More handpicked essays just for you.
themes in women hollering creek
woman hollering creek characterization
woman hollering creek characterization
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: themes in women hollering creek
Sandra Cisneros 's story of Woman Hollering Creek describes the tale of Cleofilas, A woman from Mexico who marries her love - who soon turns into her abuser - and moves to a Latin community in the U.S. In this journal I 'll be sharing how I feel how Cleofilas upbringing lead her to being attached to an abusive man and my thoughts on the story.
Cleofilas grew up without a proper female representation in her life. She had a tough masculine father and six brothers. This made her base her feminine self and expectations for life off of the popular romantic telenovelas that she watched and the characters in it. The telenovelas gave her the expectation that love could only be paaionate, dramatic, and that you should cling onto the love of your life even through unfaithfulness and abuse. It gave her a bad message in that even through such negativities you can live with that person happily ever after afterwards. These telenovelas are what directily lead her down the path dependency and submissiveness.
…show more content…
My first image when reading this part about the telenovela was a woman throwing herself like a goon at an idealistically handsome man with his fist out for her face to fall into and he makes out with her best friend. Then she gets up tp throw herself once more. To me it screams unrealistic dependency and idealism, and to girl already growing up with high idealism and no solid experience with love, I can see how she fell into Juan Pedro 's love trap when she met
Cleofilas is a young lady excited to marry Juan Pedro. Cisneros uses Cleofilas to symbolize someone who can not separate reality from real life. She comes from a family with six siblings and no mother. Leaving her father as the head of the house hold. She uses the television shows to teach herself feminine responsibilities and life lessons. Cleofilas envisions her perfect life though the eyes of the television shows she watches conscientiously. The television shows are used to show Cleofilas how life could be, but she takes it to be her own .
Macaria’s Daughter, by Americo Paredes, is a murderous tale of male dominance and female virtue where there is a sacrifice between an altar of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the marriage bed of two distinct cultures. This story is set in south Texas and surprises the reader with the murder of a beautiful young woman named Marcela. She is found in the bedroom, lying on the floor in a pool of blood, 30 to 40 knife stabs decorate her breasts, while the local men gaze indifferently on her lifeless body. Her husband, Tony, who is at the scene, hands over the knife to the local authorities, the Texan police, who are dressed in tall, spiffy Stetson hats.
In the short story “Woman Hollering Creek” the conflict of the story is between the main characters Cleofilas, the protagonist, and Juan, the antagonist who are married. The conflict stems from Cleofilas’ perception of how a wife should be treated versus Juan’s idea of how to treat
Symbolism is the key to understanding Sandra Cisneros’ novel, “The House on Mango Street”. By unraveling the symbolism, the reader truly exposes the role of not only Latina women but women of any background. Esperanza, a girl from a Mexican background living in Chicago, writes down what she witnesses while growing up. As a result of her sheltered upbringing, Esperanza hardly comprehends the actions that take place around her, but what she did understand she wrote in her journal. Cisneros used this technique of the point of view of a child, to her advantage by giving the readers enough information of what is taking place on Mango Street so that they can gather the pieces of the puzzle a get the big picture.
This novel is a story of a Chicano family. Sofi, her husband Domingo together with their four daughters – Esperanza, Fe, Caridad, and Loca live in the little town of Tome, New Mexico. The story focuses on the struggles of Sofi, the death of her daughters and the problems of their town. Sofi endures all the hardships and problems that come her way. Her marriage is deteriorating; her daughters are dying one by one. But, she endures it all and comes out stronger and more enlightened than ever. Sofi is a woman that never gives up no matter how poorly life treats her. The author- Ana Castillo mixes religion, super natural occurrences, sex, laughter and heartbreak in this novel. The novel is tragic, with no happy ending but at the same time funny and inspiring. It is full of the victory of the human spirit. The names of Sofi’s first three daughters denote the three major Christian ideals (Hope, Faith and Charity).
Junot Diaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is focused on the hyper-masculine culture of the Dominican, and many argue that his portrayal of the slew of women in the novel is misogynistic because they are often silenced by the plot and kept out of the narration (Matsui). However, Diaz crafts strong women, and it is society that views them as objects. The novel recognizes the masculine lens of the culture while still examining the lives of resilient women. In this way, the novel showcases a feminist stance and critiques the misogynist culture it is set in by showcasing the strength and depth of these women that help to shape the narrative while acknowledging that it is the limits society places on them because of their sexuality
Brent, Linda. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. L. Maria Child. San Diego:
Sandra Cisneros portraits Clemencia in various ways in “Never Marry a Mexican”. Clemencia is stuck in an interracial world, she wants to fit in, not only fit in but become better, become more powerful and loved. Clemencia is a very resentful woman, she is full of hatred, not only for others but also within her own self. Clemencia is a mistress of several men, but one in particular who she happens to find herself in love with, Drew. Clemencia becomes extremely obsessed with her relationship with Drew. “You think I went hobbling along with my life, whimpering and whining like some twangy country-and-western when you went back to her. But I’ve been waiting. Making the world look at you from my eyes.” (pg. 59) Clemencia’s resentment against Megan, Drew’s white wife, goes beyond the necessity of having Drew, but also involves the belief that she will never be like that “ redheaded Barbie Doll in fur coat” (pg. 64) referring to Megan due to the racial inequality she has grown to experience throughout her life.
In the Book women are looked upon as objects by men whether they are boyfriends, friends fathers or husbands. The girls in the novel grow up with the mentality that looks and appearance are the most important things to a woman. Cisneros also shows how Latino women are expected to be loyal to their husbands, and that a husband should have complete control of the relationship. Yet on the other hand, Cisneros describes the character Esperanza as being different. Even though she is born and raised in the same culture as the women around her, she is not happy with it, and knows that someday she will break free from its ties, because she is mentally strong and has a talent for telling stories. She comes back through her stories by showing the women that they can be independent and live their own lives. In a way this is Cinceros' way of coming back and giving back to the women in her community.
Federico García Lorca’s poem “La casada infiel” depicts the story of a gypsy who makes love to a married woman on the shore of a river. When looking deeper into the poem, Lorca appears to provide a critical observation on the values of the conservative society at the time in which he lived. The woman, at her most basic reading, is treated as an object, elaborating on the sexist values in society at the time. Lorca addresses issues of sexism as well as issues of sexuality within society mainly through the poem’s sexist narrative voice, objectification of the female character and overriding sense of a lack of desire throughout the poem. His achievement to do so will be analysed throughout this commentary with particular attention to Lorca’s use of poetic techniques such as diction, personification and imagery.
Cleofilas, must endure the hard labor of her husband’s temper and if she doesn’t take on both gender roles for example: housework, caring for her children, and the outside duties of the home, she suffers the consequences of her husband and the beatings. Juan Pedro, Cleofilas husband is just like society in this situation, he doesn’t think twice about laying a hand on his wife. Whereas, in Cleofilas situation, society doesn’t want to get involved and will place the incident “under the rug” they don’t want to be asked questions, by the husband or the
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.
Reyna Grande 's novel, Across a Hundred Mountains, focuses on the dynamic of the development and rethinking of the concept of a traditional Latino patriarchal family built up around male dominance. In low income and uneducated cultures, there are set of roles that throughout time have been passed by from generation to generation. These gender roles most often consist of the men being the breadwinner for the family. While the women stay home to cook, clean, and raise the children. Women are treated as possessions with limited rights and resources. Throughout the novel, Grandes challenges gender roles in the story of a young woman named Juana who, despite all adversity, fights stereotypes and is able to rewrite her own ending.
A woman’s self-worth and self-esteem are vital to experiencing happiness in a marriage. In addition, low self-esteem will cause a woman to feel abandoned, because she is not getting enough emotional support from her husband. Cisneros demonstrated this through the character of Cleofilas in the story. For example, Cleofilas often reminds herself why she loves Juan Pedr...
The story contains the old tale of La Llorona, a woman who drowned her children and was cursed to walk the earth in search of their bodies. Woman Hollering Creek was written in the year of 1991, so it applies to the third wave feminism. The telenovelas were the thing that gave Cleófilas hope throughout her marriage and escaped. The author has it so to liberate how important the fact that Cleófilas ' returned to Mexico set her free. In the hard town of the United States, she had no option but to submit to her husband. However, in the warm town of Mexico, where she once lived, she is able to gain independence as a woman. The story ends with running away from her husband, with the help of a woman, Felice, who takes her back to Mexico. But leaving that world, and crossing the river in order to ultimately return to Mexico, gives Cleófilas a new perspective. Her companion, Felice hollers when they cross the river, but not in either anger or pain, when crossing over the creek means Cleófilas is returning to Mexico, and becomes not angry or painful, but