American History Summary - Judith Ortiz Cofer - Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition

At a glance:

Author: Judith Ortiz Cofer
First Published: 1993
Type of Plot: Coming of age
Time of Work: 1963
Setting: Paterson, New Jersey
Characters: Skinny Bones, Eugene, Skinny Bones’s mother, Eugene’s mother
Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
Subjects: African Americans, Racism, Teenagers, Love or romance, Race, Inner cities or inner-city life, Women's issues, Acculturation, Assassination, Names, Puerto Rico or Puerto Ricans
Locales: United States, New Jersey, North America, Paterson, New Jersey

The Story

Skinny Bones is a teenage Puerto Rican girl struggling to adapt to life in a multifamily apartment building in Paterson, New Jersey. She lives in a former Jewish neighborhood that is now inhabited mostly by Puerto Ricans and African Americans. As a loner, Skinny Bones is attracted to marginalized individuals like herself. She finds her soulmate in Eugene, a shy teenager who has recently come from south Georgia. Because of his marked southern accent he is soon dubbed “the Hick,” and he becomes the school’s newest object of ridicule, joining Skinny Bones as an...

(The entire page is 1467 words.)

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