Feminism in Women Hollering Creek - Essay Example

My area of concern is how majority of the characters have the stereotypical outlook towards genders especially the men embodying the machismo while the women are depicted as being weak and also naive. While not belonging to any land whether Mexico or America, the Chicana protagonists intently look out for their identity and this just ends up negatively as their dreams end up shattered with abuse and neglect this is brought out clearly in the text with the emphasis being on how the female generation struggles while at the same time the author brings out the other side of the readers with the tales of the lives of immigrants especially the Mexican immigrants and their personality as a society.

My main goal in this paper is to analyze the themes associated with feminism in the story “Woman Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros. The theme of feminism will be analyzed from the perspective of similarities and differences between the cultures that are displayed by the story. This will be split between into sections with each looking at different aspect of cultures that are presented. Also under this section will be the historical context and a brief preview of the story by the author which depicts how the society is brought out.

As the last part, I will be concluding with my thoughts on the story and the themes discussed especially the aspect of feminism and how the Mexican culture has been presented in relation to the women. Woman Hollering Creek The story is the title of the book by the same name; “Woman Hollering Creek”. It revolves around a Mexican woman by the name Cleofilas Enriqueta DeLeon Hernandez who has a belief she will live ever happily ever after; she marries a man by the name Juan Pedro Martinez Sanchez after her father consents the marriage.

Thereafter she leaves her father and her six brothers in Mexico, the couple drive across the border to “el otro lado”- the other side; a dusty little town called Seguin in Texas. It is here in Texas that she wants to start a new life as a wife in a ramshackle house but her hopes and aspirations of having a happy marriage are dashed just like the characters she watches in the telenovelas. Across a stream by the name Woman Hollering Creek, Cleofilas finds out that she had left a boring yet peaceful life with the family that she shared (her father and six brothers).

All through her marriage with Juan; the relationship is tumultuous as Pedro is unfaithful, abusive and also leaves her in isolation most of the time. Her new life that was supposed to be full of passion like the ones she had seen in the telenovelas becomes “sadder and sadder” with each episode even though she has a belief that “when one finds, finally, the great love of one's life, [one] does whatever one can, must do, at whatever the case to protect it…” This results to her being depressed and the same time develops a keen interest she has on her legendary icon on the telenovelas, la llorona, and the creek that is named after her legendary icon that runs behind her house.

However, unlike the “weeping woman” in the telenovela; who chooses death as a solution and means to escape her unloving husband, Cleofilas in a sense chooses life and this will help in dealing with her problem. With the aid of