Summary Of Urrea's Essay 'Whores'

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.

True masculine force goes back, in family stories from the Dominican Republic, with Trujillo's dictatorship shaping manhood perception in the Dominican culture. Oscar is incapable of rising to male-standard imposed by

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.

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).

In The Underdogs, there are countless cases of physical and verbal mistreatment of women. Smith’s Gender and the Mexican Revolution and Lewis’ taped autobiography of Pedro Martinez also emphasizes on the physical and verbal mistreatment. A prominent example in The Underdogs of verbal and insinuated physical mistreatment of women occurred with Camilla. La Pintada, speaking with Luis Cervantes, refers to her as “your ---” (74). Camilla’s later hatred of him due to him presumably raping her, shows the treatment of women as nothing more than objects even though he tries to display himself as a more

In analyzing portrayals of women, it is appropriate to begin with the character of Margarita. For, within the text, she embodies the traditionally masculine traits of bravery, resilience, and violence as a means of liberating herself from an existence of abuse and victimhood. Even more, the woman plays upon stereotypes of femininity in order to mask her true nature. The reader witnesses this clever deception in a scene where the character endures a “wholesome thrashing” from her huge, violent, and grizzly bear-like husband, Guerra (81). Although Margarita “[submits] to the infliction with great apparent humility,” her husband is found “stone-dead” the next morning (81). Here, diction such as “submits” and “humility” relate to the traits of weakness, subservience and inferiority that are so commonly expected of women, especially in their relationships with men. Yet, when one

. . one can’t help but wonder what form the author/protagonist’s life will take in the aftermath of his exorcism” (261). In this quote, Gonzales-Berry asserts that Miguel Chico’s has been exonerated of his repression through the art of writing. As stated by Marquez, serving as an inner historian has provided Miguel Chico a different perspective on life. Moreover, Gonzales-Berry’s curiosity is insightful because now that Miguel Chico has released his repression, he can now enjoy what he was encouraged to repress—his body. Lastly, in the article, “Sinners Among Angels, or Family History and the Ethnic Narrator in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God” written by David Rice, adheres to the idea of repression as he writes, “Through his vision of Felix’s return, Miguel Chico realizes that the family can only be saved if it is reconnected to the past which it represses and denies” (184). In this quote, Rice claims that the Angel family suffers from repression. His viewpoint is coming from the inner historian—Miguel Chico—as Marquez refers in his article. He refers to the salvation of the Angel family because the burden of their past is preventing the family from living their lives, hence not function as a family. In order to proceed, Rice suggests that the Angel family must acknowledge the past and learn to accept it.

Women themselves perpetuate their inferiority; the author recounts a moment in her life when her emotional connection with her mother was interrupted abruptly by a telephone call from her brother. In this instance, the mother chose to speak with her son, the Chicano, over her daughter, the Chicana.

Lope de Vega’s play touches upon several key components and ideas that were brought up in many of the other stories read throughout the semester. This included the role of gender and how men and women are viewed differently in the Spaniard town of Fuenteovejuna. Another topic included the importance of family, love, and relationships and their connection on loyalty, trust, and personal beliefs. The last major influence found in other literature and in Fuenteovejuna, were the political and religious references made throughout the play. Even though Lope de Vega didn’t make these views obvious, the reader could still pick up on their connotation and the references made towards these specific ideas. With all of this in mind, each of these

The late 1940s and 1950s saw the rise of political and cultural hysteria among Americans following fears of an impending Soviet threat on American soil. The effect was that Americans thought soviet communists were working behind the scenes to ensure the downfall or harm of the United States (Lovett). As a result, there was regular charging among each other that one was either a communist or a sympathizer of communists, thereby continuing this trend of fear. Under this threat then, several American politicians withdrew their political ideas, values and lived communist-free lives (Schrecker). It was during this rise that McCarthyism was at its peak. This was a movement that would use communism

In colonial Latin America, one aspect of life that was constantly under attack and had to be guarded at all costs was the ideal of one's Honour. Women in colonial Latin America had to especially be on their guard to protect their honour, as an unanswered attack to their honour could ruin a family's honour. But if a woman's honour was attacked there were ways for her to protect it. The honour women possessed at the time was said to be not as important as the honour of a man, but it is, in fact, more important then the man's. By using Richard Boyer's document Catarina Maria Complains That Juan Teioa Forcibly Deflowered Her and Sonya Lipsett-Rivera's document Scandal at the Church: Jose de Alfaro Accuses Dona Theresa Bravo and Others of

In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the way women have been represented and characterized gives us an idea of how the female gender are treated differently from the male gender as well as children in Latin America during the 1950s. The husbands were given all the authority, also known as machismo, whereas women weren’t allowed to take charge of anything, and were portrayed as weak and impotent.

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

“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

Machismo has been an important issue in the lives of many Latino men. The idea of being a macho man has influenced many men in Latino communities because their culture demands it, and if they are not categorized as males, then they are the burla of the community. The term machismo has been an exaggeration within this novel, since if we focus on each of the characters, everyone looks for Oscar to be a macho. If you look at Belicia and machismo in Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, we can see how she does not fulfill her desire for Oscar to be a macho.