Tula ["Books are door shaped"]

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2013

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Power of Books

Engle’s poem centers around books. Tula would read, and is forbidden from reading, all types of books: ”Poems. / Stories. / Plays” (Lines 20-22). This alludes to the real-life Tula, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, writing in many genres. For instance, other “Tula” poems in The Lightning Dreamer are about the plays she wrote for an orphan theater under the supervision of nuns. Books, both printed and imagined, are a source of companionship and escape for the orphans and for Tula.

Tula imagines the power of books as a gentle, almost parental, force. Books, she says, are “carrying me” (Line 3). This diction gives a sense of embodied and caring arms. After her father passed, Tula imbued his books with his supportive spirit. In another poem titled “Tula,” that appears later in The Lightning Dreamer, Tula begins with “On lonely nights, I remember / my father, who allowed me to read” (Lines 1-2). This connects to “Tula [Books are door-shaped]” in that both poems show how books help Tula feel “less alone” (Line 7). The diction about combating loneliness characterizes books as companions after losing her father.

Constructions of Femininity

Tula’s father had a different conception of femininity than did her mother. In the poem “Tula [On lonely nights, I remember],” her father’s support of her love of books made her feel “like [her] brother’s equal” (Line 5). However, “Tula [Books are door-shaped]” is set after her father’s death, when Tula is subjected to her mother’s constructions of femininity. Tula’s mother believes “[g]irls are not supposed to think” (Line 24). Underlying this construction of femininity is Tula’s mother’s desire to marry her daughter in order to inherit her grandfather’s sugar plantation. She believes rich suitors will not be interested in a smart, well-read girl.

However, the poem turns this concept on its head by the final stanza. In her fantasy stories—her mental books—Tula features “clever” (Line 49) girls as heroes. The contrast of “trapped” thoughts (Line 29) and “free thoughts” (Line 26) also speak to how society believes a woman’s mind should work. Adhering to gender norms decided by her mother is a trap to keep Tula within certain boundaries (intellectual and physical). Freedom from these gender expectations is defined by being able to read and create fantasy stories.

Imagination as Liberation

Imagination allows Tula to not only mentally escape gender expectations, but also envision the possibilities of another world. Books, written by others and by Tula, are “magical” (Line 41) in their capacity to reveal another “universe” (Line 42). Rather than only write about the hardships of gender inequality and slavery, Tula creates imaginary worlds offering more equitable ways of interacting with human beings who have different genders and skin tones. Instead of demonizing others, the “ancient warriors” (Line 34) in her fantasy stories fight supernatural creatures, like “ghosts” (Line 32).

The poem ends with Tula’s heroines rescuing children from “monsters” (Line 51). These, and other supernatural creatures, could be read as symbolic representations of forces that drive individuals to commit horrific acts—the peculiar institution of slavery itself or the economic practice of selling child brides. The fantasy genre allows for coding liberatory content, such as the defeat of inhuman creatures representing defeating oppressive (inhuman) systems.