Lessons of Love from Silent Dancing

Essay Nonfiction Story In the short story Lessons of love, from Silent Dancing by Judith Ortiz Cofer; she uses literary devises to send the purpose of her love story. Cofer’s many literary devices where that of detail, simile, and personification to emphasize her message and the lessons she learned from her experiences. The use of Cofer’s simile being added helped the reader see better the description of the Italian guy. She mentions “He looked extraordinary like a young Marlon Brando – down to the ironic little smile.” This helps picture the physical appearance of the guy she fell in love with. Cofer used the simile to paint a picture of the guy she used to like by comparing his appearance to that of Marlon Brando. Coffer uses personification in order to express her feelings better. The story mentions. “My cells were turning up like musicians in an orchestra, and my heart was a chorus.” Her word choice to add this was important because she was able to give non-human objects a human quality of playing an instrument and singing in a choir. If she had not added the human like characteristics the story would be too bland and boring, unless you had given detailed writings of how you would feel on the inside, like how Cofer did with all the bottled up emotions she has kept from the boy she loved. Cofer uses details to bring the point across to her readers about the boy that she liked and how she could never be with him. “And it had to remain a secret, because I had, of course, in great tradition of tragic romance, chosen to love a boy who was totally out of my reach.” With all the miniature effects Cofer uses to express how she could not be with him she emphasizes her feeling of love within her message in every word that she speaks. Judith Ortiz Cofer wrote her experiences in Lessons of Love, from Silent Dancing to show her literary techniques in her work and how she used them in her emotions of love to describe the details and personify the inanimate objects and compare the details top real life people throughout her short story.