Sandra Cisneros My Wicked Ways

In the poem, “My Wicked, Wicked Ways” by Sandra Cisneros, it is a poem about a girl looking at a picture of her family. Seeing how it used to be in the photo, however, now knowing how her father was cheating and how it damaged the family was her mindset throughout the poem. Since the family was in the situation, she then said “she will turn out bad.” The attitude and shift are the reason I believe that is the theme. The attitude is upsetting and disappointed. While the shift went from admiring the father in the picture. To be weakened by how she knew how her mother felt due to the fact of her father cheating. Therefore, I believe that the theme is people who grow up in a bad family situation have a possibility of turning out bad due to the

hurtful love.
The attitude of the poem is very upsetting and disappointed which lead to the theme of this poem.

As the author was speaking about how her mother was not crying in the photo she then delivered, “She does not come until later. My mother will get very angry,” (Stanza 2). This shows that the lady that comes later is the lady who the father was cheating with. So in the photo, she was not there, but the author already knows about her. So her mother will get very upset when she finds out her husband was cheating. For her to look at an old photo and still recall those emotions and small details shows that it was a very upsetting time for her because the most hurtful times are the ones people remember the most. It is very damaging to anyone to see their mother cry, it this made the poem have an upsetting attitude without actually having hurtful words in it. As the poem goes on, she then starts talking about what happened after her mother found out, saying “ My father will say nothing,” (Stanza 3). As this was stated, it shows that her father knew he was wrong and that the mother would be hurt but still did it. To be able to state this, shows that she is disappointed in her father. A girl is usually taught her father is a strong hero that does the right thing. So as she says he could not say anything back, shows she does not see him as that anymore and she is disappointed by him. That is why the attitude of the poem is upsetting and

disappointing.
The shift is also a reason for the theme in this poem.

It goes from admiring the father in the photo, to being hurt by her mother’s emotions in the family. In the beginning, it quotes, “He looks like Errol Flynn” (Stanza 1), which was a very famous man at that time. A lot of men wanted to be him and women wanting to be with him. Therefore, he was a player. This shows that she thought very highly of her father. Also foreshadowing, he is a player like Errol Flynn. But as the poem goes on, it starts to shift to talking about her mother. The first thing she said about her mother is that “She is not crying,” (Stanza 2), which shows that she significantly remembers her mother crying in her childhood, but has to explain that she is not at this moment. Since normally, people remember the good times when looking at an old photo, she remembered her mother was hurt, shows she is also hurting. It is not easy seeing mothers cry, therefore, it must have pained her knowing her mother always cries knowing her father is out cheating, then confronting him, but end up only forgetting about it and has to live with all that pain for the child. As the shift as the poem went from admiring to hurt, it leads up to the

theme.
After reading the poem, “My Wicked, Wicked Ways” by Sandra Cisneros, I got the theme to be that people who grew up in bad family situations end up bad due to the hurtful love. The attitude and the shift had lead me to this theme. The attitude was upsetting and disappointed while the shift went from admiring her father to hurt from her mother’s emotions. The narrator has put lots of emotions in this poem to lead up and say that she will end up bad. This was a very powerful poem that lead me to believe in the theme of this poem.