Of all the short stories that we were assigned to read, I would have to say that Giovanni Verga 's short story, "La Lupa," was my favorite as I found it to be the most interesting and entertaining of them all. "La Lupa," latin for 'she-wolf, ' is named after the main character of ,Verga 's short story, a woman, who was often called a she-wolf ' by the people in her village due to her extremely strong sexual desires, which remains unmatched by any other in the village. Moreover, la Lupa was often regarded as a promiscuous woman who "was never satisfied" and was known to aggressively chase after men that she found attractive in an almost predatory-like manner("La Lupa," p.3). In fact, la Lupa 's reputation within her community got so bad to the point that whenever any other woman would encounter la Lupa, they would make the sign of a cross as they walked past her as a way voicing their displeasure towards her and her promiscuity. Furthermore, many women feared that la Lupa would "bewitch" their sons or their husbands by seducing them and causing them to fall deeply in love with her as she had done with many other men, including the 'holy ' priest (p.4). Verga 's description of la Lupa here, as well as in the first few paragraphs of the story, sounds eerily similar to how one would describe or attribute to an evil witch, which seems to be one of the main themes of the story.
One day, La Lupa falls in love with a very attractive young man named Nanni, whom she meets while
According to Mother Teresa, “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty”. Now imagine being lonely, unwanted, and poor. That is how Esperanza grew up. She lived in a poor neighborhood and was lonely and felt unwanted. She had to navigate through these difficult emotions and challenges with no help, but was able to grow up and become an amazing young woman.
The main characters, Day and June have no reason to cross paths, until the day June's brother, Metias, is killed. Day becomes the most suspected killer. While Day is trying to make sure his family survives, June wants to kill whoever ended her brother,Metias's, death. As the story unravels its dizzying twist and turns, the two realize the reason they came together in the first place.
Giovanni and Lusanna by Gene Brucker is an organized depiction of the two Florentine lovers, Giovanni della Casa and his lover Lusanna. The story of these two lovers begin on their secret 12 year affair, but ends in calamity when Lusanna’s brother Benedetto Girolamo files a lawsuit against Giovanni claiming he had broken his marriage vows by marrying an aristocratic woman Marietta. The book goes into full detail with notaries, archbishops, deceiving witnesses, and slut shaming. A scandal that breaks social norms in 15th century Florence, this book was written with expressiveness, intellect and interest that is surely able to keep the reader intrigued.
Have you ever heard the legend about La Llorona known as “The Weeping Women”?Do you hear that? Do you hear that crying noise? People say that if you hear her cry expect death! La Llorona is real, even though people say she is she is an urban legend. There has been sightings of her in many places.
Esperanza, a strong- willed girl who dreams big despite her surroundings and restrictions, is the main character in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Esperanza represents the females of her poor and impoverished neighborhood who wish to change and better themselves. She desires both sexuality and autonomy of marriage, hoping to break the typical life cycle of woman in her family and neighborhood. Throughout the novel, she goes through many different changes in search of identity and maturity, seeking self-reliance and interdependence, through insecure ideas such as owning her own house, instead of seeking comfort and in one’s self. Esperanza matures as she begins to see the difference. She evolves from an insecure girl to a
Point of view is important in any novel. It allows readers to see and understand the events and characters in a novel. Depending on who is speaking, point of view can drive the plot and convey the thoughts of the characters in a story. In the novel, The Brief Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, point of view plays a crucial role in narrating the life of the lonesome outsider, Oscar. The novel is narrated in first person, but Diaz chooses to disclose who the speaker is until later in the book. As the story progresses, there are clues that hint to the reader who the outside source narrating Oscars life is. Diaz uses Yunior to narrate a majority of the novel. This point of view lets the readers understand the Dominican culture through Yunior’s commentary and perspective. It also gives an outside perspective on Oscar which helps build Oscar as a character. Instead of using an omniscient third person or generic first person point of view, Diaz uses multiple characters to narrate the story. This ingenious idea gave the story a more personal and up close look at not only the life of Oscar, but also the lives of his sister, Lola, and his mother, Beli.
In defining one’s identity, many different factors are considered; such as one’s nationality, characteristic, personality, ability, experience, religion, and etc. Especially for those people who live in America, so called country of immigration, has much more complicated identities than those Asian country people where mixed people are rarely noticed. Thinking about the concept of identity, some people easily categorized themselves as simple factors and terms which could describe their surface; white, black, Asian, European, pretty, ugly, nice, mean and so on and so forth. And that is the most point where majority people stopped to list their identities from exploring more in complicated range. However, there are many people who dig more than common people; one great example would be Denise Chavez, who is the author of the novel called Loving Pedro Infante, who kept asking herself about her identity to approach more accurate and clear ideas. In her work, reader could see the confusion of Tere, the main character of the novel, went through her life as Latin-American female in dealing with finding one’s true identity and how she accept her as who she really is. Denise Chavez, who is obviously Latin-American lady, mirror her own life experience through the character she created and introduce to readers about tough life she lived in America as Mejicana. The main character of this novel have a clear understanding and strong idea about herself throughout the novel, even if
Isabel Allende’s short story “Clarisa” records the story of a woman, reverenced by the people of her community and who is kind without exception, even to those who wished her harm. “Clarisa gave everything she owned to the needy, ”(Allende 36). Her generous nature and adherence to helping others depicts Clarisa as the model of affection and compassion, who gives absolutely everything she owns and even spends “ the last cent of her dowry and inheritance” (Allende 434). For this very reason others hold her in high esteem and perceive her as saintlike.
"La Malinche." Slave, interpreter, secretary, mistress, mother of the first "Mexican." her very name still stirs up controversy. Many Mexicans continue to revile the woman called Doña Marina by the Spaniards and La Malinche by the Aztecs, labeling her a traitor and harlot for her role as the alter-ego of Cortes as he conquered Mexico.
The Mirabal sisters were instrumental in the toppling of Rafael Trujillo’s regime in the Dominican Republic. Julia Alvarez uses Las Mariposas to exhibit different ways in which people can become politicized in times of revolution. She uses these women for several reasons: they are well known, and while they all had the same up bringing they all hold different values. The Mirabal sisters became politicized in different ways and for different reasons. Minerva became a revolutionary when she saw that her country was unjust. Mate became a revolutionary when she see’s that love is not alienated in the rebellion and that her help is needed. Patria became a revolutionary when her faith was rekindled and her faith becomes apart of the revolution.
All summer, I had been practicing for wrestling. I was getting better every day, it seemed like. So I decided, to go to a wrestling dual in La Junta. The excitement, was pumping through my body like blood.My coach asked me, “are you ready for today.” I replied “yes coach I always am.”So we start going on the road, it was a fun trip like it usually is. We arrive, and It was as hot as a stove outside. And we have a couple hours to relax, so I lay down and talk to my teammates for a while.
There cannot be a discussion about borders without also discussing the metaphors that are linked to them. When speaking about the border people know the physical borderlines between countries, but to understand borders one must look pass the physical boundaries. As a society we must be and make ourselves more aware of the cultural identity, language, and community surrounding the Latino American population.
Spain during the 16th century has been described as a time of oppression, a time of exploitation of the subordinate class. For example, in the text of The Life of Lazarillo De Tormes a gluttonist priest offers Lazarillo scraps of an Eucharist bread, that was nibbled by mice. The priest tells Lazaro to take the bread, stating “There, eat that. The mouse is a clean animal.” This shows the how the higher class sees the lower class, it shows how they believe in offerings coming from them should be taken as a gift, even if a literal rodent has tampered with it. Most who could live during this this time usually were those who held high levels of intelligence and were also devious. Due to this, Lazarillo, being a man who holds the fore told
Marisol was written by Jose Rivera, premiering in 1992. He and other Latin American writers are known for creating works under magical realism. This genera of art traditionally depicts down and out suffering. He highlights topics about class, race and gender by skewing the reality the audience knows with allegory and symbolism. After the clash between the senile God and the Angels ensue, the New York becomes an unsettling dystopia. In this world, all foods are salt, it rains acid, and men can give birth. Throughout this desecrated world, the characters search for a way to keep on living. The actors portray these characters with honest intentions and clear acting choices, which allowed me to believe and empathize with their characters. After seeing this play, I understand that one cannot grow by dwelling in the past.
One of the great architects in time was Andrea Palladio, who was made famous for his magnificent Villas built in Italy in the fifteen hundreds. To do so he drew from the Greek and Roman’s architecture, studying many of their finest works, to create his masterful villas. This process would develop into a style of architecture, which became known as Palladianism. This style has inspired buildings which have dominated the landscape for the last four hundred years. These buildings include: English castles, American public buildings, Swiss railroad stations, Spanish libraries, Tuscan villas and Canadian hotels. Many of these buildings are considered to be the great buildings of the world.