Bad Influence

Plot Summary.

 

          Having gotten into trouble with her parents, Rita has to decide whether she will spend the summer in a catholic school or with her grandparents in Puerto Rico. Choosing the latter of the two options, she is welcomed by her telenovela fanatic grandma, Mamá Ana, her spiritualistic medium grandfather, Papá Juan, and their loud rooster, Ramón. There in Puerto Rico, Rita suffers from the suffocating heat, almost-as-suffocating family gatherings and Papá Juan’s visits to his patients. It is in one of these visits that the family trio meets famous commercial actress, Maribel Hernandez Jones, and her daughter and Papá Juan’s patient, Angela. After the visit, Rita and Angela formed a friendship. It was because of this that Mamá Ana invited Angela to her granddaughter’s quienceañera.

 

          The party was held in the backyard of the house. While the party was in full swing, Rita took Angela to her room to have some breathing room. There Angela told Rita how lucky she was to have her grandparents even if Rita thought of them as weird. After that, Rita started enjoying the summer with her family and new found friend, Angela. In the end, even if the trip was meant as a punishment, Rita had the summer of her life.

 

Setting.

 

The setting was in the Summer in Puerto Rico. At times it was at Rita’s grandparents house, the beach, or at Angela’s house.

 

Point of view:

 

The story is told through the first person point of view, meaning that the story is told through the voice of a character in the story.

 

Theme:

 

The theme is basically viewed as being “Fantasy vs. Reality”. Rita comes to the island with what she sees as a realist perspective. Her smart-aleck, know-it-all attitude is authoritatively adolescent and grounded in her American upbringing, as evidenced upon her arrival when she reports, “My friend from Central High would have died laughing if they had seen the woman with their fans going back and forth cross their shiny face fighting over… who was going to sit next to whom.” She makes light of her grandparents’ spiritual work by calling it Ghost busting and assets that her grandfather must be senile.