In Abuela Invents the Zero by Judith Ortiz Cofer, the differences and similarities between Connie and her grandmother, Abuela, show their individuality. One of Abuela’s notable characteristics is her thoughtfulness, which is clear when Connie recounts, “Once home, she refuses to let my mother buy her a coat because it’s a waste of money for the two weeks she’ll be in el Polo Norte, as she calls New Jersey, the North Pole”(Cofer 4). In contrast, Connie is self-absorbed and impatient. “My father decides that he should stay home with my mother and that I should escort la abuela to church. He tells me this on Saturday night as I’m getting ready to go out to the mall with my friends.
‘No way,’ I say.
I go for the car keys on the kitchen table: he usually leaves them there for me …show more content…
Ten o’clock. I’m out of here.’ I pry his fingers off the key ring. He knows that I’m late, so he makes it just a little difficult. Then he laughs. I run out of our apartment before he changes his mind. I have no idea what I’m getting myself into”(Cofer 4-10). Connie gives her dad short, to-the-point answers because she is impatient to go out. Connie thinks of her commitment to be at a fashion show as more important than her grandmother’s need to go to church. Something similar in both Abuela and Connie was their stubbornness. Consistently throughout the story, Connie is adamant about not being associated or seen with her grandmother. This results in Abuela being hurt and refusing to acknowledge Connie as Connie herself recounts, “The rest of the mass is a blur. All I know is that my grandmother kneels the whole time with her hands over her face. She doesn’t speak to me on the way home, and she doesn’t let me help her walk, even though she almost falls a couple of times”(Cofer 15). While Connie and her grandmother might be opposite in their consideration of others, similarities between the two were bound to show especially because they are, after all, grandmother and