Woman Hollering Creek Summary

It is pretty interesting how almost any factor of life can influence an individual’s state of mind. Factors like: social media, media, education, religion, kinship, and oneself has the power to persuade the mind on whether something is “good or bad”, “right or wrong”, “vice, or virtue”. In Woman Hollering creek and other stories is a book written by Sandra Cisneros a Chicana Author known for the widely admired House on Mango Street. Cisneros draws attention to all types of socio-economic statuses within this collection of short stories. Breaking down social construction built buy societies between our communities, religion, and education. In Women Hollering Creek and Other Stories, Cisnero’s representations of masculinities and femininities

bring to light gendered ideals and alternatives of change in social constructions.
Femininities are traits portrayed to be related to women. Some women that were presented by Cisneros in her short stories had feminine characteristic such as submissive wives, nurturers, passive, and emotional. However there was a charter of such interesting traits both feminine and masculine that definitely tries to show the readers that there are alternative possibilities for women. In “Bien Pretty”, Cisneros short story of a woman (Lupita), falling in love with a man (Flavio) and their journey thereafter and how she was influenced by a telenovela of what love should be. This story presents a woman who becomes fulfilled with herself and her solitary life. Even though Lupe falls for Flavio very fast and hard, which is seen in many stories how women are portrayed, she is able to rise above those feelings in the end. Most women do not overcome heart breaks, they dwell in the past and do not seek a better future for themselves. Lupe tells the reader of love in Spanish. “To make love in Spanish in a manner as intricate and devout as la Alhambra. To have a lover sigh mi vida, mi preciosa, mi Chiquita, and whisper things in that language crooned to babies, that language muttered by grandmothers, those words that smelled like your house, like flour tortillas, and the inside of your daddy’s hat, like everyone talking in the kitchen at the same time, or sleeping with the windows open… ” (153). Lupe has fallen in love with love itself and the tender words that men whisper as much as she has fallen in love with any one particular man. Since women are brought up to marry and have children especially in the Chicana/o community, Lupe has been conditioned to some extent to want to be taken care of. So, when men say these tender words, she falls in love with them.
Lupe is such a relatable and inspirational character. There are many women who fall for guys for all the wrong reasons. It is the romance straight from the telenovelas that everyone dreams of. This is not the love that actually exists in the world. Sometimes it could be cruel, abusive, or lustful like other stories presented by Cisneros. Lupe believes that she her affection towards Flavio is very strong that she actually cries after she and Flavio make love and Flavio rocks her like a baby. With all that intimacy that she feels for him, she cannot believe that he leaves her so harshly. When he tells her that he must leave, their conversation ends with “Es cool. Ay te wacho, I guess” (157). She is irritated by the silence in her life after the break up and by his willingness to walk away. She tries to be brave in the day, “…but nights are my Gethsemane.” (158). She has many horrible days and nights trying to get over this man. However, the heartache remains concrete, so she develops a final conclusion about herself. “I have always been in love with a man” (160). This becomes a powerful statement for making some changes in her life.
Many women cannot dream a life without a man. Since the gendered ideal of women is that we are dependent. Times have changed and so are women, there is no need for heart ache. One thing she does to cope with all these feelings is to bombard herself with telenovelas, or Spanish soap operas. Which is seen very often in media usually women crying over a breakup with a bucket of ice cream or some type of sweets. She begins to heal as she identifies with the characters on the screen. “And in my dreams, I’m slapping the heroine to her senses because I want them to be women who make things happen, not women who things happen to” (161). She desires these women to be the genuine women she knows in real life. She decides that women should be both passionate and powerful, tender and volatile, and brave and fierce. Men should not be the only ones who dominate these powerful qualities, while women are either evil or sweet. She wants to see women who are “passionate and powerful, tender and volatile, brave. And, above all, fierce” (161). This sudden need to see real women on the telenovelas symbolizes Lupe understanding real women. She can be everything to herself. She does not need a man to save her or make her life endurable like in fairy tales. She can be everything for herself and to herself. She can be stronger than the women on telenovelas. In fact, she already is. She is like the girlfriends, aunts, and mothers she knows, not like these actresses.
Towards the end of this story, Lupita comprehends so much more about herself.

She wants to acquire the ability to “live our lives the way lives were meant to be lived. With the throat and wrists. With rage and desire, and joy and grief, and love till it hurts, maybe. But goddam, girl. Live” (163). Lupita refers herself as part of her watching herself and the other part of her living her life, but over and over again, “everywhere I go, it’s me and me” (163). She has learned to genuinely love herself and support herself emotionally. She lives with ultimate anticipation of each day, enjoying herself and doing what is good for her. If love comes into her life, she may be willing to accept it, but she is not looking for it. She is finally okay with being by herself. She ends with a profound statement showing her new view of life. “Just because it’s today, today. With no thought of the future or past. Today. Hurray. Hurray!” (165). The possibility that Cisneros targets is the opportunity for women to express ourselves powerfully. Men are not the only ones who can be rulers. That there are options when it comes to norms and social constructions. We see this in current times now women, running for president, women, becoming ministers, and women in the work

force.