I enjoyed reading this week’s book “Papi” by Rita Indiana, not only because of the themes it explores, but especially because of how the writer adapted the story of the novel to the perspective of a kid, who is the narrator. The narrator is a young girl from the Dominican Republic who talks about her father, “Papi”, who left her, her mom, and the rest of the family behind to migrate to the United States. He is not present in their lives anymore, at least in a physical way, and they don’t see each other very often, sometimes every few months, or even every few years. She doesn’t really know when he will come back, but we can see how in the back of her mind, although she claims to sometimes forget about him, she has the hope that he will be back soon. Here is when he see the story through the eyes of a young girl, who seems to not fully understand the situation and is still waiting for her father to return. However, at the same time, she also feels abandoned by him and expresses anger and hate towards the absent figure of Papi, partly because she mimics her mom’s and grandmother’s opinions.
We can see throughout the story that the father not only left to work in the US and earn money, but he also has a new life, goes out with other women, and even had other kids. As the narrator explains, on he didn’t visit on Christmas, but they would receive cards from him “signed by Papi and one of his girlfriends and one of my new little siblings.” The narrator is clearly affected by her father’s absence, but she has conflicting perspectives and opinions about her father. On the one hand, we can observe her feeling of resent, but on the other hand, a feeling of admiration. This feeling of admiration towards Papi is one of the elements of the book that transmit more innocence and portray how naive kids can be in these situations. However, it also portrays the cultural and historical mindset that Dominicans had back then about people who left the island to live in the US and became wealthy, as discussed in the conversation with Arturo Victoriano.
Despite feeling abandoned, she also demonstrates admiration to her father’s success and wealth after constructing a life abroad. She talks about how her dad has so much money that he can’t fit it inside his wallet, and in an innocent way, she explains to the readers how Papi uses that money to buy her numerous things, an obvious way of also buying her forgiveness. “Then Papi goes shopping. And I go with him. Cuz he’s my dad and I’m his daughter. And Papi buys so many things, I forget how many.” The narrator brags about her father’s wealth multiple times, mentioning his outfits, the cars he owns, or his golden chains, which were signs of success. In my opinion, restating her father’s wealth and material possessions is the girl’s way of justifying her father’s absence in her life, which I guess would be the mindset of many kids in that situation.
What do you think about the narrator’s opinions and feelings towards Papi? Why do you think the story would be different if the narrator was an adult talking about her childhood instead of having a child as a narrator?
Julia, I wondered what you thought about the second half of the book?
I thought that as the novel continues, we continue to see the narrator’s admiration towards his father, partly because of his money and success as I explained, but also because of how popular and powerful he becomes. Not only the narrator is creating an idealized image of her father, many people are, as she recognizes that Papi’s growth of wealth, money, and popularity is fueled by the people who rely on him, buy cars from him, and generally admire him. It surpised me that despite his absence and the trauma she went through because of him, the narrator feels a strong connection to her father and sees him as a role model. Although that she doesn’t fully understand everything surrounding her dad’s life, she is aware of many negative things about him. However, the admiration remains: “Papi knows everything and can do anything”
Moreover, as you discussed in you lecture, the narrator has this feeling of pride for being Papi’s daughter, and feels unique, because even though Papi had more kids with other women, the narrator’s mom was the first women he married, and he did it “the way God intended, in the church.” This feeling of being especial is something that is also portrayed in her father’s funeral. All of Papi’s kids attend, and Cilí, the grandmother, doesn’t seem to be paying much attention to them, and we only see a big, affectionate reaction when she sees the narrator. This shows that even Papi’s mother thought that she was especial and standed out among all the children that Papi had. Finally, I though the last chapter was an attempt to switch the reader’s attention from Papi towards Mami, who was actually the one who was always truly there for her. Mami’s cancer humanized her character even more, and again showed the narrator’s way to deal with traumatic situations, this time with her mother desease. For example, the narrator’s way of refering to Mami’s tumors as “balls” and her school essay titled “My Mother’s Balls.”
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Ooops, that was meant to be a “thumbs up” emoji! 🙂
Hi Julia,
Thanks for your blog post. I want to focus on your last question: how would the story be different if the narrator told the story from the perspective of an adult?
Well, frankly, I believe we would have no story – or a story so far removed away from ‘Papi’ that it would be an entirely different tale. For I believe that most of ‘Papi’ is an illustrative metaphor for the intense and confusing psychological state of the narrator, mainly stemming from the absence of her father. In my vlog, I discuss the scene of the narrator on her rocking horse, and when her father doesn’t come, she is hospitalized and taken control of my Mami and her physicians. Though I don’t feel as though the scene really happened – doctors do not show up and force-feed her via a tube (I think) – I believe the feeling of loss of control and of her relationship to her father is depicted well through this metaphor.
Simply put, the psychology of the child is on full force in ‘Papi’ and if an adult were to tell it, I feel it would be dull, drab, and much of the story would not exist – perhaps only the last chapter which is wholly grounded in reality so it seems.
What do you think?
Curtis HR
I agree with you and your opinion that the story would be completely different if the narrator wasn’t a child. Part of the special essence of the book is to learn about what happens through a child’s vulnerable, naive perspective. An adult would have told the story with a more critical point of view, and the elements of admiration towards Papi or the feeling of pride for being his daughter would be completely differnet or non-existant. Therefore, exactly as you mentioned “the psychology of the child” is key in this story. Despite the trauma and suffering created by the father’s absence, only a child’s perspective could remain with such love and pride towards his father.
Hey!
What an interesting question. I think we wouldn’t be able to see the clear effects that her father has on her in real time – ie. the way she talks, thinks of people, her emotional detachment. I think the story revolves around the fact that this is an impressionable child (mirroring an impressionable citizen), exposed to her father (the dictator)’s doings in a way that has an influence on what she also does and how she does it!
Hey Julia! Thanks for your thoughtful post and question 🙂 I think the story being told by a young narrator is most effective because it makes the action of the story (ie. grappling with Papi’s abandonment) more immediate; we’re entrenched in the little girl’s mind as she tries to come to terms with reality, but can’t seem to separate it from her own fictions. Moreover, I believe the themes of identity (gender expression and sexuality) touched on by the narrator are rendered more powerful when coming from a child experiencing this growth in real time. I simply don’t think an adult perspective could capture this in the same way; age creates distance and aging the narrator would accentuate this distance and make the story’s core harder to unpack.