Chapel

In Viramontes' The Moths,the feelings and relationship the narrator has with the chapel correlates to the narrator's relationship and experience with her Apa. The chapel's representation of constraint, emptiness/loneliness, the cold, entombment, inertness, blindness and the loss of a connection to life signifies the affect the church and her Apa had on her childhood. "I had forgotten the vastness of these places, the coolness of the marble pillars and the frozen statues with blank eyes. I was alone. I knew why I had never returned." As a child, the speaker endured much violence from her Apa. He was violent, as "he would grab my arm and dig his nails into me to make sure I understood the importance of catechism." She also underwent moments of profanity and whippings. As her Apa emphasized the church, he represented Catholicism and one of the fathers of the church. As Apa constantly stressed the importance of church and religion, his tactics in getting his family to attend Sunday church and follow in his beliefs had a negative affect on the rest of his family. As a young woman not quite understanding religion, being forced to attend church through violent acts and in threats from siblings and towards her own mother resulted in her leaving and refusing to enter into a church as a young woman. As a result, the speaker maintains such attitude and perspective about the chapel.

Susan Tran