Delia Owens immerses readers in the advocate landscape of the North Carolina marshlands, where the natural world becomes a compelling backdrop for a tale of mystery, resilience, and human connection. This story leaves you questioning how women were treated and why they deserve this. At its heart is Kya Clark, a young girl abandoned by her family and left to navigate the complexities of life in isolation. When examining “Where The Crawdads Sing” from a feminist perspective, it becomes clear that this story shines a light on females being used without their consent, independence, and societal expectations for women. To begin, this story shows many different ways in which women, (specifically Kya) were used or disturbed by other men without her …show more content…
Kya was never going to get taught all the things moms show their daughters as they grow up. Her mom was never going to do her hair again, show her how to paint again and most of all never be her best friend anymore. Kya didn’t have that role model to look up to. She remembered a time when“Most dawns, smiling widely, Ma hugged her - “Good Morning my special girl”- and the two of them moved about the chores, dancelike”(Owens 9). Kya no longer had the comfort of waking up every morning and doing this with her mom. She now had to do the chores on her own and there were no dance-like movements. Where Kya lived, deep down in the marsh, there was never any talk about going to school. None of her brothers or sisters went to school, so she thought it was normal not to go to school. She would just learn by herself. One day she got dragged to school and on the way home. “On the way home, as the bus swayed in the deep ruts and passed stretches of cordgrass, a chant rose from the front “MISS Catherine Danielle Clark” tall skinny blonde and round chubby cheeks, the girls at lunch, called out “Where ya been marsh hen? Where’s yo’ hat swamp rat?”(Owens 30). She never went back to
In her poem “The School Children”, Louise Gluck uses imagery by applying an extended metaphor to show how going to school is similar to going to battle and by describing the mothers’ actions through the use of vivid verbs to portray the disconnection between children and their guardians, despite the sacrifices that mothers make.
Admittedly, the first time I listened to Sonia Sanchez read her “Poem for Some Women” the words stung a bit. As her voice oscillates between a soothing and demanding tone, the topic shifts from a drug addicted mother to a child’s traumatic experience of rape and assault. Briefly put, in a desperate attempt to quell her addiction, the poem’s narrator trades her seven year old daughter in exchange for drugs. In the end, the child runs away from home. Despite its graphic imagery and poignant portrayal of both sexual assault and addiction, the poem is not criticizing the actions of the women it depicts.
The short stories, “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes” by Fritz Lieber, “Bits and Pieces,” by Lisa Tuttle, “While She Was Out” by Edward Bryant, “Cold Turkey” by Carole Nelson Douglas, and “Lightning Rod” by Melanie Tem Historically, in literature, women are stereotypically placed in one of two roles, the doting wife and beloved mother, or the more outwardly psychotic, witch-like, temptress. As the feminist approach to the criticism of literature has blossomed over time, the need for empowered female characters has surfaced. To rectify the absence of this character, “wild women literature” has made many advances in the defiance of gender role stereotypes and gender norms. The women in the collection of wild women short stories are difficult to define because of society’s pre-conceived notions of how women should and do behave. The term “wild women” conveys a slightly negative and sometimes misinterpreted connotation of a woman’s behavior; however, in this collection of stories, the female characters are generally vindicated because of the motivation behind their actions. The motivation can be linked to the popular cultural phenomenon of women taking charge of their lives, making decisions for themselves, being independent, rising above their oppressors (most commonly the close men in their lives), and becoming empowered. Vigilante actions by the wild women in these stories are not entirely representative of madness, but also re...
Hattie spent much of her younger years living with different relatives because both of her parents had died when she was five. As Hattie was “tossed” from one relative’s home to another throughout her childhood, she never had a sense of belonging. To make matters worse, her relatives treated her like a hassle—as though her very existence was an annoyance. Needless to say, Hattie’s relatives were neither supportive nor encouraging of her. By age 16, Hattie’s feeling of self-worth was at an all time low. The story did not describe her appearance in depth, but it did say she was very modest and dressed humbly.
When April first moves in with the Dions, their generosity and love welcome April into their family and although she does not feel like a complete part to their family, she loves them and knows that is was loved back. During her time with them, her confidence begins to build. The Dions treat her just as they would their own children and celebrate her achievements with recognition and praise. April feels as an equal to other children and believes she has value which she later struggles with. She explains her confidence when, after the Dions celebrate her good grades she says, “For an eight year-old, I had a very large head for a while”(22). By saying this, April is identifying the fact that she knows she had high confidence in her self but after a while, that changed. Following this however, April’s life changes and her pride and self assurance begins to diminish. When April is moved to a second foster family the Derosiers, their neglect and abuse towards her cause her to feel awful about herself and her heritage. The family make April and later her sister Cheryl do all the chores, they beat them and they verbally abuse them with racist names and hurtful stories about their parents’ alcohol problems. This family’s treatment towards April and her sister only make her more ashamed and self conscious about her Metis background which has a lasting effect on her life as an adult. April’s phsycological well-being experiences many more difficulties as her life progresses that cause her self-esteem and identity to struggel due to society’s views and treatment of Metis women and
Sandra Cisneros short story “Woman Hollering Creek”, has many allegories about culture, morality, and gender roles.
The main character in “Woman Hollering Creek” is Cleόfilas Enriqueta DeLeόn Hernández, a woman who leaves her home in Mexico to marry a man, Juan Pedro Martinez Sánchez, in Texas. Flowing behind Cleόfilas’ new house in Texas, is a stream named Woman Hollering. Cleόfilas imagines her marriage to be filled with joy and love. To Cleόfilas’ surprise, Juan Pedro is a vile husband that is both physically and verbally abusive. Cisneros brings attention to a recurrent issue within the Chicana community. According to The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, “The majority of abused women, (75%) of Mexican-American women reported spousal abuse”
No one would talk to her, recess was spent in anguish, and she would find garbage and spoiled food in her book bag. As she progressed into 5th grade, some of the social atmosphere began to shift in subtle but profound ways. Being accepted into a clique is all that matters. Instead of being admired for class participation, as in earlier years she was laughed at and labeled as “teacher’s pet.” She said the rules were simple “shun or be shunned—if you weren’t willing to go along with the crowd, you would become the reject.”
Susie’s mother opened the door to let Molly, Susie’s babysitter, inside. Ten-month old Susie seemed happy to see Molly. Susie then observed her mother put her jacket on and Susie’s face turned from smiling to sad as she realized that her mother was going out. Molly had sat for Susie many times in the past month, and Susie had never reacted like this before. When Susie’s mother returned home, the sitter told her that Susie had cried until she knew that her mother had left and then they had a nice time playing with toys until she heard her mother’s key in the door. Then Susie began crying once again.
Nevertheless, Cisneros’s experience with two cultures has given her a chance to see how Latino women are treated and perceived. Therefore, she uses her writing to give women a voice and to speak out against the unfairness. As a result, Cisneros’ story “Woman Hollering Creek” demonstrates a distinction between the life women dream of and the life they often have in reality.
Throughout history, society has been used as a means of inspiration for writers of all genres. More often then not, writers do not shine a light on the positive aspects of society, they chose to focus on the decline of the modern world. For a writer to truly capture this societal decline, they must be brave enough to accept it. For one writer in particular, her passion and style are what fuel her to create masterpieces of literature centered on that very topic. With her ability to focus on modern American society with topics such as rape, child abuse and murder, Joyce Carol Oates’s novels have been able to capture the sometimes cruel reality of American life in an unorthodox way.
In the literary, Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros we are able to analyze the short story through a feminist perspective, due to the feminist critical critical theory. A literary criticism has at least three primary purposes in developing critical thinking skills, enabling us to understand, analyze, and judgement works of literature, of any type of literature. It resolves any questions or problem within a literary work that we do not understand from merely reading the literature. Look into multiple alternative outcomes to the literature and decide which the better outcome in the end is. Form our own judgements, our thoughts about what we feel from the literature. By analyzing in depth Sandra Cisneros as an author, we can see her as
When Sandra Cisneros wrote “Women of Hollering Creek” she reflected back on her own life experiences. This is a story that is told from the female perspective from start to finish. Like the lead character, Cleofilas, Cisneros is Mexican-American and the only daughter in a family that has seven children. Cisneros studied creative writing at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and earned her Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1978, (238). Growing up she traveled back and forth to Mexico to visit her father’s family and Cleofilas flees to arms of her father later in the story. She has a blended cultural identity that is relevant in the story by how she uses Mexican and English words together. For example when describing soap operas she calls them by the Spanish name telenovela. This story made me reflect on my own life experiences while I was reading it. I thought about my parents divorce, my aunt’s extremely abusive marriage of eleven years and why women, like me, tend to seek that silver lining when it comes to broken relationships.
Kya Clark is the main character in the book Where the Crawdads Sing, which describes how she grew up. There are many struggles in her life, but one of the most important ones was how she was abandoned when she was a young child. The protagonist, Kya, has a goal in wanting family back and not having to do everything on her own. Although Kya’s family never returned, she learned of the real world on her own and with the help of some relationships. Even though a person is shown abandonment and isolation, they can still learn from themselves and have survival skills.
This seemed to follow a pattern. Rain, who was recruited into sex trafficking at age 11, claimed her pimp only had minors in his “stable”. To keep control of his victims he threatened them by threatening their families. Finally yet importantly is Cindy who, along with other women, were intimidated and trapped within a home to insure their obedience. Their stories depict a world dominated by shame, regret, and fear.