Blind Ignorance

Blind Ignorance

Blind Ignorance


Sandra Cisneros was born to a Mexican father and a Mexican American mother. She grew up in a working-class family with six brothers; her family expected her to follow the traditional female role. Her lonely childhood growing up with six males and the family's constant moving contributed to her becoming a writer. The family moved frequently-- from Chicago to Mexico City--which caused constant upheavals. She felt trapped between the American and the Mexican cultures, not belonging in either one. Understandably, Cisneros withdrew into a world of books. Cisneros surveys the Mexican American woman's condition, which is at once individual and universal. She addresses contemporary issues associated with stereotypical roles, minority status, and cultural conflicts. In “Woman Hollering Creek”, Cleofilas is a young woman who is excited to marry Juan Pedro and move up North to Seguin, Texas, but she soon finds out that her life will not be like the telénovelas she once loved to watch. The constant fascination Cleofila has of the arroyo, which legend says is haunted by women who lived tragic lives. Cleofilas only dreamed of "passion in its purest crystalline essence”. This name intrigues Cleofilas because she cannot seem to comprehend why it is called as it is. Everyone she asks does not question the name, little less understand it (221), which baffles Cleo. Living in a small town of “dust and despair”(403), with disrespectful men making foul comments about women, two unpleasant neighbors by the names of Dolores and Soledad, an abusive husband and a creek named “La Gritona”(400) behind her home. Cleofilas was trying to make the decision to stay in a violent relationship or not.
In describing "Women Hollering Creek," Sandra Cisneros uses hidden examples to show the pain, anguish, and despair a battered woman feels. Symbolism also takes a role in showing the despair that is portrayed in the evaluations Cleofila is making of the neighbor...

Similar Essays