Report on Sirena Selena

Sirena Selena by Mayra Santos-Febres. Use the following format:

A) Give a Historical Context if any.

The novel is placed in the Puerto Rica of today where street boys -- and there are many of them -- do rummage through garbage cans and live a torturous life for survival forced to snort and sell drugs whilst doing so.

Selena was fortunate in that he was recognized for his golden voice. There are many others, however, who similarly gifted may sing their boleros in vain. Many of them end up as prostitutes or criminal. This is the story of many Mexican children of the past and of today.

B) Give the type of plot and explain why you consider that it is specifically this plot.

Most, if perhaps all, plots can be reduced to one theme: conflict. This plot is no different. The story describes Selena's conflict with various factors that include temptation and the need for survival. Naturally gay, and seduced to a relationship with a gay person, Selena withstands the temptation and turns into a 'woman' in order to help him get out of the streets and make his way into the world.

Tobias (1993) proposes 20 basic plots. The narrative of Selena may best be described as one of 'Temptation' and perhaps also of 'metamorphosis' and 'transformation'.

Selena is tempted by love. There is also the aspect of 'metamorphosis 'in that the 15-year-old gay street hustler is turned into the diva with the golden voice.

Finally, you have the plot of 'Transformation' where Selena overcomes the pull of her long seduction for the wealthy businessman, Hugo Graubel, and chooses to replace seduction for survival.

According to Polti's 36 dramatic situations, the plot in this case would most likely resemble 'Ambition'. The vulnerable 15-year-old boy is determined to succeed and make his way in the world. Love threatens to intrude. He pushes it away and persists in retaining his guise in order to become wealthy, successful and survive.

C) Give a brief summary of the novel.

Leocadio Sirenito, a 15-year-old street boy living on the streets of San Juan is rescued by Martha Divine, who, recognizing that he has a golden voice and extraordinary beauty provides him with chanteuse-gowns for his auditions and introduces him as a diva. She also pretends to be his mistress and introduces him as Serena Selena. Divine is attracted to Selena for she sees in him patterns of correspondence to her own life.

Whilst auditioning at one of the upper class hotels in the Dominican Republic, Selena is discovered by Hugo Graubel, a wealthy investor of that hotel who married and with children has his own story. The book delves into the stories of both Divine and Graubel.

Menatime, Selena and Graubal are attracted to one another and the novel follows a tortuous description of their romance. Selena, however, eventually steps past the romance in order to succeed in his career. Selena suppresses his homosexual inclinations and becomes 'woman' in order to succeed in the world of business and competition. The novel ends with his transformation into a seducing geisha that puts money -- or the need for wealth and success -- above the lures of love.

Stories, generally, end with love prevailing. This one ends with ambition and money trumping love.

D) Name and briefly discuss the principal characters of the novel.

Sirena Selena -- Originally Leocadio, he is a 15-year-old gay street hustler who lives on the streets of San Juan after the death of his grandmother and is taught how to hustle for drugs. He is recognized by Martha Divine whop changes his name and pretends to be his mistress. Possessed with a glorious voice and beauty, he is transformed into a diva and experiences a romance with Gruabult before renouncing it for success.

Sirena is a vulnerable but resilient individual who, as the novel progresses, merges into strong-willed, disciplined young man.

Martha Divine -- She is the drag queen working the streets of San Juan 'Drag queen' is the term given for a man who dresses as woman for the sake of entertaining. She emerges as a self-focused ruthless character that mistreats children for her own end.

Hugo Graubel -- A married wealthy businessman with children and a tormented past who is sexually attracted to Sirena. He is a powerful man in the Dominican Republic. He strikes us a tormented complex character who is greedy in love and ambition.

Valentina Frenesi -- Someone who introduces Sirena to drugs and teaches him how to hustle for them.

E) Give an Analysis of the novel.

The author has an evident familiarity with the Latin culture and with the street scene of that culture. Original in that most popular novels seem to have love triumph over ambition, this one places the need for survival and drive for wealth as above all else. The novel is, consequently, thought provoking and its sub-theme of boy's transformation into woman makes it all the more so since it brings into context questions of gender, too.

The author also manages to expertly step into the skin of a street boy, who engaged in drugs most of his life, is consumed with the fervor of 'making it' and desiring to be something 'real in this world'. This is something that most readers can identify with. Fate cast the boy on the street. Fate also gave the boy a golden voice. Nature battles with nurture -- the environment -- and the boy uses his golden voice to surmount his difficulties and achieve the fame and money that he always longer for. Along the way, he experiences his conflict -- too long described in the novel - with love. The romance threatens to derail him and seems to, indeed, briefly do so. Ambition, however, prevails and Sirena quells his homosexual tendencies to successfully continue his transformation as geisha-like seductress.

The novel can be seen in one of two aspects: it can either discomfit readers by its description of Sirena's ruthless climb for ambition, or it can inspire others by its description of the boy's climb for achievement and meaning triumphing as he climbs over the hurdles that impede his way.