The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo Literary Analysis Essay Sample

In the novel, The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, the main character Xiomara battles with her view of religion. Throughout the novel, Xiomara faces internal and external influences that affect her outlook on religion. Xiomara is influenced by the church’s rules and clergy, her mom, and the concept of free will. Her experiences with the Catholic Church are primarily negative. However, she has moments of understanding and sympathy when people stop and listen to her voice. Though Xiomara does not become the rigid ideal her mother tries to force her to become, by the novel’s end she sees how a less extreme experience of religion can still allow her to have a voice.

In the novel, the church portrays women in a negative light. Based on how the Bible and religious adults portray women in Catholicism, Xiomara feels inferior or sinful because of her gender. Xiomara struggles to accept “the way that church / treats a girl like me differently. / Sometimes it feels / all I’m worth is under my skirt” (Acevedo 21). The misogynistic tendencies invoked by the Catholic church suppress Xiomara’s voice. The only examples of women in the church ever offered to Xiomara are “sinners” like Delilah and Lot’s wife, or the actually perfect Virgin Mary. Xiomara is an independent woman who believes that women should have the freedom to express themselves. She disagrees with the gender roles the church teaches and the limited variations of womanhood the church offers her. This feeling of suppression comes to a head when Xiomara’s mother forces her to confess to Father Sean after kissing Aman on the train. However, during her confession, Father Sean asks if Xiomara is truly sorry. “‘Are you actually sorry, Xiomara?’ / I wait a moment. Then I shake my head, no. Say: / ‘I’m sorry I got in trouble. / I’m sorry I have to be here. / That I have to pretend to you and her / that I / care about confirmation at all. / But I’m not sorry I kissed a boy. / I’m only sorry I was caught. / Or that I had to hide it at all.’”(Acevedo 183-184). In the quote, the author conveys distress through Xiomara’s voice: she does not accept the shame her mother would have her feel around her actions as a woman. Despite how her mother tries to enforce church doctrine, regarding how women should behave, Xiomara feels she does not have to be classified as all good or as all bad; she can be herself without shame.

 Xiomara’s mother’s strict religious regiments negatively impact Xiomara’s emotional wellness as she constantly reminds her she is a debt to god. Xiomara’s mother is extremely devout, and she wants her daughter to feel and act the same way. When her mother was young, before moving to the United States, she wanted to be a nun. However, her family had her marry Papi and move to Queens (Acevedo 27). Xiomara’s mother’s religious devotion may have stemmed from an unhappy marriage. Papa’s history of infidelity, and recent disengagement from his family, leads Xiomara’s mother to search for connection and purpose. As a result, Xiomara’s mother clings to god, in an attempt to stay true to who she was before marrying papa. Furthermore, When Xiomara’s parents were having trouble starting a family but then discovered they were going to have a child, Xiomara was deemed a “miracle” by her mother. Because her mother reminds her of this, Xiomara feels indebted to god for “gifting” her into this world (Acevedo 23).

 Xiomara battles with the idea of free will. She feels God has a rigid plan for what and who she can be, which makes her feel powerless and conflicted in her own life. “Why does listening to his commandments / mean I need to shut down my own voice?” (Acevedo 53). Unlike her mother’s perception of Xiomara’s behavior, she is not being disobedient just for its own sake. Xiomara’s problem is not with following commandments, but with the way the commandments take away her chance to discover herself. Discovery is developmentally important and appropriate for a teenager. Over time, the tension between Xiomara’s outward conformity and inner resentment reaches a boiling point. Outside influences like Ms. Galiano and Aman, who encourage her to express herself, drive a further wedge between Xiomara and the religious devotion her parents expect. “God just wants me to behave so I can earn being alive / And what about me? What about Xiomara?” (Acevedo 270). Her view of God is that worshipping him is incompatible with being herself. It is only when Xiomara can use her voice in other areas of her life, namely her healthy self-expression through poetry, and her relationship with Aman,  that she can be open to the possibility that religion is not meant only to stifle her.  At the end of the novel, Xiomara develops a healthier relationship with God that allows her the freedom to express herself. “I don’t know what, who, or where God is. But if everything is a metaphor, I think he or she is a comparison to us. I think we are all like or as God” (Acevedo 290). This quote demonstrates how religion can be shaped into a mold that complements the worshiper’s beliefs.

Throughout the novel, Xiomara struggles with her view of religion. Xiomara’s view on religion has been shaped by her experiences with the church and her mom. Xiomara also battles with the concept of god and how listening to god suppresses her voice. By the end of the novel, although Xiomara doesn’t have the devout relationship with God that her mother wishes for her, she has developed a relationship with God that allows for her to express herself. Xiomara finds self-confidence and meaning in her religious life despite the dynamics of her social relationships with her family and the church.