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Gender roles in literature
Gender roles in literature
Research on gender roles in literature
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In the novel, Under the Feet of Jesus, (Viramontes) I have focused on the female gender role that Estrella and both Cleofilas face in different situations of their life in relation to labor. Estrella, is one of the main characters that I’m writing about. She learns quickly what hard labor really is. She learns at an early age of thirteen what female and male gender roles consist of. She works inside of her family’s homes by washing the dishes, looking after the children and then working out in the hot fields picking grapes for her and family to survive.
In the short story, “Women Hollering Creek,” (Cisneros) Cleofilas, grows up without her mother, and must learn how to become a woman from a show she is watching on television. AT first, Cleofilas
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What Viramontes and Cisneros have demonstrated in their writings is that; women take on a much-needed role, and the work that women do is tough, but we will get through it, if you stay strong and become the smiling lady on the raisin box. Estrella and Cleofilas have come to accept that they don’t get much for their hard labor. They both learned how society looks at immigrants from other countries. They both were looked down upon. Estrella works hard in the hot heat. She comes to realize that picking grapes doesn’t earn enough money, and it all depended on the piece rate of the grapes. Society turns around, eats the grapes and doesn’t think twice about how the grapes came to their mouths. When the society doesn’t think of the age or person that has picked the grapes. 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
Juan Rubio was not feeling the same about his wife anymore, Richard and his sisters had to deal with the separation of his parents, and Consuelo no longer wanted to be submissive to her husband. After the move, Consuelo was exposed to a different lifestyle for women and how they handled certain situations in America. Her American friends often questioned her level of importance. Once she married Juan Rubio, Consuelo knew she would become “the anchor” of her husband and the house. Because of this, she is stuck in an internal battle with herself. She wants to be the support system her husband demands while living up to Mexican values, but desires to have the new freedoms American women have. Juan’s infidelity and the downfall of their marriage was the push that helped change Consuelo. Although she did not want to lose the affection of her husband and children, she did not want to fall victim of the stereotypical housewife. Consuelo was not finding joy in merely serving her family but wanted recognition for who she is as a woman. “But all such scenes did not end with laughter, for Richard’s mother was a different person altogether now, and constantly interfered when her husband was in the act of disciplining a child, and these interferences grew until they flared into violent quarrels” (Villarreal 134). At this point, Counselo shows us she has developed a voice of her own. She was acting and saying
In the story, Under the Feet of Jesus author Helena Maria Viramontes tells the story of a young laborer named Estrella and her family. The settings are in the Western United States and it is connecting through a summer harvest, the novel characterizes the callous working environment that influence Cesar Chavez to unionize farm laborers. Indeed, Under the Feet of Jesus is dedicated to the representative's memory. In the book, Maria Helena Viramontes tackles themes of marginalization and erasure, listening to the experience of women. The novel is important not only for its content, but for its unique switching perspective and agenda, which allows readers to see events from several perspectives. Estrella and Petra’s statements, actions and attitudes in the story comply with feminist. Feminist is a
In the story "Woman Hollering Creek" Sandra Cisneros describes the problems with living as a married woman. Cleofilas marries man who abuses her mentally as well as physically .Cisneros talks about the way society makes such a difference between a male and female, how men are superior to women."Woman Hollering Creek" is easily one of the best examples in proving the struggles of a woman. Cleofilas, who grows up without a mother and has no one to teach her and give her advise about life ,it is truly inspiring.
In “Woman Hollering Creek “by Cisneros we can see that she was influenced by the old legend la Llorona. Both La Llorona and Cleo were pretty women reaching for a perfect marriage and family but got neither. Their husbands were very abusive, led them to depression and caused a lot of pain. By Cleo knowing the legend she interpreted that the cry was telling her to go free. In this short story she includes this legend but with a happier and more independent ending.
"Suddenly Jesus met them and said, `Greetings!' And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him." (Matthew 28:9)# Near the end of each of the four Christian gospels, it is women who first discovered that the body of Jesus was missing and who were the first to report seeing him after his death. Certainly then, this is a major indication of the high involvement of women in early Christianity. With such high status undoubtedly must have come power, influence, and important positions in the early Church. But by approximately 750 C.E women had lost these major roles in the Church, and the power and influence they once had. This essay will examine the decline of women's roles in early Christianity, and argue that this loss of power was a direct result of the canons of early Eastern and Western Church councils, which were founded on patriarchal notions.
Intertwined in allusions to women of Mexican history and folklore, making it clear that women across the centuries have suffered the same alienation and victimization, Cisneros presents a woman who struggles to prevail over romantic notions of domestic bliss by leaving her husband. In the story Woman Hollering Creek, Sandra Cisneros discusses the issues of living life as a married woman through a character named Cleófilas; a character who is married to a man who abuses her physically and mentally. Cisneros reveals the way the culture puts a difference between a male and a female, men above women. In Woman Hollering Creek, we see a young Mexican woman, who suddenly moves across the border and gets married. The protagonist, Cleófilas’ character is based on a family of a six brothers and a dad and without a mom, and the story reveals around her inner feelings and secrets.
From the excerpt from the novel, “Under the Feet of Jesus” by Helena Maria Viramontes, the main character is Estrella, a young Spanish girl with a powerful desire to learn to read. Although she is persistent, her teachers refuse to educate her because they are more concerned of Estrella’s personal hygiene. This leaves Estrella resentful because of the barrier between herself and knowledge. Estrella remains silent until a man named Perfecto Flores teaches her how to read by using his expertise in hardware and tools to represent the alphabet. Viramontes depicts the heartfelt growth of Estrella through her use of tone, figurative language, and detail.
Expectations are natural to have when events in our lives are left up to chance. It can give us hope and build our passion, but that is not always the case. In “Woman Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros, the Mexican protagonist, Cleófilas, is excited to move to Seguin, Texas with her husband in order to find passion and love similar to that in the books, songs, and telenovelas she obsesses over. However, she was kept from becoming the dimensional woman she dreamed of because of the patriarchal figures in her life, particularly her husband; she instead followed traditional cultural values that taught her men were more dominant than women in society, a woman was meant to become a mother and a housewife, and a woman’s dream is far from reality.
By educating herself she was able to form her own opinion and no longer be ignorant to the problem of how women are judge by their appearance in Western cultures. By posing the rhetorical question “what is more liberating” (Ridley 448), she is able to get her readers to see what she has discovered. Cisneros also learned that despite the fact that she did not take the path that her father desired, he was still proud of all of her accomplishments. After reading her work for the first time her father asked “where can I get more copies” (Cisneros 369), showing her that he wanted to show others and brag about his only daughters accomplishments. Tan shifts tones throughout the paper but ends with a straightforward tone saying “there are still plenty of other books on the shelf. Choose what you like” (Tan 4), she explains that as a reader an individual has the right to form their own opinion of her writing but if they do not like it they do not have to read it because she writes for her own pleasure and no one else’s. All of the women took separate approaches to dealing with their issues but all of these resolutions allowed them to see the positive side of the
In the Woman Hollering Creek, Cisneros exposes the story of Cleofilas Hernandez. Cisneros unveils parental submission in Cleofilas’ life in the first
Azuela shows these impacts by the progression of Camila, from a sweet innocent woman, to joining the rebel forces, and lastly to being killed. Symbolically, Azuela kills off Camila almost immediately upon her rise to power and drops her from the novel’s plot. This shows the how insignificant of an impact that women had on the battles, and how easily they were forgotten after death. Women still struggle today with gaining equal rights and treatment within the Mexican culture. It has taken nearly 70 years for women to gain equality with men in the workforce, gaining rights such as voting, and having a shared family responsibility with the male figure (Global). Unfortunately, many women within the working-class household still suffer from the traditional norms and values regarding the roles of men and women. In addition, these women were often subjected to control, domination, and violence by men” (Global). This validates Azuela’s stance on how women should stay within their traditional roles because fighting for equality has been ineffective even still
Evidently, with what readers presume to be the “man of her dreams”, Clemencia's mother seems to be in her own world as she completely disregards her life with her former husband and their children. This does not bode well for Clemencia as she holds a lot of resentment towards her mother, that will likely never resolve due to the fact that Clemencia's mom is not around in the world anymore. Even though, her mother may not be in this world anymore, Clemencia will always wonder why her mom did marry her father.
... middle of paper ... ... Sandra Cisneros took a risk and got remarkably far with her passion for mixing the cultures and the identities of women. Her voice is what emphasizes the article to show how the goal is to redistribute the language and culture, not criticizing the “New World”.
In Latin America, women are treated differently from men and children. They do lots of work for unexplainable reasons. Others for religious reasons and family orders and others because of the men involved. Women are like objects to men and have to obey their orders to either be rich or to live. Some have sex to get the men’s approval, others marry a rich man that they don’t even know very well, and become slaves. An important book called Chronicles of a Death Foretold is an example of how these women are treated. Purisima del Carmen, Angela Vicario's mother, has raised Angela and her sisters to be good wives. The girls do not marry until late in life, rarely socializing beyond the outsides of their own home. They spend their time sewing, weaving, washing and ironing. Other occupations include arranging flowers, cleaning up the house, and writing engagement letters to other men. They also keep the old traditions alive, such as helping the sick, comforting the dying, and covering the dead. While their mother believes they are perfect, men view them as too tied to their women's traditions. The men are afraid that the women would pay more attention to their job more than the men. Throughout the book, the women receive the respect they deserve from the men and others around them.
Corinthians 14:34 states, “Let the women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but let them be in subjection, as also saith the law” (Holy Bible, King James Edition). Edith Hamilton, "recognized as the greatest woman Classicist", says that the Bible is the only book before our century that looked to women as human beings, no better nor worse than men (Tanner). However, it cannot be said that this book was consistently favorable to women. Maybe not absolutely, but conditionally in personal opinion, the Bible shows numerous examples of a woman’s inferiority to men, an assessment that has been translated into the cultures of generations. In this essay I will address briefly instances in the bible pertaining to women, and continue on with thoughts on how I believe these notions have been interpreted into society.