problems.
problems.
something is missing now. [she realized] --- it’s me, Dede the one who survived to tell the story” (Alverez 321). Dede compares her lost family to statues; this comparison is made to show how what happened cannot be changed much like how once status is formed it is not easily changed. Both the Mirabal sisters and statues are locked in place. People are able to observe both cases and learn about the history of the subject without directly talking or experiencing what the subject went through.…
Diversity is what founded the United States, an idea that allowed individuals to immigrate to this country with an ability to escape secular violence, poverty, or to pursue a higher education.…
The opening scene, with Bridie demonstrating the deep, subservient bow, the kow-tow, demanded of the prisoners by their Japanese guards during tenko, takes the audience straight into the action. As the interviewer, Rick, poses questions, music and images from the war period flash on the screen behind Bridie, and the audience realises they are watching the filming of a television documentary. The time is now, and Bridie is being asked to recall the events of fifty years earlier. This scene establishes who Bridie is, and introduces the audience to the situation: the recall and in a sense the re-living of memories of the years of imprisonment.…
Patria notices how “on that very rocker where [she] had nursed [her] babies that [she] saw [her] sister Minerva looking through the viewfinder of an M-1 carbine—a month ago [Patria] would not have known it from a shotgun” and how “in the pretty script [she and Mate were] taught by the nuns to writing out Bible passages” they recorded their assortment of guns (Alvarez 167-168). Alvarez combines very feminine activities with what society would define as “manly” and too violent for women to be a part of—being knowledgeable in munitions and possessing them—to illustrate the influence of courage, especially being a woman who is expected to be passive and weak and is pregnant. Alvarez also expresses the irony of women themselves hindering their own success apart from men, such as through submissive sister Dede Mirabal who “considered...politics...something for men” and followed her non-revolutionary husband (Alvarez 70, 172). Alvarez suggests through Dede that women who stick to their social role as the passive and subservient…
Celia is identified as ‘girl,’ a term that denotes, in contemporary society, ‘child,’ ‘dependent’ and ‘weak,’ portraying Celia as powerless and subservient to the dominating force. In contrast, Hector is identified as the ‘magician,’ a word that denotes ‘power,’ and ‘wisdom.’ These denotations construct the male in this situation to be positioned at the uppermost point of the gender hierarchy with full control over female characters. Furthermore, in this situation Celia’s display of magic is arbitrary, made in response to emotions, whereas Hector’s is made as an act of restoration, he has complete control over his abilities. By connecting each character’s magical ability to the aforementioned causes, the text inevitably depicts Celia’s magic as contingent on her emotional outbursts and depicts Hector’s as a way to control Celia’s transgressions against social order. This reflects gender binaries that are present, even without the influence of magic Hector is reason, Celia is emotion, he is control and she is intuition. Hélène Cixous, an early and influential theorist for the claim of the relevance of binary opposition for feminism. Cixous claims that the “woman is always on the side of passivity” (Bertens, 2008, p.129) Celia is constantly on the side of passivity, not just in her relationship with Hector. Once the text introduces the character of Marco, Celia’s…
A fighter from the beginning, she always stood up to get what she aimed for. She didn’t care who her opponent was, the life inside the household was almost suffocating for her and knew that she was born for something else. If it wasn’t for Minerva, the Mirabal sisters would have been just like any other women in the Dominican Republic. "Tears came to my eyes. Something big and powerful spread its wings inside me. Courage, I told myself. And this time, I felt it"(283). She was courageous from the moment she was born till the moment she died. The fragrance of her thoughts were soon spread to others especially Mate. Where Minerva didn’t let her romantic life interfere with her revolutionary lifestyle, it was through her romance that Mate found her path. "I didn 't know what us he was talking about, but I knew right then and there, I wanted to be a part of whatever he was"(142)."Like Dede, I just didn 't have the nerves for revolution, but unlike her, I didn 't have the excuse of a bossy husband"(240), Leandro was s supportive husband who let her follow what she believed in. She realized what freedom for a human being is. She realized it is the right to express the thoughts and live freely rather than being controlled by someone else. This revolutionary thought made her to abort her second baby, "So, if there really is no chance I’ll be out soon, than I want to release this poor creature from the life it might be born…
Patria, one of the brave Mirabal sisters, goes through the most drastic life-changing battle. Patria struggles to overcome the tragedy of having a miscarriage and is overwhelmed with emptiness. Patria’s strong insecurities reveal themselves as she buries herself in sorrow and sadness struggling to come to terms with her loss. Patria still continues on but hides to protect herself. Although she loses her identity, she hides it from her community: “…a model Catholic wife and mother. I fooled them all! Yes, for a long time after losing my faith, I went on, making believe” (Alvarez 55). Still known in her community as a good Catholic wife and mother, Patria hides her loss of identity to others and projects toward society an image condoning her oppressive struggles, but inside she was “an empty house.” She goes on living the life expected of her, as she resumes her duties and puts on a good face over her broken heart. Patria represents the fears and insecurities we all portray when faced with challenges. She foreshadowed the rest of the people of the Dominican…
In the riveting novel, Lieutenant Nun, Catalina de Erauso goes against every norm for a young woman in Spain. This story told from a first person point of view has many themes including religion, violence and gender. Catalina de Erauso was able to achieve things disguised as a man that she wouldn’t have been able to as a woman. Catalina was able to embrace her masculine alter-ego and did so by resorting to extreme violence in some ways, and she was also able to keep in touch with religion throughout the book.…
In Sandra Cisneros’s “Never Marry a Mexican,” the narrator, Clemencia, says “I’m amphibious. I’m a person who doesn’t belong to any class” (111). Although she speaks of economic classes, her amphibious nature applies to her love life as well. Constantly in extremes, Clemencia flip-flops between virgin and whore, the all or nothing of love and sex. Somewhere in Clemencia’s life, she decides she rather be the vamp than the wife. Her logic leads her one direction while her heart leads her another, creating a tug-o-war within herself. With Clemencia as a somewhat-unreliable narrator, a reader must stand back and look hard at what she says to see what influenced this war started within her, and how it spiraled out of control. In the beginning of…
Estrella’s mother, Petra, was left a long time ago by her husband. Estrella learns from her father’s loss that men cannot be trusted or depended on, and that women will usually always be left to take care of the family. Just as Petra has been abandoned physically by Estella’s father, and mentally by Perfecto, Estella soon will come to be abandoned by Aledo. The fact that Perfecto has not married her mother extends the idea of lack of promise made by the men in her life. Estrella knows that the world of men and women through her mother Petra and Perfecto Viramontes is insightful to the men in some ways, but she does emphasize that when the men abandon the family, the women are left to bear for themselves and their children. Estrella and Aledo’s relationship, serves as a major basis for the author's claim in the idea of suffering. Aledo’s death represents how once a female is left…
Also, the manner in which Ferré describes characters shows the manner in which she feels women are treated in society. Specifically, the fact that not a single character or doll is given a personal name throughout the story exemplifies the idea that women are just viewed as objects and not people. Thus, because Ferré shows women to be viewed as objects and shows this with the dolls as well, the author believes women to be held down by society.…
One detail that supports my main idea is on a story “Bien pretty” and it says “I mean I’m an artist I need a models. Sometimes. To model, you know. For a painting. I thought you would be good. Because you have such a wonderful face.” This is another stereotype that they challenge they say that women don’t work that they are just at home cooking and taking care of kids that that's their expectation but in this book this lady is an artist and that her job to draw and the writer is challenging that stereotype by saying what her job was. Another supporting detail that was on the book was on the story “Bien pretty” clemencia doesn't just want to be to be a cooking lady at home with kids she is looking for other roles that she could do. This shows that woman not only want those type of jobs but they want something different this shows that they are…
On the surface, Patria is portrayed as the most mundane of the Mirabal sisters because she is very religious and family-oriented character. However, Alvarez uses these characteristics and emphasizes on the events that led up to her loss of faith in order to shape her motivations for joining the revolution. In the beginning of the novel, Patria had no interest in being part of the revolution. However, her views change when surprise invasion when she was on a religious retreat. During the explosions, Patria witnesses a traumatic event when she looks out the window and witnesses the death of a young boy. She relates to this boy as if he were her own son and the terrible scene had a profound impact on her. After this traumatic event, Patria began to doubt God’s ability to protect her and her family. In her narration, she says, “I'm not going to sit back and watch my babies die, Lord, even if that's what You in Your great wisdom decide” (Alvarez 162). This event had a compelling effect on this character in two aspects. In one aspect, since Alvarez emphasized on Patria loss of faith, she was able to to transform the character, Patria from an ordinary, religious woman into a strong member of the revolution. In another aspect, by highlighting this traumatic event in Patria’s life, Alvarez was able to create depth in…
Giovanni Boccaccio was the writer of the book Decameron, in which he thoroughly describes the tragedies and horror the Black Death plague brought about. Black Death was a fatal sickness that was wide spread from the East to the West. The plague started in about the 1330s and continued into most of the 1400s; however there were instances still occurring in the 1600s until the end of the eighteenth century (Coffin 312). The plague was later said to have come from infected fleas that travel on the backs of rats. Once it is in your blood stream it is almost instant death within a matter of hours (Coffin 316). This disease was rapidly killing everyone, while there were speculations as to how one would contract the disease; neither doctors nor medical specialist knew (Brophy 323). There was no cure and quite frankly no one was safe. The public, experiencing the rise of Black Death during that time period, had a reason to worry and be frightened. This fear thus caused the reactions that Boccaccio speaks of in his book, Decameron.…
Estrella’s mother, Petra, was left a long time ago by her husband. It is her circumstances that the reader is asked to relate with most. Estrella learns from her father’s disappearance that men cannot be trusted or depended on, and that women will usually always be left to take care of the family. Just as Petra has been abandoned physically by Estrella's father, and mentally by Perfecto, Estrella soon will come to be abandoned by Alejo. The fact that Perfecto has not married her mother, furthers this idea of lack of commitment made by the men in her life. “The eucalyptus trees lined the dirt road like a row of thin dancing girls fanning their feathers. Estrella knows the world of men and women through her mother Petra and Perfecto, ‘the man who was not her father’" (3). Viramontes is sympathetic to the men in some ways, but she does emphasize that when the men abandon the family, the women are left to endure for themselves and their children. Estrella and Alejo’s relationship, serves as a major basis for the author's allegation in this idea of suffering. Alejo’s death represents how once again a female is left behind. Estrella is the heart and soul of the novel and her love for Alejo, was more important than Alejo…