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.
Cisneros creates Cleofilas from her background which explains why she doesn't understand that she has a family of several brothers, a dad and no mother, a family dominated by men. Jeff Thomas in the article" What is Called Heaven"
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says "The union of gender, and gender based ideologies, is essential to the strong, feminine characters of the later stories of Woman Hollering Creek."(l) Thomas is simply saying Cisnores focuses primarily on gender issues , equal rights, and the conflicts in this story instead of the love story and lifestyle. Cleofilas learns about her womanly attributes in an odd way, she imagines her ideal life through a television series that she seems to watch religiously. In the third world countries, communicating to anything out side the city or country is difficult ,Cisneros used the telenovelas as a tool for Cleofilas to see how good life can get sometimes. Cleofillas doesn't understand that being harassed by her husband isn’t normal and is out right wrong. Her and her husband live in the suburbs with neighbors who in their unique way ,are also trapped. Cisneros shows the struggles one can have when a mom is not present to give her advice through life, this is where Cleofilas looks to the television series for guidance. "The creek, the televonelas and the border define the mythic spaces given to Cleofilas in her fantasies of escape from a battering husband."(Mullen 6) The city that Cisneros chose to use as the setting of the story doesn't have much to do;" in the town where she grew up, there isn't much to do except accompany the aunts and godmothers to the house or to play cards."(Cisneros 44)Through this, Cisneros helps show the reader what type of environment she's in. An environment where women have no voice, an environment where woman have virtually no peer compared to men, the only environment Cleofilas ever knew. Cleofilas moves to a house in a suburban area, Abused by her husband in an area far from her family. " She is beaten by her husband and trapped in a suburban house between two women who are equally trapped: Dolores by the memory of her dead husband and sons, and Soledad, whose husband either died or ran away"(Thomas 3). Both of the women are in a strange and similar situation. The neighbor, Soledad liked to call herself a widow, but how she became one was never explained. Cleofilas husband had “either died, or run away with an ice-house floozie, or simply gone out for cigarettes one afternoon and never came back"(Cisneros 46) And the other neighbor Dolores is ,in a way , in the same situation, "Dolores, kind and very sweet, but her house smelled too much of incense and candles from the alters that burned continuously in memory of two sons who had died in the last war and one husband who had died shortly after from the grief."(Cisneros 47) Using those characters, Cleofilas gets a taste of how reality can be far worse than the situation she is in . Cisneros uses a lot of characters in this story to help the reader get the full picture. Cisneros uses Cleofilas's husband, father, brothers, neighbors, Felice and even the nurse that introduced Felice to Cleofiles. Each character of the story has a different and important purpose. Cisneros uses the characters in the later part of the story to help show Cleofilas freedom and the kind of lifestyle she had, however, the characters closer to Cleofilas are the ones that she had a life long attachment too, almost like she was stuck with those characters. All through out the story, Cleofilas realizes that life isn't exactly how it is portrayed in the telenovelas, "Cleofilas thought her life would have to be like that, like a telenovela, only now the episodes got sadder and sadder, there were no commercials in between for comic relief."(Cisneros 52-53) Cleofilas becomes very disappointed since she remembers how she would dream about living like the characters from telenovelas.
" Cleofilas's new world is far removed from the heights of perfect love and noble suffering of her telenovela, The Rich Also Cry."(Thomas 3) This is not an issue for Cleofilas, many people believe that what they see on television is real. Cleofilas contemplates escaping, "The Creek is the one emblem of escape in a world filled with the near impossibility of escape."(Thomas 3) she is scared to leave considering the shame it will bring on her family. "Sometimes she thinks of her father's house. But how could she go back there? What a disgrace. What would the neighbors say? Coming home like that with one baby on her hip and one in the over. Where's your husband?"(Cisneros 50) In third world countries and small towns like her hometown everybody knows everything about each other. It sounds cliché but its true, there's not much for people to entertain them self with, so they gossip and judge each others lifestyles. Cisneros also shows that Cleofilas is willing to be patient with her husband despite everything he has put her through. From the time when she was still a newlywed she accompanies her husband but she sits silent,sips a beer until it is warm, twists a paper napkin into a knot, laughs at the appropriate moments, leans against her husbands, tugs at his elbow, and finally becomes good at predicting where the talk will lead, from this Cleofilas concludes each is nightly trying to find the truth lying at the bottom of the bottle like a gold doubloon on the see floor. (Cisneros
48) This shows how much patience she has , she is willing to go to places she doesn't enjoy being and do the things she doesn't want to do, but as long as her husband is with her and he is having a good time, she doesn't care. Cisneros reveals how patient women can be, and she explains how Cleofilas tried to be patient and stay with her husband, but in the end, she wants and needs to leave. Cisneros views the life of many women through this story. Being eager to love and to be loved, living a happy life and being free is what many want, but life cannot be so perfect, it can be harsh ride. Cleofilas is put through a lot, but in the end by meeting the right people she was ready to face her new beginning. This time she will have a different opinion about life, it definitely isn't going to be the ideas she had about life before she went through everything she went through. She grew stronger and is ready to take on anything. The telenovelas that were teaching her about life would no longer be needed.
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
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 .
“Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston and “Woman Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros have common themes of spousal abuse and gender power struggles. The female characters roles within their household are very different. Cleofilas is forced to stay home alone with no car while her husband works. Delia on the other hand makes the living for her household while her husband Sykes lives off of her wages and does as he pleases, including cheating on her. The female characters in both stories find freedom from their abuse and struggles with their husbands, but they find freedom in very different ways. Another woman aids Cleofilas in her escape, and she has somewhere to go, back to her family. Delia has to put up with her abuse for 15 years of marriage, far
Women’s Escape into Misery Women’s need for male support and their husband’s constant degradation of them was a recurring theme in the book House on Mango Street. Many of Esperanza’s stories were about women’s dreams of marrying, the perfect husband and having the perfect family and home. Sally, Rafaela, and Minerva are women who gave me the impression of [damsel’s in distress].CLICHÉ, it’s ok though. It’s relevant They wished for a man to sweep them of their feet and rescue them from their present misery. These characters are inspiring and strong but they are unable to escape the repression of the surrounding environment. *Cisneros presents a rigid world in which they lived in, and left them no other hope but to get married. Esperanza, however, is a very tough girl who knows what she wants. She will keep dreaming and striving until she gets it. She says, "I am too strong for her [Mango Street] to keep me here" (110). Esperanza learned from all of these women that she was not going to be tied down. She said, "I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain" (88). **Especially after seeing that Sally was suffering so much. Sally’s father is making her want to leave home by beating her. Sally "said her mother rubs lard on the places were it hurts" (93). There is not enough lard in the world to be able to cure the pain within Sally’s heart. Sally, "met a marshmallow salesman at a school bazaar" (101). Pretty soon " sally got married, she has her house now, her pillowcases and her plates" (101). Her marriage seems to free her from her father, but in reality she has now stepped into a world of misery. This was supposed to help her heal; " she says she is in love, but I think she did it to escape." (101). Unlike the other women Sally has no escape, no poetry, not even papaya coconut juice, not to mention, " he does not let her look out the window" (102). That is why "she sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without his permission."(102). Rafaela’s situation also involves imprisonment in her own home. Cisneros introduced us to Rafaela, a young beautiful girl whose expectations from marriage were to obtain a sweet home to live in. Instead...
Cleofilas grew up in a male dominant household of six brother and father, and without a mother, she no woman figure to guide her, give advice on life, or how to love a man. Cleofilas turned to telenovelas for a woman’s guidance on love and appearance, and she began to imagine her ideal life through the television series. Once Cleofilas was married she moved away into a home with her husband, were she pictured everything to be like the couples on the telenovelas, but she soon starts to realize life isn 't exactly like how they view it in the telenovelas. In the story Sandra make the statement ‘From what see can tell, from the times during her first year when still a newlywed she is invited and accompanies her husband, sits mute besides their conversations, waits and sips a beer until it grows warm, twists a paper napkin into a knot, then another into a fan, one into a rose, nods her head, smiles, yawns, politely grins, laughs at the appropriate moments, leans against her husband’s sleeve, tugs at his elbow, and finally becomes good at predicting where the talk will lead, from this Cleofilas
In a couple between a man and woman, the man is known for being the dominant one in the relationship. In the story "Woman Hollering Creek", by Sandra Cisneros. Cleofilas Enriqueta Deleon Hernandez, is a woman who suffers from her husbands over dominance of the relationship. Cleofila is woman with ambitions to live a meaningful life filled with love and happiness just like in her telenovelas. Instead, she lives in isolation with Juan Pedro Martinez Sanchez, her husband who she loves dearly, but is constantly abused by him. The only friends Cleofila has are her lady neighbors, Dolores and Soledad. In their actions and responses, many women unwittingly reflect the viewpoints and focus of their friends and neighbors
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.
Women Hollering Creek was considered one of Sandra Cisnero's best works. With a Texan view, this 22 short story novel was set upon the late 1960's to 1980's era. There are three distinct sections: “My Lucy Friend who smells like Corn”, “One Holy Night” as well as “There was a Man, There was a Woman”. Each part contains short stories within them. These all consist of a heartwarming girl, Esperanza,who matures into a woman and how she faces these gender roles through love and violence. Cisneros alters the name Esperanza with Chayo, Rachel, Lupe, Ines, and Clemenica, to explain differences between them along with to give the story more lewd effectiveness.
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
Sandra Cisneros reveals her feminist views through her novel The House on Mango Street. She does this by forcing the reader to see the protagonist as an alienated artist and by creating many strong and intelligent female characters who serve as the protagonist's inspiration.
This essay explores the role of women in Homer's Odyssey, James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Derrick Walcott's Omeros (1990), epics written in very different historical periods. Common to all three epics are women as the transforming figure in a man's life, both in the capacity of a harlot and as wife.
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.
Cisneros starts the essay by reflecting on an anthology for a work that she wrote where she stated “I am the only daughter in a family of six sons. That explains everything” (Cisneros 366). Right after she introduces herself as how she sees herself now as the statement that she had written she feels does not explain enough about her to the reader. Next, she then goes into her story of how she sees herself and what has made her who she is. This explanation is taken throughout the entire essay as she explains how she got to where she was in her career. Her thesis is that growing up alone in isolation made her work hard to prove herself to her father. The thesis is very obvious in the essay and Cisneros successfully uses proves her thesis as she explains her childhood with her dad in the center of attention. Although others may argue that Cisneros’ relationship affects who she is in a negative way, Cisneros successfully proves the relationship between the two positively affects who she
One example of a woman who is oppressed by men in the text is Odysseus’ wife Penelope. Although Penelope is queen of Ithaca, her power in the kingdom is limited. Her life is controlled by her son Telemachus and the Achaean suitors who have been taking advantage of the kingdom for several years. At one point in the text, Telemachus tells his mother “Words are for men, for all, especially for me; for power within this house rests here” (Homer, 7). This shows how men regard themselves as the ones with power over society, while they undervalue women’s role within society....
In an audio Interview, done by Don Swain, Cisneros explains how she got the title of the story." The Creek" she says "is a real place" she explains how she wanted the title to be in Spanish but she wasn't allowed to; the reason, she explained, was because she was a Mexican woman. "The creek called La Gretna is a reminiscent of popular folktale about La Lorona, a nameless tragic woman drowned herself and her children"(Mullen 1).Cisneros creates the character from a background which explains why she doesn't know what the reality of life is; she comes from a family of a six brothers and a dad and without a mom, a male dominated family. Jeff Thomas, from the article" What is Called Heaven" says: "The union of gender, and gender based ideologies, is essential to the strong, feminine characters of the later stories of Woman Hollering Creek."(l) What Thomas means is that Cisnores focuses more on gender problems, discriminations and the conflicts in this story rather than love story and the lifestyle. Although Cleofilas finds a way to learn her womanly attributes, through television series .she imagines her ideal life through television series which she watches religiously. Cisneros created a great example. In the third world countries, communication outside of a city or country is very hard, so Cisneros used the telenovelas as the only tool for Cleofilas to see how life can sometimes be. She doesn't know being beaten by her husband is not a normal thing. She is living in the suburbs with her husband with neighbors who in their own way, are trapped as well. Cisneros also shows how life can be for Cleofilas when a mom is not present to guide heir, again, Cleofilas's only guide are the television series.