A Place Where The Sea Remembers

As the book progresses, Esperanza witnesses the emerging sexuality of her peers and begins to encounter her own sexuality, too. This is a confusing state to be in, and Cisneros captures the confusion by blending these moments of sexual exploration with the brutality of gendered violence. Men beat their wives and daughters, and in most cases the sexual encounters in The House on Mango Street are unwanted. The boys and men of this book tend to take things, while the girls and women deal with the consequences. Esperanza knows all this already, and it contributes greatly to her desire to

Gender roles in Puerto Rican society has been viewed as very male dominate, leaving women in domestic roles. Women’s roles in Puerto Rico have followed the same pattern as many other women’s roles in different countries all over the world. Puerto Rican women have been viewed as subservient to men for centuries. Women are used as “material” for a man’s needs, Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio, stated that “Rape runs rampant around us, and it is as if a society maintains a terrifying conspiracy of silence that enforces this painful dimension of the oppression of women in everyday life.” By tradition, Puerto Rican women were responsible for cooking, cleaning, and other household chores, including that they are there for a man’s pleasure. Therefore, rape culture has become a major problem country to country. Puerto Rican women have been viewed only as domestic workers who were there to serve their husbands. Rape culture is defined as “… an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety,” as stated by Marshall University in their article, Rape Culture. In some cultures, rape is part of becoming a man or women, this shows to them that

In A Place Where the Sea Remembers, Sandra Benitez invites us into a mesmerizing world filled with love, anger, tragedy and hope. This rich and bewitching story is a bittersweet portrait of the people in Santiago, a Mexican village by the sea. Each character faces a conflict that affects the course of his or her life. The characters in this conflict are Remedios, la curandera of the small town who listens to people’s stories and gives them advice, Marta, a 16 year old teenage girl, who was raped and became pregnant. Chayo is Marta’s big sister and Calendario is Chayo’s husband. Justo Flores, his conflict is person vs. self. One of the most important conflicts in this story is person vs. person, then person vs. supernatural followed by

Thesis: In the short story “Woman Hollering Creek,” Sandra Cisneros emphasizes the importance of having a female figure to look up to in order to overcome the oppression women are subjected to in a patriarchal society.

The majority of characters in A Place Where the Sea Remembers has felt regret and betrayal. It was hard for them to not do the things they did because of the fact that they were thinking of themselves. For example, Marta and Chayo have both felt regret and betrayal. Some characters have also felt this conflict, but Marta and Chayo are the ones that go through it the most.

Many people, especially women with no Latin background who read Diaz’s work might think that Diaz is an antifeminist because of the way he objectifies women in his novels. Mainly on his novel This is how you lose her. Women are constantly objectified as sexual objects, for example, in his the short story “ Nilda” he describes Nilda his brother 's girlfriend as, “ She was a Dominican , from here, and had super-long hair like those Pentecostal girls, and a chest you wouldn’t believe.” The way he describes Nilda is very sexist, but as the story progresses the reader can tell that since the beginning of the story this girl had no future. A person with a Latin background can interpret this part of the story as Diaz’s exposing Machismo. For example, Nilda being objectified as a sexual object plays a huge part in what women in a Latin community deal with everyday. Mostly because machismo in most Latin countries is perceived as part of the norm. Oftentimes, women are treated as secondary class citizens with no voice. Diaz does a great job exposing machismo in his stories. By exposing machismo in his stories Diaz is revealing the unfairness of what is means to be a woman form a

Theme: Feminist Lens Men have power over women. When Dr. Simon is nearly about to physically abuse Mrs. Humphrey, but resists the urge. This event portrays who even sane men, who are not under the influence of alcohol (Grace’s father), think it is fine to beat a women. The idea that at the time, women are supposed to cook and clean, and men keep women because of this.

As a result of the abuse female characters have faced, it has become an objective for authors to prevent this. There have been clear strides recently, putting women as the protagonists, and not in a manner that has them dealing with persecution. The amount of strong, female characters is a large stride in the right direction to end the conflict regarding women’s roles in literature. However, this sudden influx of women in literature may lead to the reversal of the issue; the absence or abuse of men. While certainly literary equality is the end goal, to flip the issue would be just as bad and lead to sexism on the opposite spectrum. To truly mend the rift between genders, there must be no discrimination, the idea that an author is trying to use sexist undertones by not writing the lead as a female should not have to be an idea that readers think about when analyzing modern books. While even still there are issues of gender inequality in literature, there must be moderation from both ends for a resolution to be possible. The only way for equality to be achieved is with the absence of sexist ideals from all

The perception of inequality was evident in the colonial Spanish America, man belief that women were lacked in capacity to reason as soundly as men. A normal day for European women in the new world was generally characterized by male domination, for example marriage was arranged by the fathers, women never go out except to go church, women didn’t have the right to express their opinions about politic or society issues. Subsequent to all these bad treats European women try to find different ways to escape from man domination and demonstrate their intellectual capacities, for example women used become part of a convent, write in secret their desires and disappointments, and even dress as man to

The culture of rape toward women of color especially have influenced many to believe the misconception and stereotype of black women sexuality. The authors minimize the history of enslavement and rape because they could not come up with a reasonable truth or reason as to why Haitian women and any color women were rape. Many held the position that women were responsibility for many of the white men action because they were taught to accepted the white men sexual advances and adapt the culture of enslavement and oppression. Their virtue was not their because they were not a human being in the eye of the white man. According to the book, white men felt empower and used excuses to justify their actions, “such attitudes helped justify and normalize

Society is very shy to discuss matters about rape, and especially in North America, where we view it as something that doesn’t occur. This makes it unbearable for women, which were victims of rape, to go through this because it’s such a commonly unexpressed topic. A perfect example of this is seen in the play Ruined; in the play the women in brothels have been ruined, because they have been raped, are seen as corrupted and impure. The same goes for women in our society, because they are viewed as devalued, and are no longer treated with equality. This in turn allows the individual that was raped to adopt the hatred within them, which is devastating and undeserved. In Ruined, the women accepted be prostitutes because they felt there was nothing else out there for them which, unfortunately, is a common feeling amongst rape victims. In Sunitha Krishnan’s “The Fight Against Sex Slavery”, it is appalling to hear the stories she tells, as well as her own. The surprising thing is that she is not pleading for aid in liberating or stopping human trafficking. It seems what she needs is for society to accept and nurture those who are freed and want to live a regular life. She justly states that we have to move past this "culture of silence". Our society has this tendency to be indifferent regarding things that don't concern us directly and be quiet spectators. There are

Many women were involved on violent acts that through history showed the inequality in rights between men and women. Violence against women can be seen as a social mechanism used by men as control tool to subordinate them to a lower position compared with men. Feminism as a movement was the power behind the women who fought for equal rights in a society where they were denied them. Feminism worked as a motivator, in a sense that allowed these women to verbalize more freely their traumatic experiences. In addition to these conversations, the Feminist movement impacted social and political entities and they were able to hear the voices of these women and the acts that turned them into victims.

Feminist theory aims to understand the nature of gender inequality and focuses on gender politics, power relations and sexuality. Feminist political activism campaigns on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, sexual harassment, discrimination and sexual violence. Themes explored in feminism include discrimination, stereotyping, objectification, sexual objectification, oppression and

behavior and a cry for the recognition of women's rights ( ). Instead its theme

All characters in the novel are living in a man’s world; nevertheless, the author has tried to change this world by the help of her characters. She shows a myriad of opportunities and different paths of life that woman can take, and more importantly she does not show a perfect world, where women get everything they want, she shows a world where woman do make mistakes, but at the same time they are the ones that pay for these mistakes and correct them.