Sandra Cisneros’ writing style is very unique and allows the reader to engage with the characters making them so realistic. She makes the reader sympathize so easily with the characters. Cisneros uses incredible metaphors, similes, and imagery to make the reader connect with the setting and characters.
In “Woman Hollering Creek,” Cisneros creates a character named Cleofilas. In this short story she describes the life of an ideal Mexican wife. Cleofilas grew up with six brothers and her father. She did not have a mother so she would watch Mexican soap operas to learn how to become a woman. The soap operas made her think that you must sacrifice for love and that she was one day going to have that prince charming like a princess.
The day came that her father gave permission to Juan Pedro Martinez Sanchez to marry her and take her all the way to Seguin, Tejas. “A nice sterling ring to it. The tinkle of money. She would get to wear outfits like the women on the tele, like Lucia Mendez. And have a lovely house…” (45). She saw it as a fairytale. “Because Juan Pedro wants to get married right away……..so they will get married in the spring when he can take off work, and they will drive off in his new pickup….to their new home in Seguin”(45).
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.
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...Cisneros brought Felice into the story at the end to show women that you don’t need a man to be happy. Cleofilas is not the only woman that felt the way she did, wanting so badly to have a fairytale life, which is what every woman dreams of. Although every woman wants that fairytale, they also must know that they need to be with someone that truly appreciates them.
Cisneros does a great job by having Cleofilas leave at the end to show that she became strong and stopped waiting around for someone who was not going to change. She wants women to know that it is not alright for them to suffer because of what people have to say, which is shown when Cleofilas held herself from going back to Mexico because she was worried about the gossip. Finally, Cisneros wants women to find their own place in the world and understand that the world does not have to revolve around men.
There was an encounter with the sister in law of a Lima merchant, a misunderstanding with Catalina’s brother over his mistress and other occasions being betrothed to women in the New World. At one point in her travels she comes very close to dying on the way to Tucman from Concepcion. Two men on horseback save her and they take her back to their mistress’ ranch. As gratitude for saving her life she helps tend to the ranch for about two weeks. The mistress is so overwhelming thankful to Catalina that she offers her daughter for her to marry. “And a couple of days later, she let me know it would be fine by her if I married her daughter—a girl as black and ugly as the devil himself, quite the opposite of my taste, which has always run to pretty faces.” (28) These instances happened a lot, where because of her hard work throughout her life she was offered many women to marry. Those engagements, however, ended after she exploited the situation and rode off with gifts and dowry
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
A debutante’s life came at a price; for the 16 year-old Dolores it was an arranged, loveless marriage to lawyer Jaime Del Rio. Jaime was 18 years her senior, his family one of the oldest and most influential in Mexico. Their wealth allowed for a European honeymoon, where they were invited to dine with the Spanish Royal family. The honeymoon morphed into a three year romp, with Dolores delighting in voice and dance lessons at stately Madrid and Paris schools. In 1921, the couple returned to Mexico City, Jaime intent on advancing his career whil...
Reyna Grande 's novel, Across a Hundred Mountains, focuses on the dynamic of the development and rethinking of the concept of a traditional Latino patriarchal family built up around male dominance. In low income and uneducated cultures, there are set of roles that throughout time have been passed by from generation to generation. These gender roles most often consist of the men being the breadwinner for the family. While the women stay home to cook, clean, and raise the children. Women are treated as possessions with limited rights and resources. Throughout the novel, Grandes challenges gender roles in the story of a young woman named Juana who, despite all adversity, fights stereotypes and is able to rewrite her own ending.
She felt that breaking the standards placed on her by her cultural norms it would displease her tradition loving father. He felt that Cisneros should find a husband and not focus on her education so much. Cisneros writes “I am the only daughter in the Mexican family of six sons” (Cisneros 366). This not only exemplifies the internal family issues of being the only female, but also the external problems of the norms placed on women in a Hispanic culture to be an ideal wife. Tan’s essay emphasized the fact that her race, gender, education and up-bringing played a role in people knowing her writing, even though she does not want it to.
In the opening pages of the text, Mary, nineteen, is living alone in Albuquerque. Vulnerable to love, depressed and adrift, she longs for something meaningful to take her over. Just as she is “asking the universe whether or not there was more to life than just holding down boring jobs”, she takes on the job of helping an illegal (political) refugee, José Luis who had been smuggled from El Salvador to the United States, to adjust to his new life in Albuquerque. She instantly falls in love with him and hopes to start her life over with the new aim of “taking the war out of him.”(p. 4) Providing a refuge for him, Mary, as Fellner suggests, “imagines herself to be whole and complete in the experience of love”. (2001: 72) She willingly puts José Luis as the “center” of her life (p.5) with the hope that “love would free her from her dormant condition” (Fellner 2001: ...
This novel is a story of a Chicano family. Sofi, her husband Domingo together with their four daughters – Esperanza, Fe, Caridad, and Loca live in the little town of Tome, New Mexico. The story focuses on the struggles of Sofi, the death of her daughters and the problems of their town. Sofi endures all the hardships and problems that come her way. Her marriage is deteriorating; her daughters are dying one by one. But, she endures it all and comes out stronger and more enlightened than ever. Sofi is a woman that never gives up no matter how poorly life treats her. The author- Ana Castillo mixes religion, super natural occurrences, sex, laughter and heartbreak in this novel. The novel is tragic, with no happy ending but at the same time funny and inspiring. It is full of the victory of the human spirit. The names of Sofi’s first three daughters denote the three major Christian ideals (Hope, Faith and Charity).
The story “Woman Hollering Creek" by Sandra Cisneros describes the lives of Mexicans in a Chicago neighborhood. She depicts the life that women endure as Latino wives through her portrayal of the protagonist, Cleofilas. For Cisneros being a Mexican-American has given her a chance to see life from two different cultures. In addition, Cisneros has written the story from a woman’s perspective, illustrating the types of conflicts many women face as Latino wives. This unique paradigm allows the reader to examine the events and characters using a feminist critical perspective.
Sandra Cisneros short story “Woman Hollering Creek”, has many allegories about culture, morality, and gender roles.
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.
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.
Cisneros too has a unique way of writing because she also includes archetypes throughout the series of short stories in her novel. The main character is Esperanza Cordero and she too is depicted as an outcast just like Ultima. She is a Latina who tries to fit in her society. An example is when the girls try on the heels and they finally feel like a woman. The excitement didn't last for too long because of the catcalling. Even when she felt like she fit in with society, it was ruined and she still remained the outcast in the story. By Cisneros adding this archetype to her piece of literature, it connected me to the human
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
In the story "Woman Hollering Creek" Sandra Cisneros discusses the issues of living life as a married woman through a character named Cleofilas; 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. Cisneros has been famous about writing stories about the latino culture and how women are treated; she explain what they go through as a child, teen and when they are married; always dominated by men because of how the culture has been adapted. "Woman Hollering Creek" is one of the best examples. A character who grows up without a mother and who has no one to guid and give her advise about life.