Josie Mendez-Negrete’s novel, Las Hijas de Juan: Daughters Betrayed, is a very disturbing tale about brutal domestic abuse and incest. Negrete’s novel is an autobiography regarding experiences of incest in a working-class Mexican American family. It is Josie Mendez-Negrete’s story of how she, her siblings, and her mother survived years of violence and sexual abuse at the hands of her father. “Las Hijas de Juan" is told chronologically, from the time Mendez-Negrete was a child until she was a young adult trying, along with the rest of her family, to come to terms with her father 's brutal legacy. It is a upsetting story of abuse and shame compounded by cultural and linguistic isolation and a system of patriarchy that devalues the experiences of women and girls. At the same time, "Las Hijas de Juan" is an inspirational tale, filled with strong women and hard-won solace found in traditional Mexican cooking, songs, and storytelling.…
The first paragraph of the story tells us that the mother loved her daughters very much. She prepared everything such as making the yard so clean just to wait for her daughter to come. Therefore, we can say that the mother is a loving mother. In the paragraph number four, the mother tells the readers that she dreamed a dream that one day she and her daughter Dee brought together on a TV show and her daughter would tell the world how she was proud of her mother. The paragraph can tell us that the mother was only proud of Dee, not Maggie. She only dreamed that Dee would say something great about her, she didn’t mention anything about Maggie. So, one of the character of the mother was partial. The paragraph thirteen tells us that the mother was a poor and uneducated woman.…
The focus of this essay is to explore the different conflicts and resolutions that are undergone between racially, religiously, and culturally diverse mothers and daughters-in-law. These different conflicts and resolutions are analyzed in two literary works: Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War by Annia Ciezadlo, which takes place in post 9/11 America and the Middle East, as well as Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, set in rural North Dakota from 1934 to 1984. A critical analysis reveals that the daughters-in-law of these two literary works are able to overcome their differences with their mothers-in-law through selfless acts, and forge new meaning and relationships that fulfill their lives. Annia’s relationship with her mother-in-law, Umm Hassane, begins with mutual respect and love, but transforms into a game of proofs in which the resolution takes time and hard work to achieve. In Erdrich’s novel, the relationship of Rushes Bear and her daughter-in-law, Marie, is a years-long bitter struggle in which surrender brings about a similar kind of respect and love. In this essay, through an analysis of the different conflicts and methods of reconciliation, I will argue that between the racially, religiously, and culturally diverse in-laws of these two books, respect is something that comes hard earned. These daughters-in-law are able to prove that they are worthy of their mothers-in-law’s respect through demonstrations of sacrifice.…
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…
Flannery O’Connor was an author born in the south in 1925. She was an author who “wrote from her experiences as a Roman Catholic raised in the Protestant South” (Flannery O’Connor). She is the author of the story “Good Country People”, published in 1955. O’Connor tells the story of a young girl named Hulga “Joy” Hopewell who is a well-educated girl, with a degree in philosophy, but is a very shy person and keeps to herself. Hulga is also a very misunderstood girl, mainly by her mother who in no way relates to Hulga. Hulga’s mother, Mrs. Hopewell, is a very self-centered person who seems to surround herself with and pity the people that she believes she is better than. Mrs. Hopewell is a judgmental person towards everyone she comes into contact with, even towards her own daughter. The relationship that is visible to the reader between this mother and daughter is not one that the reader may be accustomed to seeing. Love is not an easy thing to define, but some may say that a mother shows her love through her concern, her compassion, and her understanding towards her children. Mrs. Hopewell makes it clear to the reader that she does not understand her daughter and at the same time makes a solid case for the reader to infer that she does not love her daughter either.…
Patriarchic society preserves female inferiority by instilling feelings of self-hatred into women. The beginning of the chapter addresses this self hatred, “If somebody would have asked me when I was a teenager what it means to be Chicana, I would probably have listed the grievances done me” (38). Since teenagers are often in search of their identity, it is of particular significance that as a teenager, Moraga would have listed the grievances done to her as a way of explaining her identity. The word ‘grievances’ connotes harm, wrongdoing, distress, burden, and suffering; these inflictions, coupled with the powerlessness and passivity the female feels as the “grievances are done [to her]” foster anger and resentment, which metamorphoses into self-hatred.…
Marry Karr’s The Liars Club is a haunting memoire, depicting a young Texan girls struggle to survive the trials of adolescence in home that finds stability in chaos and comfort in the abusive habits of her parents. Illustrating both fond and painful memoires from her past, Karr paints a complex image of the relationship she shared with her mother; giving readers everywhere the ability to relate and empathizes with the emotional complexity of their mother daughter relationship. This complexity of relationship can be explored in three main ways: the conflicting views Karr formed of her mother, In Karr’s ability to read her mother’s moods, and an analysis of the disciplinary approach Charlie Marry Karr used on her daughters.…
The loss of a parent develops the child’s identity. Grace in “Alias Grace” by Margaret Atwood, Sophie in “Breathe, Eyes, Memory” by Edwidge Danticat, and Holly in “Solace of the Road” by Siobhan Dowd, all demonstrate how mothers impact their daughters when they are no longer a part of their lives. Through changes of physical appearances, various life decisions and rapports with men, Grace, Sophie and Holly show how they have dealt with their mothers leaving them. Be it death or desertion, they have had substantial effects on their children’s personality traits.…
The main character in the story is Dina. She is an African American college student who is attending a prestigious university. Her character contributes to the theme in the sense that she has “denied” her heritage and upbringing by breaking the mold of what might have expected of her to accomplish as a young adult. While it is an inaccurate and ignorant stereotype to assume one is “selling out” or acting outside of their race for choosing to become educated and show an interest in learning, it is a stereotype that definitely exists. One of the places in the story that this is apparent is in her recollection of the trip to the grocery store. She recounts how unacceptable it was in her neighborhood to be seen with a book that one may be reading for simple pleasure as opposed obligation for school. She grew up in a poverty stricken neighborhood where going to a place like Yale was not something that happened to most of the youth brought up there. The theme of denial continues with her resistance to submit to her lesbianism. It’s very apparent that she has a deep seeded resentment of men that started with her father who treated her mother very poorly, and in her own words says, “My mother had died slowly. At the hospital, they'd said it was kidney failure, but I knew that, in the end, it was my father. He made her scared to live in her own home, until she was finally driven away from it in an ambulance.” Her disapproval of men in general also appears in the way that she speaks of her friend Heidi’s…
The plot of the story is simply the trials that women endure in order to become happy or fulfilled. The plot concentrates on empowering women most especially minorities, further sub-divided into two groups, the mothers who eventually surpassed the suppression of Chinese culture, and the daughters who led lives as the children of immigrants and had experience the life of an adult American female, including marital woes and parental relations. It is the story of eight…
In the story “Two Kinds”, Tan portrays how excessive parental control alienates a child and makes them insecure causing them to rebel against their parent’s beliefs and standards. The mother lives her dreams through her daughter. She moved to America from China because she believed that anything is possible there. She wanted to give her daughter everything she did not have as a child which is a chance to be successful and have a good life. The mother expected her daughter to be a prodigy. She would set up unrealistic goals for a normal child like her daughter, she expected her to be talented, smart and one of kind, she wanted her to be perfect. She would push her to be successful no matter how the daughter felt about it or what’s she is capable…
The novel centres on Selina who suffers a traumatic childhood through to womanhood and has her psyche damaged by comparing herself to the white ideology of what makes a teenage girl beautiful. She feels inadequate because she does not math up to the definition of white elegance…
which she inhabits. In addition the repetition of the elongated vowel sounds in the blunt…
Eventually the girls are left in the care of their aunt Sylvie, a childless and childlike woman who has spent the majority of her as a drifter and a loner. She is the closest thing the girls have ever known to be a mother. As the novel progresses, Robinson uses Sylvie’s transcendentalism to lead Ruth into the impermanence of the natural world and human relationships. Robinson makes Ruth choose the lifestyle she desires while she uses Lucille and Sylvie’s identities to contrast the ideas of conformity and individuality, to show how human beings endeavor to control the uncertainty of the unknown, by using social relationships, and depending on one’s family, because they enjoy the permanence and knowledge of the future, when in reality they need only accept these changes by themselves.…
In the 21st century, people are very set in the stereotypical thoughts that society implants in their heads. Many people don’t like to step out of their comfort zone when it comes to values and stereotypes. In both stories, I personally think the theme is that everyone should step out of the thoughts that they are used to and be more open-minded about the world. In Fatema Mernissi’s article “Digital Scheherazade; The Rise of Women as Key Players in the Arab Gulf Communication Strategies” she is trying divert the attention of Spanish reporters away from the stereotypical mindset that the Arab world just consists of terrorism and women in veils. Mernissi is trying to get the reporters to focus on the positives of the Arab world and give women the credit that they deserve. In Richard Rodriguez’s story “Family Values” the author is trying to emphasize what “family values” really means and the open-mindedness of having a gay family member. Within different cultures there are different standards, expectations and reactions, but in the end it is all about acceptance and looking beyond the customs you are used to.…