Woman Hollering Creek Essay, Research Paper

This wonderfully written story by Sandra Cisneros details the life of Cle filas, the main character. Cle filas deals with several problems during her childhood and continuing on into her marriage. The story never describes any significant relationship with her mother and the negative effects of this can be clearly seen throughout Cisneros piece of work. Cle filas instead turns to the television, particularly the telenovelas, for a female role model in her life. After Cle filas was married, her husband became terribly abusive towards her. Because Cle filas had no real female role model in her life, she did not know any better and allowed herself to remain in an abusive relationship.

Cle filas was an only child and as a little girl, did normal things such as going to the movies, playing with friends, and visiting the local soda fountain. Like most young girls in Mexico, Cle filas enjoyed watching telenovelas. She would frequently visit a girlfriends house to watch the latest telenovela episode and try to copy the way the women comb their hair, wear their makeup (44). The telenovelas depicted the perfect life to live. The men and women were all very beautiful and lived rich, comfortable lives.

The telenovelas were Cle filas guide for learning about love. She fantasized of finding her true love, the great love of one s life (44), just like the beautiful models always did. Although often in the telenovelas, hearts were broken and betrayal was common. Cle filas accepted that love was not always perfect but still believed, to suffer for love is good. The pain all sweet somehow. In the end (45).

As Cisneros story progresses, she explains that Cle filas and her husband were very much in love. Cle filas never thought that her new husband, the man she would spend the rest of her life with, would ever strike at her.

She had always said she would strike back if a man, any man, were to strike her The moment came, and he slapped her once, and then again, and again but she didn t fight back as she imagined she might when she saw such things in the telenovelas (47).

Cle filas did not know how to react to her husband hitting her. She had never imagined that he would ever do such a thing.

Abusing women is wrong in all cases. Cle filas was unable to fully realize this and waited too long to leave her husband. She worried about all the bad rumors that would spread if she left her husband publicly. If Cle filas grew up with a strong female role model in her life, she probably would not have stayed with her husband as long as she did. From the beginning, Cle filas could have seen the trouble signs and left the situation. The telenovelas only represented a fantasy world and those type stories did not exists in the real world.