Women are confined to household duties because women are expected to follow the oppressing gender roles that the town has implemented on them. María Alejandrina Cervantes runs the whore house of the town. She represents the few women that are independent and defy gender roles. Even though María has the freedom that very few women are able to obtain, her freedom cost her her respect in the town as the next quote shows. The narrator states, “According to what they told me years later, they had begun by looking for him at María Alejandrina Cervantes’s place, where they had been with him until two o’clock. That fact, like many others, was not reported in the brief” (CITATION). Even though María's testimony could proven to be vital in gathering
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In the Vicario household, honor is above all else. Poncio Vicario, the father, worked so many years in the gold mines that he lost his sight just to maintain family honor. With such a cost, the family made sure that the children would maintain the honor as well. To do so, Purísima del Carmen, Angela's mother, raised all of her daughters to suffer, so they would become the perfect wives. No matter what, the Vicario daughters were going to get married. When Bayardo San Roman asked to marry Angela a couple days after they met, the family fell in love with him immediately. The family saw the honor and wealth that Bayrado would bring to the family, so they forced Angela to marry someone that she just met. The narrator even states, “It was Angela Vicario who didn’t want to marry him. “He seemed too much of a man for me,” she told me. Besides, Bayardo San Román hadn’t even tried to court her, but had bewitched the family with his charm” (CITATION). Women are forced to follow by gender roles. The previous quote clearly shows that fact because Angela was forced to marry a man whom she had no interest in because her family fell in love with him. Angela's situation proves that women do not get to decide their husbands. Their families do. Gender roles force women to be reared as wives, but do not give women the freedom to choose whom they will spend the rest of their lives with. Marriage is supposed to be a
In the Vicario household, honor is above all else. Poncio Vicario, the father, worked so many years in the gold mines that he lost his sight just to maintain family honor. With such a cost, the family made sure that the children would maintain the honor as well. To do so, Purísima del Carmen, Angela's mother, raised all of her daughters to suffer, so they would become the perfect wives. No matter what, the Vicario daughters were going to get married. When Bayardo San Roman asked to marry Angela a couple days after they met, the family fell in love with him immediately. The family saw the honor and wealth that Bayrado would bring to the family, so they forced Angela to marry someone that she just met. The narrator even states, “It was Angela Vicario who didn’t want to marry him. “He seemed too much of a man for me,” she told me. Besides, Bayardo San Román hadn’t even tried to court her, but had bewitched the family with his charm” (CITATION). Women are forced to follow by gender roles. The previous quote clearly shows that fact because Angela was forced to marry a man whom she had no interest in because her family fell in love with him. Angela's situation proves that women do not get to decide their husbands. Their families do. Gender roles force women to be reared as wives, but do not give women the freedom to choose whom they will spend the rest of their lives with. Marriage is supposed to be a