of my imagination, braided like my hair that day I felt my grandmother’s hands teaching me about strength, her voice convincing me of the power of storytelling” (Cofer 70).

The stories Mama narrated depicted, in one way or another, the realities of the lives of her own daughters. Storytelling not only provided Mama with a unique and interesting way of developing a strong connection and understanding with the young granddaughters, but also of raising them into well-educated, civilized, and decent girls who would not trust the love of men until they signed the contract of marriage with them. Mama’s stories had lessons hidden in them. Giving those stories deep thoughts would lead Cofer to the realization that a woman loses to nothing and nobody but her own self by letting herself fall into love; “We understood that neither the name nor any of the facts were important, only that a woman had allowed love to defeat her” (Cofer 70). Read More