5.01 question 2

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More room
More Room by Judith Coffer is a short story of her grandmother’s house which she called la casa de mama. She describes how the house came to be what it is now. As her family grew, so did her house, as each child came with a new room. She goes on to describe how her grandmother who wanted to be strong for her family gave up on her husband and in the process gained her own room. Coffer uses very simple similes and metaphor to add such a rich touch to a rather ordinary story.
Coffer calls her grandmother’s house a bird, but not just any bird rather a nesting hen with its wings spread. The metaphor gives the house a nurturing character and means that she open to letting her children go. “It rested on its perch like a great bluebird, not the flying sort of bird, more like a nesting hen, but with spread wings” (Coffer 1). Her children weren’t bound to her, but they knew where the home was. It shows the patience and endurance of being able to sit in one place. It was this house that gave rise to eight children and several grandchildren while at the same time standing on its foundation. Years later her children would be scattered all around.
The main room in this house was her grandmother’s room. Judith calls it the heart of the house. “Her own room is the heart of the house” (Coffer 1). It is a symbolic part of the house. It held all the secrets of the household from the chifforobe that could not be opened to the stories about the family that the grandmother held in her heart.

It was here where everything started; the house itself, the birth of her children and it was where the master of the house resided. From the story, it is clear that her grandmother used her room for anything that mattered even taking care of the grandchildren. In this room things that were sent from everywhere were displayed here, giving the room a character.

Works Cited
Cofer, Judith Ortiz. (1991)  More Room. Arte Publico Press, pp. 1-3.