Summary of the Autobiographical Story "Only Daughter" by Sandra Cisneros (For BBS and BA First Year)

Only Daughter

- Sandra Cisneros

Brief and Simple Summary:

The autobiographical story “Only Daughter” written by a Mexican-American author, poet and educator Sandra Cisneros is about her horrible experiences of her childhood. Born to a Mexican father and a Mexican-American mother, she is the only daughter in her family after her six brothers. Through the story, the author shares how she was ill-treated in her family by her male family members and how she achieved success in the patriarchal family of six sons and only a daughter.

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The author remembers that her childhood was completely joyless and meaningless because she was not treated like a family member in her own family by her father and brothers. Her father never took her as his daughter, so he would always tell everyone that he was the father of seven sons. Another painful thing was that her brothers did not want to play with her because they took that activity as an inferior activity. As they grew up, all seven of them went to college and made remarkable careers. Her father would praise his sons for their success, but he was disappointed when his daughter graduated from college without a husband. Her father was glad when she had received education, but he always expected her to be married and have her own family. All the time, he was disappointed that his daughter did not marry, but she wanted to make her father proud becoming a writer. From her childhood, she had her dream of becoming a writer majoring in English. But nobody paid attention to her dream. Although she got discouragement and discard from her father and brothers, the helped  her to spend time alone to think, imagine, prepare, read and write. Finally, after completing her college education and spending ten years in writing professionally, she became a noted writer and professor. After developing her career and becoming successful, she returned home for Christmas from Chicago. At that time, she brought her father a copy of one of her stories that had been translated into Spanish and published in Mexico. She became surprised when her father carefully and slowly read the book. When he finished reading, he appeared to be happy and proud of his daughter and even said, “Where can we get more copies of this for relatives?” Eventually, that made her blissful and satisfied because she became successful to gain her father’s respect and approval, which became the most wonderful gift for her.

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