Woman Hollering Creek

Jose Martinez

English 322

12-6-12

TITLE

In the novel Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros, the title story concerns the issues of living in patriarchy society, realizing problems in relationships internally and externally and finding oneself amongst a big picture. In the short story, the main character Cleofilas grows up in a patriarchy type of household/society. In this house she is expected to look up to men and respect them. Her personality can be characterized as conformist. Her early understanding of love is a bad illusion, which is largely based on telenovelas. Cleofilas marries a man who abuses her and eventually the marriage is over because he is a bonded by her Cleofilas, because she got over him. Throughout the story, the motifs of female identity, water, and sound come up over and over again. These motifs represent how women could be identify, how it can discover the problems one has, and how one is changed over time.

The identity of a woman should not be defined by the means of another. Being raised in a patriarchy household/society, Cleofilas is thought to look up to men no matter what. She grows up and marries an abusive husband. Her illusion of love is based on telenovelas. Cleofilas thinks she knows the true meaning of love when it is just an illusion she gets from her telenovelas. "She wants passion in its purest crystalline essence. The kind the books and songs and telenovelas describe when one finds, finally the great love one's life and does whatever one can, must do, at whatever cost" (Cisneros pg. 44). This quote shows the obvious goal in Cleofilas life. Her goal is to find love just like the telenovelas she watches. Cleofilas future is set by the society she grew up in.

Cleofilas can discover her problems with the unexpected and the observations of motifs of sound. Cleofilas being born and raised in a patriarchal household she means is made into a conformist and through that she is not as equal as men. She now lives near a creek and she hears a noise coming from it. Since Cleofilas doesn't have a voice because of the society she grew up in. Cleofilas has the illusion of sounds coming from the creek. She believes the sounds will help her find her voice she is looking for. It is just an illusion she is having, "La llorona calling to her. She is sure of it... Wonders if something as quiet as this drives how a woman to darkness under the tress" (Cisneros Pg. 51). In this quote we see that Cleofilas is wondering how la llorona is calling