Question

Refer to Explorations in Literature for a complete version of this narrative.

Describing her mother's lack of sewing ability in "First Love," Judith Ortiz Cofer writes, "That night I would have traded her for a peasant woman with a golden needle."

How does the colorful figure of speech in this sentence affect the text?

It shows that wealth was not important to Judith.
It makes the reader think that Judith's hopes are not realistic.
It injects the memoir with a fairy-tale atmosphere.
It emphasizes that Judith's mother did not understand her.

Answer 1

In my opinion, the correct answer is C. It injects the memoir with a fairy-tale atmosphere. The contrastive imagery of a peasant woman with a golden needle is something that would likely appear in fairy tales, as a supernatural element that breaks the everyday mood of the scene.

Answer 2

The best answer for this question would be:

It injects the memoir with a fairy-tale atmosphere.

The writer describes the sewing ability of the mother by referencing a fairy tale atmosphere from the Sleeping Beauty text perhaps. The interpretation of it seems like that Judith did not appreciate the skill of her mother.