But Laura had gotten used to the life here. She did not want to go back to the old country where, de la Torre or not, she was only a wife and a mother (and a failed one at that, since she had never provided the required son). Better an independent nobody than a high-class house slave. She did not come straight out and disagree with her husband's plans. Instead, she fussed with him about reading the papers in bed, soiling their sheets with those poorly printed, foreign tabloids. "The Times is not that bad!" she'd claim if her husband tried to humor her by saying they shared the same dirty habit.

How do Laura’s interactions with her husband reveal the conflict she experiences?


She becomes an independent nobody and decides to reject her role as a high-class housewife and mother.

She reads the newspapers with her husband to keep up on Dominican politics and plans a return to their homeland.

Instead of getting used to her new life in America, she secretly hopes that her husband will return the family to the Dominican Republic.

Instead of openly disagreeing with her husband’s desire to return to the Dominican Republic, she criticizes the foreign papers he reads