Makioka Sisters & Pedro Paramo
Though the two books, The Makioka Sisters and Pedro Paramo appear to be a part of two entirely separate worlds, some connections can be seen throughout the works. Junichiro Tanizaki uses The Makioka Sisters to tell the tale of four beautiful sisters who’s lives are encompassed by a world of tradition and propriety. While at the same time Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Paramo is exploring these same ideas of obligation and in the best term, formalities. This is the key to these two works, formalities. Each culture and time is experiencing pressures and obligations due to the characters’ belief in observing formalities and traditions.
Both books open to a dilemma that plagues the characters and can be tied back to the observation of formalities. The Makioka family is desperately seeking a husband for the third sister, Yukiko. Sachiko explains “In…hopes of finding Yukiko a worthy husband, they had refused the proposals that in earlier years had showered upon them. Not one seemed quite what they wanted” (9). This prestigious Osaka family presumes that they must adhere to every formality to its highest degree in order to uphold their reputation and honor. A suitor has yet to meet what they believe must be their standards. The head of the family, Tatsuo has been displeased with the men that have sought Yukiko’s hand, he believes that the “old and once-important family” cannot afford to take in a man who might humble or disgrace “the dignity of the Makioka name” (8). The family is weaving itself into a web of pain and humiliation through their insistence to comply with the precedence of exalting and sheltering the Makioka name at any cost, even that of love and happiness. Juan Preciado is also being thrust into a dilemma when he makes attempts to follow through with empty civilities.
Rulfo opens this story with Preciado traveling to the small, desolate village of Comala.
After the death of Preciado’s mother, he decides to uphold the promise he made to her by visiting his estranged father, Pedro Paramo, whom he never knew. Preciado admits, “I didn’t intend to keep my promise. But then I began to think about what she told me, until I couldn’t stop thinking and even dreaming about it, and building a whole world around that Pedro Paramo. That’s why I came to Comala” (1). Preciado is brought to this insufferable village because of an empty promise that he made to his dying mother.
...ates a deeper sense of solidarity between women. By making the two share the house’s ownership, which is often acquainted with the womanly duty or “place”, Ferré suggests that the constant “other” presence was finally allowed to take over the home. Creating characters that shared a name, lover, and societal restriction reinforces the outspoken solidarity.
As a young child, Rodriguez finds comfort and safety in his noisy home full of Spanish sounds. Spanish, is his family's' intimate language that comforts Rodriguez by surrounding him in a web built by the family love and security which is conveyed using the Spanish language. "I recognize you as someone close, like no one outside. You belong with us, in the family, Ricardo.? When the nuns came to the Rodriquez?s house one Saturday morning, the nuns informed the parents that it would be best if they spoke English. Torn with a new since of confusion, his home is turned upside down. His sacred family language, now banished from the home, transforms his web into isolation from his parents. "There was a new silence in the home.? Rodriguez is resentful that it is quiet at the dinner table, or that he can't communicate with his parents about his day as clearly as before. He is heartbroken when he overhears his mother and father speaking Spanish together but suddenly stop when they see Rodriguez. Thi...
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist, Cleofilas, had an illusion that all romances are like the ones she has seen on television. However, she soon realizes that her relationship with Juan Pedro was nothing like what she had dreamed it would be. Cisneros wants to emphasize the idea that when men bring home the primary source of income in the family, they feel they have power over their wives. Cisneros uses Juan Pedro in the story to portray this idea. For instance, Cleofilas often tells herself that if she had any brains in her, she would realize that Juan Pedro wakes up before the rooster to earn his living to pay for the food in her belly and a roof over her head (Cisneros, 1991, p.249). Cisneros wants to make a point that when men feel that they have power over their wives, women begin to feel a sense of low self-worth.
In conclusion, through its plot, characterization, and rhetorical devices such as tone, George Washington Gomez is an anti-corrido. However, it must be said that perhaps in its purpose as an anti-corrido, the novel is a corrido. In telling the story of Guánlito, the anti-hero of the Mexicotexans, perhaps Paredes is singing the readers his own border ballad, an ironic, cautionary tale to the Chicanos to remember who they are and where they came from and to resist, always, as a corrido hero would.
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist, Cleofilas, had an illusion that all romance is like the ones she had seen on television. However, she soon realizes that her relationship with Juan Pedro was nothing like what she had dreamed of. Cisneros wanted to emphasize the idea that when men bring home the primary source of income in the family, they feel they have power over their wives. Therefore, Cisneros used Juan Pedro in the story to portray this idea. For instance, Cleofilas often tells herself that if she had any brains in her, she would realize that Juan Pedro wakes up before the rooster to earn his living to pay for the food in her belly and a roof over her head (Cisneros, 1991, p.249). Cisneros wanted to make a point that when men feel that they have power over their wives, the woman begins to feel a sense of low self-worth.
Marriage, often thought of as a sacred union of the utmost importance, is portrayed in both A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov, and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, as a minor issue rather than a key part of the lives of the main characters. Marriage is unimportant to both main characters Pechorin and Clara. Lermontov uses Pechorin?s refusal of commitment, while being an object of desire and passion, to illustrate that men should keep their independence from women to protect their power. On the other hand, Allende uses Clara?s priorities of spirituality and children above her husband and marriage to suggest that women?s power does not depend on men.
Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth chapter, namely the domestic abuse scene, functions as a pivotal point in the Mother Tongue as it helps her to define herself.
The authors chose two different initial relationships in their works. Marquez uses a soon to be married couple, Florentino and Fermina. Kafka decides to use a brother-sister relationship between Gregor and Grete. The relationship between Fermina and Florentino began when Florentino said “All I ask is that you accept a letter from me”(Marquez 60). Their initial relationship was characterized by their newfound love. They sent letters and poems back and forth to one another, engaged in a long distance relationship when Lorenzo Daza, Fermina’s father, moved Fermina away with her cousin Hildebranda and even had secret passwords. Florentino was noted in the book for making himself sick by eating flowers because he was so in love with Fermina. In the case of Gregor and Grete, they treated each other just as any brother and sister would. They could count on each other and i...
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.
Elena Poniatowska escrita durante una epoca de cambio en Mexico. Antes de sus obras las mujeres mexicanas eran sometidos, docil, y pasivo. En la tiempo de sus obras las mujeres estaba tratando salir de los estereotipos de antes. Esta problema social tomo un afecto en Elena. Aunque ella no viene de un movimiento literatura directamente, ella escrita con el concepto de compremetido. En su narrative El Recado ella crea un mujer estereotipical que no puede controlar sus emociones. La titula es eso porque ella viene a ver su amante, pero el no esta, asi ella escribe las cosas que sentia. La perspectiva es de un personaje y ella nunca interacta con otros personajes. En facto la unica descripcion de un personaje otro de la protagonista es de su amante Martin. Habla de otros personajes, pero solamente de sus acciones. Porque ellas es la unica perspectiva que tenemos es sencillo a sentar compasion para una protagonista de quien nombre no aun sabemos. Ella da la descripcion de toda que vea, y mas importante todo que se sienta. Tambien tropos y figuras retoricas dan un tono significante al poema. Estos sentimientos de la portagonista y el tono emocional de la narrativa transporta una tema de una mujer estereotipical y debil quien quiere ser reconocido.
Allende’s character Esteban Trueba has a very intricate life. Through his triumphs and defeats and through the different places of this novel, Allende portrays several elements that clearly exemplify historical, political and economic events in Chile. Esteban’s life is that of the low class in Chile. He usually longs for power and money to make good things happen. After leaving, his mother and sister, and starting a new and independent life, Esteban’s ideology changes dramatically. For the first time he directly experiments success and wealth. He feels as if he has no problems, mainly because he does not have a family to weigh him down. Trueba's move to Three Marias seems to appease his hunger temporarily, before his monstrous, demanding, and ever growing needs overwhelms him. The type of lifestyle achieved by Esteban Trueba in Three Marias far surpassed that of living with his mother and sister, however only brief moments of satisfaction are incurred. These, previously mentioned, moments created a hunger for perfection and greed that would continue perpetuate at any cost. Only when Trueba receives a letter from Ferula does he remember his life with her and his mother, which forces him to endure his memories of poverty and pain. He even remembers the smell of medicine, which had encompassed their home. These memories force Esteban to reflect on the reasons and ideas that made him leave his origins. He reminisces on that portion of his life, occupied by the deterioration of his family.
...y 10). Manolin’s parents resort to the one thing they think is correct for their son, which requires courage from the both of them. Although Manolin is not in accord with his parents’ decisions, he must obey. His parents may believe that they have gained a victory in keeping Manolin away from Santiago, but that is not the situation at hand.
The short stories “Souls Belated” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” have in common ‘Marriage’ as main theme. However, the marriage is treated quite differently in both short stories. In "Souls Belated", Lydia chooses to take control of her destiny, to deviate from conventions and to choose what is good for her. She is the strongest character of the couple. Whereas, in "The Yellow Wallpaper", the name of the main character who is also the narrator of the story is not known. She is identified as being John’s wife. This woman, contrary to Lydia in "Souls Belated" is completely locked up in her marriage. This essay will first describe and compare the characters of Lydia and John's wife in the context of marriage, and then it will look at how marriage is described, treated and experienced by couples in these two short stories.
Life in Mexico was, before the Revolution, defined by the figure of the patron that held all of power in a certain area. Juan Preciado, who was born in an urban city outside of Comala, “came to Comala because [he] had been told that [his] father, a man named Pedro Paramo lived there” (1). He initially was unaware of the general dislike that his father was subjected to in that area of Mexico. Pedro was regarded as “[l]iving bile” (1) by the people that still inhabited Comala, a classification that Juan did not expect. This reveals that it was not known by those outside of the patron’s dominion of the cruel abuse that they levied upon their people. Pedro Paramo held...
The two novels prove the claim of the research, which is working on the female characters; and that is why these novels are chosen and made a comparison between them. Both of the writers make their protagonists the victims and from another side send to them the one who will help them to overcome their ordeal. Finally, their life has completely changed and reached what they want.