Summary Of Woman Hollering Creek By Gloria Anzald�a

In several cultures, women are seen as archetypes more than men. The proposition of women are instantly idealized and glorified and instantaneously ignore the true complexity of a woman. Countless of these superficial images can be seen across various cultures where the societies within these cultures define what it means to be a female and what type of behavior is and isn’t acceptable within those parameters. The persistent restatement of these stories throughout these generations reinforces the gender system. Women who step out of the norm in these societies are then held punishable for their actions. Alicia Gaspar de Alba pinpoints the three archetypal roles that are given to the women in the Mexican and Chicana cultures. These are,

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.

Social standards may confine individuals from pursuing their own personal interests. Through the relationship between societal standards and individual interests, Sandra Cisneros’ short story, “Woman Hollering Creek,” introduces the roles of men and women in a Hispanic culture. The protagonist, Cleofilas Hernandez, is trapped in an abusive relationship with her newly-wed husband, Juan Pedro. However, Cleofilas tolerates the toxic relationship due to the social norms of her society, which reveals that the Hispanic culture revolves around a patriarchal society and that women have to be submissive to their husbands. As the story progresses, Cleofilas abandons the gender norm to lead an independent lifestyle.

Many women struggle to overcome obstacles in their lives. Sometimes they find it difficult to leave abusive relationships and end up never leaving. But some women are brave or work up the courage to take a stand and leave the situation. In the short story, “Women Hollering Creek”, Sandra Cisneros explains the theme of the story by telling about a woman who’s husband abuses her.

Gloria Anzaldúa writes of a Utopic frame of mind, the borderlands created in and lived in by the new mestiza. She describes the preexisting natures of the Anglos, Mexicanos, and Chicanos as seen around the southwest U.S. / Mexican border, indicative of the nations at large. She also probes the borders of language, sexuality, psychology and spirituality. Anzaldúa presents this information in various identifiable ways including the autobiography, historical/informative essay, and poetry. What is unique to Anzaldúa is her ability to weave a ‘perfect’ kind of compromised state of mind that melds together the preexisting cultures while simultaneously formulating a fusion of genres that stretches previously

Cisneros’ family bounced back and forth between Mexico and the United States for most of her youth, which led to firsthand experience in the difficulties of growing up as a multicultural person (Doyle. 54-55). As an adult, she settled in San Antonio, Texas, but that feeling of not belonging to either culture never left her. She drew on this feeling as inspiration for many works, including “Woman Hollering Creek,” a short story about a Mexican woman, named Cleofilas, brought to live in the United States by her new husband. She is excited to leave her lazy brothers and old-fashioned father behind, and dreams of the endless possibilities that

Sandra Cisneros’s short story “Never Marry a Mexican” deals heavily with the concept of myth in literature, more specifically the myth La Malinche, which focuses on women, and how their lives are spun in the shadows on men (Fitts). Myths help power some of the beliefs of entire cultures or civilizations. She gives the reader the mind of a Mexican-American woman who seems traitorous to her friends, family and people she is close to. This causes destruction in her path in the form of love, power, heartbreak, hatred, and an intent to do harm to another, which are themes of myth in literature. The unreliable narrator of this story was created in this story with the purpose to show her confusion and what coming from two completely different

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.

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

Woman Hollering Creek is a book of short stories published in 1991. The author, Sandra Cisneros, separated her book into three sections. The section that will be analyzed is the first section where the narrators are female children. Out of the many stories in section one, the three that will be focused on are, "Mericans," "My Friend Lucy Who Smells Like Corn," and "Barbie-Q." The children in these three stories are all lower class, Mexican-American females. These stories have been described by Thompson as Cisneros remembering her childhood, filled with no male figures, lack of close female friendships, and poverty (415-417). Each story shares both similar themes and different

Her Wild American Self by Evelina Galang is a collection of short stories that reflects on not only what it means to be A Filipina-American but a woman in society. Being both of those things subsequently leads to everyday struggles that involve interpersonal conflicts, societal pressures, and familial obligations. Women often sacrifice so much of their feelings and consequently themselves when trying to deal with such a harsh reality. This reality which relies heavily on society also forces women to become subservient in many aspects of their lives and does not allow them to speak out and defend themselves in times of need. Myself, like so many of the women in Galang’s stories, have gone through feelings of shame and guilt while trying to

Two Separate Worlds For this assignment, I researched the various ways Hispanic culture (as portrayed in the novel by Cisneros titled The House on Mango Street) compares and contrasts with Bihari culture (which is the culture and practice I follow). As it turns out there are many similar concepts of human existence and roles between these two cultures, yet there are also different methods implemented by each culture in hoped of fulfilling said roles. A striking example of human roles exhibited in each culture would be the classic, controversial gender roles seen in society today. The main reason this research focuses on gender roles is because of the apparent theme of confinement from gender roles in Hispanic culture shown in House on Mango

In the piece of literature named “Woman Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros, one of the major types of literary conflicts is person vs. society regarding the main protagonist and society’s expectations of her. To elaborate, the protagonist Cleofilas Hernandez, does not have a strong female role model in her life and is living in a patriarchal society that leaves her and other woman like her unaware of their potential. An example of this unawareness caused by society is when Cleofilas is saved from her abusive relationship by a strong, independent woman named Felice who gave Cleofilas a glimpse of the life that she may achieve one day. A quotation by the narrator states, “Everything about this woman, this Felice, amazed Cleofilas. The fact that she drove a pickup. A pick up, mind you, but when Cleofilas asked if it was her husbands, she said she didn't have a husband” (220 Cisneros). An analysis this quote clearly illustrates to the reader that Cleofilas obviously did not have any knowledge of a woman being able to have her own car, inevitably leading the reader into wondering what else society does not want her to know. Furthermore, this quotation suggests that this society does not have independent women due to Cleofilas surprising reaction to just the simple thought of a woman having a car. This proves that the literary conflict of person vs society is evidently present in this short story because Cleofilas is unmistakably placed in a society who did not support or have empowering women figures like Felice. Ultimately, with Cleofilas not knowing her self worth or having a female role model in her life, it leads to her forgiving her husband for his abusive nature. With this visible fact, a major theme within the boundaries of societal expectation and discrimination of women in “Woman Hollering Creek” is domestic abuse. In the short story, Cleofilas is involved in an abusive marriage in which her husband emotionally and physically attacks her daily because she has no means to protect

Women in a typical Hispanic culture usually desire an image they want or expect based on the media. For example, when it comes to relationships the media portrays the ideal image of a marriage and then women have an expectation, as in the short story “Woman Hollering Creek” , by Sandra Cisneros. Cleofilas, the Protagonist, moves from her known household in Mexico to Seguin, Texas to get married to Juan Pedro. Her hometown in Mexico is very similar to where she is now in Seguin. Cleofilas meet two people in the neighborhood, Dolores and Soledad, who depended on their husbands for everything so when they lost their husbands it had a major impact on them. On the other hand, Cleofilas also meet two other women that are completely different from Dolores and Soledad because Felice and Graciela do not have to depend on men for anything. In addition, Felice and Graciela have a huge impact in Cleofilas’ life because they are able to help her escape her miserable marriage. Cleofilas bases her whole life on a Mexican romantic telenovela, but instead her whole marriage is a catastrophe because her husband abuses her. In Cleofilas new town there is a creek called “Woman Hollering Creek” that runs from her new hometown to the city. The creek has a symbolic meaning for all the women that she meet throughout her journey of realisation because her whole life is based on it being like a telenovela, but at the end it all changes. Cleofilas realises her life would not be like a telenovela and