The Color of My Words

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Consider what you know about the Dominican Republic. Where is this country located? What language is spoken there? What different ethnic groups live on this island?

Teaching Suggestion: This question geographically situates students with the setting of the novel. The Dominican Republic is a Spanish-speaking country in the Caribbean that is located on the island of Hispaniola and shares a land border with French-speaking Haiti. Prior to independence in the 19th century, the Dominican Republic was ruled by both colonial French and Spanish powers. Although Joseph does not explicitly state a time period, her reference to President Balaguer implies that the novel most likely takes place during one of his several nonconsecutive terms in the 1960s, 1970s, late 1980s, and 1990s. Furthermore, the author references the history of slavery and Spanish colonialism on the island with her inclusion of Papi’s African descent and Guario’s distant relation to an indigenous islander who rebelled against the Spanish.      

In this vein, the history of the Dominican Republic is more than just the era of Spanish colonization, but includes indigenous history as well as the legacy of the slave trade; this dichotomy between Spanish colonizers and non-Spanish dwellers is reflected in the character of “Mr. Moreno” (an ethnically Spanish name) as one of the predominant forces to bulldoze the land of the protagonist’s village, ultimately expanding upon the theme of The Government Versus the People. Based on the level of the class, this short answer question might work best as an in-class discussion, using the links below or similar resources to guide students’ responses.

• BBC News provides a succinct country profile on the Dominican Republic, including a timeline.
• This article from Britannica provides in-depth information on the history of the Dominican Republic.

2. Consider the pros and cons of tourism for a developing country. What are some of the reasons governments might want to encourage more people to travel to a country? What are some of the negative effects that tourism may have on local economies?

Teaching Suggestion: This question directly relates to the central conflict of the novel: the sale of land to hotel developers by the government. Students should consider the pros and cons of tourism on local populations; for example, while tourism undoubtedly attracts wealthy foreigners and stimulates local economies through creating employment opportunities and injecting cash into local businesses, many communities also suffer from rising rent prices, increased cost of goods, and in the case of the novel, losing land to foreign investors. In this vein, students should be encouraged to broaden their understanding to include the point of view of local villagers.

As this is a widely-debated topic, this question might be used as an opportunity to introduce critical thinking and argumentative writing without necessarily determining a “right” or “wrong” answer. Based on the level of the class, terms such as “tourism,” “developing country,” and “local economies” might be defined prior to assigning the question. Furthermore, this question can also be adapted to a short “pros and cons” list that students can prepare at home prior to an in-class discussion on the question.

• This 2019 article from Michigan State University’s Global Edge program argues in favor of the benefits of tourism for local economies, which might connect to the theme The Government Versus the People (on the side of the debate that the government sometimes helps the people, on purpose or by chance).
• TheWorldCounts.com offers a variety of statistics regarding the impact of tourism on the environment.

Short Activity

As a form of literature, poetry is a common written expression that exemplifies The Power of Words. In this activity, you will work in a small group to analyze a specific poem. After reading the poem to yourselves and aloud as a small group, work with each other to identify the following:

• What is the theme?
• What is the structure?
• What is the rhyming pattern?
• What types of figurative language are used (if any)?

Share your results with the class.

Teaching Suggestion: This short activity prepares students for the poetic segments of the novel, particularly in introducing types, styles, structures, and figurative language. Based on the level and background of the class, this activity offers the chance to introduce or review structure (i.e., types of stanzas); basic rhyming patterns (e.g., “ABCB,” etc.), figurative language (e.g., alliterations, metaphors, personifications, similes, etc.), and more popular forms of poetry (e.g., ballads, haikus, sonnets, prose, etc.). All of these elements of poetry are incorporated throughout this TU in the “During Reading” Short Answer Questions and in the “After Reading” Multiple Choice Questions.  

• Poetry Foundation offers “Ten Poems Students Love to Read Out Loud” with brief explanations.
• This article in From Whispers to Roars literary magazine offers a brief introduction to two contrasting types of poetry: prose poems and sonnets; and this poem by Dominican poet and novelist Julia Alvarez is an example of blank verse.

Differentiation Suggestion: For more advanced classes, students can also write their own examples of poems, incorporating the different elements they have learned about. These poems might be shared with the class, either individually or in groups, along with an explanation of the forms of the elements they chose to incorporate into their poem.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Consider the adage “Actions speak louder than words.” Do you believe there is truth in this? Why or why not? Think of a time in your life as an example as to why you either support or negate this adage.

Teaching Suggestion: This question encourages students to consider one of the central themes in the novel, The Power of Words, while simultaneously introducing a form of figurative language. While most people are familiar with the idea that people’s actions have more weight than the words they say, Ana Rosa continues to advocate that words have power in the stories that they tell, as they can shape people’s thinking and, as is the case for her birth father, rewrite stories so there are more favorable outcomes.