In both books the characters have similar problems, although the big powers that create them act in different ways and the characters react in different ways too. And the way they react to it is influenced by the group. In Lion Island: Cuba’s Warrior of Words by: Margarita Angle the major characters together organized a rebellion and set out what they have to do, and it happens on a big scale. Differently from Finding Wonder the group is smaller and it major times affects just the group of the tree girls. The groups they live may inspire them to do somethings.
In the books we have more than one major character that are a reflection of Thereza time. In the two books the perspectives of the characters are a way to see the condition of many people in the world at the story’s time. They can show a whole situation of different groups, a specific one or a small one, they can be categorized by, social class, place, culture, ethnicity, and place they have in the society. The groups and perspectives affect the way characters react to the world. It is a way to see the reality of many people at that time, What they wanted to achieve and their identity. In Lion Island, Wing, for example, represents the ”Quadrillas” that fight against colonization in Cuba. In Finding Wonders the tree sisters they are a reflection of the sexism of that time that influenced Thereza life.
In the two books the characters have different reactions to the power and this affects differently changes the lapse of the story. In the two stories the groups of the main characters don’t have more power than the group they are fighting against. In Lion Island the most powerful group is the alliance between the Chinese and Spanish empire which influences the following and the motifs makes how characters see the world. In finding Wonders the characters have to fight against the society and the influence they have in their lives with preconception they suffer. The big powers use them in different ways in each book. In Lion Island Spain and China’s alliance use violence to suppress Cuba’s people rebellions and culture, although in Finding Wonders the society excludes what is different and what they think it’s wrong by not giving them an opportunity, and if they have a rebellion or get discovered then they can use violence. But even before something starts they are already being excluded which repress new ideas. The power influences in the same way they do in both books, it takes fear to go against the big powers, even if they do this in different ways. The characters in Lion island have different ways to react to the power, one day they unite themselves for a rebellion, to runaway from the Spanish hands, after it happened, they followed different curses, one of the most common and followed by Wing one of the main characters is the is with violence, Wing escaped do go to the ”Quadrillas” the front line of the rebellion in cuba. In finding Wonders the characters react to power by making what they wanted without being noticed or discriminated. In finding Wonders the characters live in a society that have a big discrimination complex in it, they oppress other ideas and movements. The three girls have to fight against it. The dad left them and now they have to sustain these shelves too. They have to sell paints, which is an unusual thing for women to do, so they have to do it in the dark beyond what society can discover. In Lion Island some characters used violence reacting to the power while in Finding Wonders they don’t use violence. They find a way to still produce their paints and sell them without the society knowing it. Through this we can see that even using violence, they wanted to change the world to be better in their vision, although in Finding Wonders they want to change things but without breaking something in the society, in comparison it was not an option to wing and the other characters because the power used violence against them. But even if they can sell their paints they don’t change the situation of people in the same conditions as them. So they changed just themselves differently from the wing because they changed the whole Cuba, Wing even having an impact that was not different from other rebellions and from other people in the ”Quadrillas” it had an impact but not so strong then others separately.
The characters have a contribution to the theme In the books we have different perspectives that reflect times and are a Way to understand it. In Lion Island we have the perspectives of the people and how they overcame the problems they had similar to Finding Wonders, we can see how they overcame it too. In Finding Wonders the characters overcome it without having a big reaction, more adapting themselves than changing, in contrast to Lion Island that the characters and movement that happened in cuba change more things than having an adaptation. The theme tells us that we can face our problems with our groups that we have to face them together.
In both books we had the perspective of the life of different persons in this times. making an immersion in that time, that can help readers understand how the situation was at that time, and how they react and overcome it and how it affects and changes groups today. In both books the characters have to face different problems that are caused by big powers, but the group they are from face this situation as one overcoming them. By comparing and contrasting different aspects of each book like:theme, power and how characters reacted to the power and how this influences the story. By this we can make the conclusion that in both books characters try to defeat big challenges that their groups face, although they are different in many aspects, that are caused by somethings of their time.
