'Jorge A Church Janitor Finally Quits'

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.

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.

Juanita says, 'I feel my isolation alone in a big house full of people" (Romero, p. 22). The social norms and values surrounding the domestic service was a possible cause of Juanita's loneliness. These problems that Romero mentions are not confined to just Juanita. It applies to all the invisible workers working in the domestic service. At last Romero highlights that the class of domestic workers comprises mostly of women. Romero talks about her own experience working as a domestic worker, how she learned these domestic services through her mom. On weekend Romero would go clean houses along with her mother. Invisible workers are not found among all socioeconomic aspects. They are concentrated among the lower social

Based on Cisneros’ works of literature, gender roles in a Hispanic culture revolves around patriarchal rule. The repercussions of a patriarchal rule includes the limitations of female liberation and development. Cleofilas’ abusive situation exemplifies the limitations of her independence and development as she can not make her own decisions and has to solely depend on her husband. This situation is illustrated when Cleofilas explains that the towns are “built so that you have to depend on husbands... You can drive only if you’re rich enough to own and drive an own car. There is no place to go” (Cisneros 628). Cleofilas reveals that men are the dominant gender and have more authority, and that women are compelled to depend on them in her society. It is an exceptionally rare case that a woman can afford her own car, for the men usually control the finances in a household. Additionally, Cleofilas has nowhere to seek refuge from her husband. Although she yearns to return to her father’s home, she decides not to due to the social standards imposed on her. In her society, the act of returning home after marriage is socially unacceptable. She understands that her family will be viewed in a negative light if she were to return home, as seen when Cleofilas refers to her town as a “town of gossips” (627). Similar to other men in the society, Juan Pedro’s authority is shown through his abuse. Cleofilas recalls, “He slapped her once, and then again, and again; until the lip split and bled an orchid of blood” (626).

For instance, the protagonist of the play Ana, conquers the subject of gender roles, sexuality, and body image throughout the play. As a newly high school graduate who has been forced to work in the garment industry by her mother in order to help her sister Estela’s struggling business. A resentment starts to grow in Ana for wanting more opportunities and an education. Ana states in her writings, “It is selfish for me to not want to wake up every morning at 6:30 a.m., Saturdays included, to come work for 67 dollars a week?”(pg.10) With Ana’s carefree and headstrong demeanor she is constantly clashing with her mother on what she believes is right. Dona Carmen on the other hand is where much of these misogynistic ideals are stemmed from coming from a background and culture that has taught her to be submissive and never say no.

In “Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Transvestite in the New World” by Catalina de Erauso, a female-born transvestite conquers the Spanish World on her journey to disguise herself as a man and inflicts violence both on and off the battlefield. Catalina discovers her hidden role in society as she compares herself to her brothers advantage in life, as they are granted money and freedom in living their own lives. Erauso decides to take action of this act of inequality by forming a rebellion, as she pledges to threaten the social order.The gender roles allotted to both men and women in the Spanish world represent the significance of societal expectations in order to identify the importance of gender in determining one’s position in the social order in the Spanish World.

In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the reader gets a sense of what the expectations are of Dominican men and women. Junot Díaz uses Oscar in contrast to the other male characters to present the expectations of the Dominican male. On the other hand, Díaz presents the women in the text, especially Belicia, La Inca, Lola, and Jenni, as strong characters in their own rights, but the male characters, with the exception of Oscar, have a desire to display their masculinity to maintain power over these women. It would be unfair to say that the women bring the abuse unto themselves, but rather it is their culture that makes the abuse acceptable and almost to a certain extent—expected.

This is comparable to the tone in ‘At a Potato Digging’. Here we have a tone of detachment and monotony in relation to the labourers and the dehumanizing effect of their work. This is achieved through synecdoche; in stanza three the workers are referred to simply as body parts: ‘Heads bow, trunks bend, hands fumble…’ This loss of identity strips the worker of personality and emphasises their servitude.

The Secretary Chant by Marge Piercy shows how a woman’s job completely dehumanizes her. Marge Piercy is a poet who writes mostly about feminism. The poem uses metaphors and shifts to describe a woman who slowly feels like she is becoming the office. The descriptions of the woman only include physical characteristics. The poem never directly mentions her mind or heart, as if she no longer possesses them. The poem shows how dehumanizing the woman’s job is and how people are labeled as what they do rather than who they are.

Piercy implies that, with overwork, people can begin to lose a sense of who they are. In this instance, the Secretary believes she is no longer a human, but instead a part of the office as her voice has been lost in the quantity of work that must be done. Similarly, Steven Poole, who wrote text

Women in this era are expected to marry, stay home, and have children, while white men are allowed the freedom to explore their passion in the workforce and life. The main character Skeeter who questions the restriction placed on her by society’s traditions. Her southern socialite best friends have conformed to expectations by marrying, having children and even questioning why she Skeeter went to university. Different readers of different genders would interpret this text differently. With females relating to the struggles of females and how we are still with the disadvantage with the workplace with the pay gap and limited opportunities. While men may view this text as shocking to see society expectations on women and colored members as they are so different from todays

Marge Piercy’s “The Secretary Chant” is a metaphoric and humorous poem of that displays the way a woman’s job as a secretary has consumed her. Piercy opens the poem with a dramatic metaphor “My hips are a desk”(1). The metaphors and comparisons continue line after short line of the poem in a lyrical format, each metaphor bringing to life the objects a secretary would use throughout the day into a comparable function of the female attire and body; paper clips become earrings, the head a switchboard, the navel a reject button. At the end of the poem, Piercy uses a dramatic play of her words to show the dramatic consumption the work of a secretary has taken on the female speaker “File me under W / because I wonce / was / a woman. ”(22-25)

Philip Levine walks us through the life of working-class Americans in his poem “What Work Is”. This poem reveals what labor really is and how one group may have an advantage over another. Levine explains the struggle and sacrifices of working for survival in his neighborhood by comparing it to the work his brother passionately does. He walks us through the rainy day of looking for something that can potentially not be there and the sacrifices you have to make and his relationship to his brother and the emotional direction from anger to having this almost loss feeling.

Marge Piercy’s poem, “The Secretary Chant”, takes a bold stance against the life of a secretary in the 1970s. She enlists the use of metaphors such as “My breast are wells of mimeograph ink” (5) in order to show the constant dehumanization the modern secretary faced. She expertly chooses office oriented words to emphasize her point. Piercy’s use of the word “Mimeograph” not only pushes forward the metaphor of the dehumanization of secretaries, but encapsulates her belief that secretaries are crafted from stencils, which they are constantly expected to fit the mold of.

The orderly, on the other hand, is the epitome of a purely existential conduct, projecting a simplistic, grounded attitude towards life, doing as he is told without question and enjoying his nights off spent with his “sweetheart.” The two characters serve to contrast each other, and to ultimately lead each other to their mutual demise. Lawrence’s writing is an evident commentary on both Freudian and existentialist thought, and the Officer serves as the symbol of sexual repression, and more specifically, homosexual repression. The orderly is the image of the Officer’s homoerotic desires, perhaps because he is the more practical and simple-minded of the two, he took his responsibilities and the commands of the Officer, “as he took the sun and the rain… it did not implicate him personally.” The Officer, being as complex as he was, resented the relaxed disposition of his orderly, yet he was simultaneously attracted- fatally attracted- to his movements, his physical structure, and his submissive