“The Rain God”: Repression Within the Angel Family

1493 Words3 Pages

Family is one of the most important institutions in society. Family influences different aspects of a person’s life, such as their religion, values, morals and behavior. Unfortunately, problems may arise when an individual’s belief system or behavior does not coincide with that of family standards. Consequently, individuals may be forced to repress their emotions or avoid acting in ways that that are not acceptable to the family. In the novel The Rain God, written by Arturo Islas, we are presented with a story about a matriarchal family that deals with various conflicts. One major internal conflict is repression. Throughout the novel the characters act in strange ways and many of the family members have internal “monsters” that represent the past that they are repressing. In his article, “The Historical Imagination in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God and Migrant Souls”, Antonio C. Marquez’s implicitly asserts a true idea that The Rain God is a story about repression. Marquez’s idea can be supported from an analysis of secondary sources and a reading of the primary text.

In his article, Marques implicitly argues that The Rain God is story about repression. His idea is expressed through the historical imagination, which Marquez describes as the recreation of the “burden of history”, which represent the past of the characters that has caused their repression. Their past has become a burden because the Angel family cannot break away from the repression their history is creating. In his article, the idea of the historical imagination can be seen in the following, “The role of the commentator is given to Miguel Chico an inner historian who recalls, recasts, assesses, and seeks an understanding of events from his family history”. This quote...

... middle of paper ...

...vel The Rain God is a story about repression.

Works Cited

Gonzales-Berry, Erlinda.“Sensuality, Repression, and Death in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God.” Bilingual Review 12 (1984): 258-261.

Islas, Arturo. The Rain God. New York: Harper Collins, 1984.

Marquez C, Antonio. “The Historical Imagination in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God and Migrant Souls.” Melus 19 Theory, Culture and Criticism (1994): 3-16. JSTOR. Web. 2 Dec. 2004

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/467722

Rice, David. “Sinners Among Angels, or Family History and the Ethnic Narrator in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God and Migrant Souls.” Harwood Academic 11 (2000): 169- 197.

Sanchez E, Marta. “Arturo Islas’ The Rain God: An Alternative Tradition.” American Literature 62 (1990): 284-304. JSTOR. Web. 12 Dec. 2004.

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2926917

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