to her. Although the narrator is Rio, the overall focus of this section is primarily on Pucha’s reactions and interactions with her surroundings. Rio does not appear to have any real power over the situation because of the age gap between the two, as evidenced in her response to Pucha's treatment of Lorenza. While Rio is very ready to escape the situation, she cannot break away because of her cousin's stubbornness.

In the second section, the audience is now made aware that Rio will eventually move to North America with her mother, Dolores. In doing so, they will leave behind her father, Freddie, a "smug, mysterious" man who that may have a terminal illness, and her brother, Raul, who becomes "a faith healer." Rio describes her father's later years and his opinions on his home country, where he feels like "a visitor" despite his birth and upbringing. She also describes the relationship between her father and her uncles: Agustin, described as "more noncommittal" than Freddie, and Cristobal, a "wily opportunist" and the "most successful Gonzaga brother." Ultimately, this section acts as a character study of Freddie, which helps the audience to understand why Rio does not worry about him—because of his cunning, yet shady actions.

In the third section, Rio introduces the audience to her grandmother, Narcisa Divino, who appears to be an outcast from the family despite her poor health and failing memory. While her grandfather, a white man named Whitman Logan, is dying of a mysterious illness, Narcisa spends her time eating and listening to Love Letters, a radio drama, in the kitchen with Rio's family's servants. Rio then describes the intricacies of the plot of LoveLetters and its audience appeal, which is followed by a synopsis of Love Letters #99. As they listen, Rio begins to think about her grandfather's sickness and how she is not afraid of what might happen.

This comes to a point when Rio, Pucha, and Mikey (Pucha’s older brother) go to see A Place in the Sun. As they watch, Rio begins to envision how members of her family are like the characters in the movie. She imagines her grandfather writhing, her mother in tears, and Narcisa screaming at the doctors to let her husband sleep. As the chapter comes to a close, Rio describes an image of her grandmother sitting by her grandfather's bedside listening to the "dreadful music" of the radio as a "typhoon rages outside." In this section, the audience is keyed into a more supernatural aspect of the novel, as Narcisa believes her husband to be dying of bangungot, which kills most of its victims overnight. In addition, this section sets up further contrast between the three characters Rio focuses on: Narcisa acts as a contrast to Pucha, whereas Freddie and Narcisa seem to stay out of each other's way.

Overall, I think this works as a general summary of chapter 1 and describes the overall structure and strategies used by the author. Keep in mind that, although a lot of detail is given here, your own close reading and understanding is the key to success, as the information provided is a branching-off point and not an exhaustive solution to the question.

Dogeaters begins by establishing characterizations within their settings. In Dogeaters,characters are partly defined by the setting, for example, grandpa's disease of "bangungot" helps define who he is and what he faces, even though this Filipino disease is thought nothing but a superstition by doctors in the United States--even though they cannot diagnose or cure what's wrong with him. Rio is characterized within the setting as well as she goes to movies, to drink "TruCola," to flirt, and to listen to radio dramas with her grandmother.