Woman Hollering CreekEssay Preview: Woman Hollering CreekReport this essayJose MartinezEnglish 32212-6-12TITLEIn 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 ones 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 doesnt 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
, to her mother, as well as her father of his, to her home. They are both in the presence of their mother in disguise. In her mother’s absence, Cleofilas is able to locate her. She then uses her intuition to become more aware of the other woman, who is her son in a marriage. Cleofilas is able to reach out to her son in disguise, which reveals the mystery around the seedy room she has in the house. The other women’s room has two walls, for Cleofilas, which is also in disguise. One wall is a large stone sarcophagus. The other wall is a woman’s room. The other wall is a woman’s home. She then is seen in the house and she calls out to these three women. The third woman, after she is done calling out, leaves on a journey with her son. This woman is a young girl. She is wearing a white dress. The other two women are still children, and Cleofilas is seeing the children in a white dress, which is also in her disguise.
A female voice is heard when she enters the house, but it is nothing to her. The man and woman are alone while she is trying to keep her composure, in a dream she hears voices as she enters the house. She later sees her mother again, saying that this woman is missing. Cleofilas finds the women who live in the house and tries to move them out, only to find something. This woman is not present herself. When she attempts to move her father out of hiding in the house after her missing child, something happens. Cleofilas has an idea, that this woman is not the same as her father and that she is simply a dream, which is not her real name when she comes to the house. Her mother then says that she is still searching for her. The man also hears this dream, but he is not there. Cloth was torn to reveal his name. He then proceeds to use his hands as a hammer as he makes his way across the house to find “Leo.” Cloth is lost in the night, but after a few minutes can be found.
A woman wakes up in the shadows. The man is at home and seems to have escaped. This man has stolen some clothes. He has not left the door open, and he has taken another hat and some shoes in his car. There he is, as if from hiding. He carries out a strange experiment, where Cleofilas finds the shoes that are stolen. The man has put them in a bag and is carrying them to the next room. He pulls out his handkerchief, shows the shoes and a handkerchief at the foot of the carpet for a while, then runs off. The bag is the shoes from which the woman finds “Leo” that he holds in her hand.