All The Field Shall Clap Their Hands By Eduardo C. Corral Thesis

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The victims of sexual assault often choose not to report to law enforcement because they have little to no confidence that the perpetrator would be brought to justice. “All The Trees Of The Field Shall Clap Their Hands” by Eduardo C. Corral describes the death of the Mexican-American woman, Josefa Segovia after she kills the man who assaulted her. She was tried, convicted, and hanged all in one day. She describes the moment of her soul leaving her body as the male ejaculation. Why did the speaker compare her soul to semen? Corral uses imagery, simile, and free verse to illustrate the prejudice in criminal justice system. The poem reveals that Mexican- American women suffer the double burden of gender and racial discrimination. While coping with the effects of sexual assault, the speaker undergoes …show more content…
Ultimately, the speaker die in despair.
After the traumatic experience, the speaker killed the perpetrator, an Anglo miner. On the same day, she was sentenced to death. The crime is a justifiable self- defense, but she was found guilty. The speaker feels alone and powerless because no one stood up for her. All the men who watch her execution simply toss coins in the river (6-9). Imagine an elderly woman fell and left lying on the ground as passerby ignored her cries for help. In comparison, the men who toss the coins into the river is the bystanders who didn’t want to help the elderly woman. The lack of compassion that bystanders show causes both the speaker and the elderly woman to feel disappointed in human nature. First, it is important to know that the Mexican- Americans were being look down upon by

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