Coldest Winter Ever Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“ What good is all this, baby, if I can’t show it off? I need family to share in what you have given us” (14).

Upon first arrival of the house, everyone but Winter fell in love with it. She reasoned that her sisters were too young to understand the loyaly they were suppose to have to Brooklyn. She admitted it was a huge step up from their apartment in Brooklyn, but she still missed being in the hood. After a while though, even her mother gets a little bored with the quiet neighborhood and begs Santiaga to allow her to invite some family and friends for Saturday house parties.  Santiaga agrees and soon her mother is happy. But Winter is still left with nothing to do so she finds out where the mall is and makes a trip. The mall has many of her favorite designers so it passes her quality test.

On one trip to the mall she takes her siblings with her. She makes sure to wear her “These are not my Fucking Kids” shirt while out with them.

My Take

         This was a short chapter, composed of only 4 pages, but we get some good detail  in here that lets us know more about Winter’s personality.  First off, there seems to be a strong sense of loyalty to her borough Brooklyn. She used the word “betray” in reference to the happiness her sisters displayed with the new house.

Her mother was excited about it also but quickly gets bored when there is no one to show off her new big house to., “ What good is all of this, baby, if I cant show it off?” Thinking of this line now, it is such a silly and immature statement, yet so many people get caught up in the mentality today. It would be different if we got a sense that she wanted her family and friends around to truly enjoy the experience with her, but this isn’t the cause.  This is because, even though she is in this lovely house she can’t fully enjoy it because there is no one she can brag too about it.

Something small but note worthy I noticed in this chapter was a simply description Winter gives of dressing up her sister, “I did their hair up nice in some grown-up hair styles,” (15).  This stuck out to me because of Winter’s need to dress them up older than what they really were. We don’t know exactly how they’re hair was styled, just that it was a “grown-up” style, so we can assume they weren’t in pigtails.  My question is, however, why not? Why couldn’t they be styled their age?  This is a perfect scene in which she is repeating what her mom does to her. In the way her mom doesn’t regard her sexual activity as anything Winter should hold on to (which would result in unplanned teen pregnancy repeating her mom’s cycle) She repeats this with her sisters.

Another interesting point is the fact that there are in the house all day with nothing to do. It baffles me now reading this. We know that Winter does not go to school. And if she doesn’t, then it is safe to say that the others do not go either. We also know that Santiaga is running the streets all day and doesn’t come back until late. It begs the question, why Mrs. Santiaga can’t take the girls and do something together with them. I know stay at home mothers with one child who are ALWAYS busy. How is Mrs. Santiaga Bored with nothing to do with three girls?  Saturday is the only day Mrs. Santiaga gets to go and do her thing. However, she doesn’t bring her girls with her, Winter has to babysit. So on the occasion she takes her sisters to the mall with her for what we think is a regular sibling bonding day- and it might certainly feel that way, we realize the shirt she wore, “These are not my Fucking kids” and it indicates that it is not.