Intersection Of Biography And History: My Intellectual Journey '

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.

C. Wright Mills was an American sociologist who created the model of the sociological imagination. The Sociological imagination is a sociological outlook that links one’s experiences with societal occurrences. The Model consists of two components: “personal troubles” and “social issues,” as Mills puts it in “The Promise” an excerpt from his book The Sociological Imagination (1959,1; 1959, 3). “Personal troubles” is a micro experience which occurs at an individual level, in relation to others, and within the limits of a social setting (Mills 1959, 5). While “social issues,” is a macro involvement that surpasses an individual status and focuses on social structures and social/historical life (Mills 1959, 5; Cammer-Bechtold 2017). By connecting the two components, one realizes that broader social, historical conditions influence personal matters. To explain the sociological imagination, Mills used unemployment as an example

Machismo is something seen in the domestic situations throughout Hispanic people. The violence, the subservience that is expected and the men believe the women are second and are second class citizens. There role is to be domestic housekeepers and to birth children. Alicia makes

Thesis statement: Esperanza has a variety of female role models in her life. Many are trapped in abusive relationships, waiting for others to change their lives. Some are actively trying to change things on their own. Through these women and Esperanza’s reactions to them, Cisneros’ shows not only the hardships women face, but also explores their power to overcome them.

Firstly, C. Wright Mills’ concept of sociological imagination is “stimulated by a willingness to view the social worlds from the perspective of others”

Sandra Cisneros has been criticized by many for her depiction of Mexican Americans in her novel The House on Mango Street. Critics claim that Cisneros portrayal of Mexican Americans sustains an image of negative stereotypes. Those negative stereotypes being men who are dominating over women and women who are submissive. Throughout Cisneros’ story we meet many characters who are portrayed as the critics claim – in a way that suggests the dominance men have over the home and the family. Despite this, I believe this representation is not ment to enhance those negative stereotypes, but to better heighten the feelings of oppression, otherness, and helplessness Esperanza has. One of the most prominent examples of the negative stereotypes being displayed

“Beautiful and Cruel” marks the beginning of Esperanza’s “own quiet war” against machismo (Hispanic culture powered by men). She refuses to neither tame herself nor wait for a husband, and this rebellion is reflected in her leaving the “table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate (Cisneros 89).” Cisneros gives Esperanza a self-empowered voice and a desire for personal possessions, thing that she can call her own: Esperanza’s “power is her own (Cisneros 89).” Cisneros discusses two important themes: maintaining one’s own power and challenging the cultural and social expectations one is supposed to fulfill. Esperanza’s mission to create her own identity is manifest by her decision to not “lay (her) neck on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain (Cisneros 88).” Cisneros’ rough language and violent images of self-bondage reveal the contempt with which Esperanza views many of her peers whose only goal is to become a wife. To learn how to guard her power

Elva’s compares her feelings of not belonging in the Anglo society with the old beggar woman inside the doors of a Mexican church: “I have felt like her before, as if I want to be in a place, but I don’t know if I belong. A beggar in a room full of

In that community women must give up everything for their men. These women are trapped in their homes and sexually assaulted by the dominant man. Although, Esperanza knows that she won’t suffer the same way. “I have begun my own quiet war. Simple. Sure. I am the one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate” (89). She refuses to be treated in such a way, and shows her feelings by doing what she believes in. Esperanza focuses on herself, knowing if she wants to be different from the other women in her society she’s going to have to completely understand what she wants. At first, she was self-conscious and worried about how others viewed her. However by the end, she was no longer willing to follow the standing gender roles in her society. Esperanza still had a regard for how the people she cared about viewed her but knew she had to focus on what she thought was right. Focusing on her identity gave Esperanza the chance to unleash her true self against the outside forces holding her back.

Currently Sandra Cisneros resides in San Antonio in a purple house and she describes herself as “nobody’s mother” and “nobody’s wife.” Both Frida Kahlo’s and Cynthia Y. Hernandez’s works convey the idea of having one’s culture limit one’s freedom and individuality. Cisneros and Esperanza are both victims of this idea and realize that the only way to live one’s life freely is to defy the roles and limitations created by one’s culture.

For centuries, a great deal of ethnic groups have been disempowered and persecuted by others. However, one should realize that none are more intense than the oppression of women. In the novel, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, women living in the Mango Street neighborhood suffer from their restricted freedom. Three such women, Rafaela, Mamacita, and Sally, provide great examples. All try to escape from their dreadful environment. Most of them fail, but at first, Sally seems to succeed in escaping from her father. However, she ends up meeting a husband as equally bad as her father. Ultimately, the men who live with Rafaela, Mamacita, and Sally act as insuperable obstacles that limit the freedom in their women’s lives.

A life in the city of Seguin, Texas was not as easy as Cleofilas, the protagonist of the story thought it would be. The author, Cisneros describes the life women went through as a Latino wife through Cleofilas. Luckily, Cisneros is a Mexican-American herself and had provided the opportunity to see what life is like from two window of the different cultures. Also, it allowed her to write the story from a woman’s point of view, painting a vision of the types of problems many women went through as a Latino housewife. This allows readers to analyze the characters and events using a feminist critical view. In the short story “Women Hollering Creek” Sandra Cineros portrays the theme of expectation versus reality not only through cleofilas’s thoughts but also through her marriage and television in order to display how the hardship of women in a patriarchal society can destroy a woman’s life.

The story illustrates the overlapping influences of women’s status and roles in Mexican culture, and the social institutions of family, religion, economics, education, and politics. In addition, issues of physical and mental/emotional health, social deviance and crime, and social and personal identity are

Mill makes a very strong argument that the position women have in society is not the only possible way to structure societal hierarchy. The reason it seems unnatural to change its structure, he claims, is because it is uncustomary.

In this poem “Woman’s Work”, the mother is forced to do household cleaning which represents a domestic life and the impact of gender specific roles. This poem is written in the third person point of view. The speaker is the daughter of a mother who doesn’t work outside, but only inside of the house, and is forced to do household cleaning with her as she hears her friends playing outside in the street. Author Julia Alvarez uses imagery, simile, and alliteration to portray the meaning of the poem that women work harder than men.