Traumatized Children and their future
In this story, “Never Marry a Mexican”, written by Sandra Cisneros, a woman named Clemencia, who is also the narrator of the story, portrays her experiences about cultural, social, sexual and economic difference between her parents and shares her negative experience resulting in forming a real-life relationship. Clemencia goes through seeing different events in her parents’ life, which turned her to be different than others. Clemencia wants to be a normal lady, but her past leads her in the reverse direction. Clemencia’s mom, American born Mexican and father from Mexico and their family structure, which totally forces Clemencia to turn into disrespectful and cruel human being.
In the other story, “Optimists”
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Clemencia relationship with her mom and the way it builds keep the story moving. Clemencia’s mom view of saying “Never Marry a Mexican” and her relationship with Clemencia’s father bring her where she is now. Clemencia tells that her mother was unfaithful to his dad even when he was sick, which see can’t forgive her “ who she saw even while my father was sick” (182). She also tells that she didn’t get enough attention after her mom is married to the white guy. “ Not with that man she married. After Daddy died, it was like we didn’t matter.” “Like if I never had a mother” (182). Clemencia’s feeling of lack of love and affection from her childhood can be clearly stated in her writings. Clemencia thinks as if she has no home to accommodate her as she carries her painful memories of her childhood to her adulthood. Likewise, Frank was unable to tackle a part of his genuine freedom at an early age as a result of traumatic occasion he saw his father killing a man. The failure to control components of the traumatic occasion or the intrusive considerations that take after prompts an arrangement of unsurprising, mental and physiological reactions to children. As the traumatic events trigger again and again on children, they tend to re-experience pain, anxiety and fear. Parents need to play an important role and should distinguish between what to say and what not in front of children. Parents’ should not ignore children, as they are very sensitive to what they see, keep them through their
In the essay of Mr.Gary Soto, we learn about his experiences about falling in love with someone of a different race. Ever since he was young, he would be lectured that marrying a Mexican women would be the best option for his life. Gary’s grandmother would always proclaim: “... the virtues of marrying a Mexican girl: first, she could cook,second, she acted like a woman, not a man, in her husband’s home” (pp.219). Being conditioned into the notion that all Mexican woman have been trained to be proper women, Mr. Soto set out on finding his brown eyed girl; however, what love had quite a different plan. This paper will cover three different themes Gary’s essay: The tone, the mindset of the character’s mindsets, and the overall message of the
In “Enrique’s Journey”, by Sonia Nazario a young boy from Honduras, sets out to reunite with his mother, Lourdes, that abandoned him when he was just five years old. Lourdes leaves to the United States, in hopes to find a better job as an immigrant and to better provide for her family. After many years of suffering without his mom, he travels through Central America to the United States in order to finally reunite with her. He finds his mother beginning to move on as she has a little daughter, named Diana. They run into problems of resentment. Will they be able to finally be a family? Sonia develops this theme of family by using specific facts and characterization. Importance
The two short stories, “Never Marry a Mexican” by Sandra Cisneros and “Maria de Covina” by Dagoberto Gilb, read were attention-grabbing to say the least. There were several similarities within the two, such as their plot, theme, and actions of the main character. While there are all of those similarities, there are plenty of differences as well. Some examples of these differences include setting, literary elements, and thoughts of the main character.
Oftentimes, societal problems span across space and time. This is certainly evident in Julia Alvarez’s How the García Girls Lost Their Accents a novel in which women are treated peripherally in two starkly different societies. Contextually, both the Dominican Republic and the United States are very dissimilar countries in terms of culture, economic development, and governmental structure. These factors contribute to the manner in which each society treats women. The García girls’ movement between countries helps display these societal distinctions. Ultimately, women are marginalized in both Dominican and American societies. In the Dominican Republic, women are treated as inferior and have limited freedoms whereas in the United States, immigrant
Sandra Cisneros’s “Never Marry a Mexican” introduces readers to Clemencia. Cisneros eludes Clemencia as a woman who appears proud of her Mexican heritage, yet knows not how the slanderous phrase “Never marry a Mexican” uttered from her well-meaning mother’s trusty lips about Clemencia’s own Mexican father negatively foreshadows her seedy life and gloomy world perspective later down her destructive journey of adulthood. Simply put, Clemencia’s relationship with her mother is "like [she] never had one" (Cisneros 131) especially during the final moments of her sickly father's life. When Clemencia's mom meets a white man during her father's hospitalization, Clemencia's mom instantaneously begins dating him. Why not?
She thought she was going to be living a great life with Juan Pedro until she realized she was alone. There was nowhere she can go in walking distance. She didn’t have a car or any friends, she felt segregated. Sure, Cleofilas did not like the gossip in Mexico but America lacked the community Mexico has which adds to her misery. In Mexico she was able to go to social events but in America she felt that Mexican women were more dependent on their husbands because they did not know anything there.
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.
Emotive language is used in text 1 to evoke the audience’s sympathy and pity towards Lourdes, the central female character, for what she has been through. Nazario’s portrayal of the affectionate relationship shared between Lourdes and his son, Enrique embodies motherly love, which audiences with a cultural context of a mother can easily relate and imagine the pain of being separated from their children. Without Lourdes, Enrique is “so shy it is crushing”. This appeals to the audience’s pathos as it explains her source of guilt and resentment to leave home. Additionally, Enrique seems to long for Lourdes’ attention. He “pursed his lips” to kiss her and clings “to her pant leg.” His attachment to Lourdes hi...
In the course of Garcia Marquez’s work, the importance of respect was revealed to be taken almost sacredly in the characters’ Columbian culture. Honor was viewed as a crucial piece of one’s morality. Without honor, one was considered an outcast in society. For example, Angela Vicario was sent home on her wedding night because she was not a virgin. As a result, her mother beat Angela for invoking dishonor upon the family. Angela explains to the narrator, “‘I wasn’t crying because of the blows or anything that had happened… I was crying because of him,’“(P. 91, Garcia). Angela acknowledged that her impurity was reprehensible, therefore she accepted her mother’s thrashing. Her immoral actions led to a failed marriage and scorn upon her family, as well as her husband, Bayardo San Roman.
Clemencia, named Malinche by her lover, is stuck with this whore persona that she fits in because of her similarities with La Malinche. Similarly Ixchel should, by her grandmother’s standards, feel shame for her actions but she knows nothing of shame because in her eyes, she has done nothing wrong. Clemencia and Ixchel share the pain of their sexuality, as they attempt to control themselves sexually and to embrace their sexuality as a positive, instead of the negative that their culture deems it. However, in “Women Hollering Creek,” identity and sexuality play a completely different role as Cleofilas must find herself through reexamining all of the maternal figures that her culture has supplied. Cleofilas is negatively impacted by her society through telenovelas and the romance novels that she reads as their replacement while living in Texas. These programs are created by the patriarchy and Cleofilas must realize the mistakes within them through her own life and then act out of the roles that society wants for her – not La Llorona as the maternal figure gone wrong or the Virgin of Guadalupe as the passive and gentle female, but as an individual. Cleoflias leaves her husband and her ideals behind in favor of saving herself and her children, and she does so while stepping out of the patriarchal and cultural guidelines that she has stood within for so
...ny psychological reasons, but it also makes her believe that all she has to offer in a relationship is her body. Due to her internalized racism, she believes she would never be as good as Megan, Drew’s wife. Clemencia understands her skin color to be the reason why Drew did not leave his wife. It is a deluded thought because a man of authority showed inappropriate interest to a young developing girl. Her parents’ relationship and her affair drastically altered the view of herself and the world around her. She had become so obsessed with Drew that she formed a relationship with his son. Cisneros’ story, although sad for the reader, is an example of how women are represented within society. She does not follow this atypical story of how a woman should act, yet is not any less of a woman. This is a woman’s experience that is so often forgotten, but is still a valid life.
The Hispanic American immigrant experience is one that is both unique in its own right and profoundly American. Although they all may be labeled within the same group, each of these individuals has a story that clearly demonstrates this. Cristina Henriquez is able to capture many of these feelings and experiences that are faced by Hispanic American immigrants quite successfully in her novel The Book of Unknown Americans. The novel covers the story of the Rivera family in the beginnings of their new life in America. They come to this country seeking better schooling for their mentally handicapped daughter. Assimilating into American culture does not come easy, and the Riveras face many hardships
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 .
Cleófilas’ father wanted her to marry Juan Pedro Martinez Sanchez, so what if she did not get married to her husband and moved to Seguin, Texas. Cleófilas would not be in a position of being a person’s possession and suffered the abuse of her husband. She would not be in an isolated world away from her family, or any real support that can help her through all the things she has to go through. Cleófilas explains that she did not “cry out” when her husband hits her for the first time, but she has always imagined she would after watching episodes of her favorite telenovelas. This was also the first time in the story that Cleofilas’ view of their happy marriage was
Maria Concepcion was originally written by Katherine Anne Porter in 1930. This story is about a young, strong woman who is trying to make her way in a man’s world. The reader can infer by the names of the characters and the town that this story takes place in a village in Mexico. The opening of this short story strongly suggests the expectations for the rest of the story by describing Maria Concepcion’s temperament and how it contrasted with what was socially acceptable in that time.