Sandra Cisneros Woman Hollering Creek

Culture, in the context of Sandra Cisneros's short story “Woman Hollering Creek”, is a generalizing term which represents the conglomeration of all the norms that make up the society the protagonist, Cleofilas, lives in. The essence of this is found in that the people who are the most “cultured” are, in actuality, those who have given in the most to the norms of their society. This can be a positive concept if the ideas of the culture that people are being assimilated into is not built on the foundation of complacence over the negative aspects of a belief system, such as oppression and violence. The culture that surrounds Cleofilas oppresses her simply because she is a woman and is, therefore, seen as lesser than all her male counterparts. Cleofilas is informed of and assimilated into this flawed belief …show more content…
Cleofilas starts this process of realization of her male-dominated culture when she is forced to consider the number of stories she knows of women who have been seriously injured or killed by their spouses. However, not surprisingly, she defaults to doubting her truly valid reasoning, asking herself if she was “just exaggerating as her husband always said” (Cisneros 52). This process of cultural betterment through the restructuration of norms continues and takes a more significant form when Cleofilas considers the story of the Woman Hollering Creek. La Llorona radical story of freedom of choice inspires her with the freedom of having a choice in what happens to her, even though that choice still must bow to the patriarchal society she is contained in. Her wistful tone when talking about this legend shows that her desperation for escape from this culture of abuse is so significant that she is willing to go as far as emulating the insane actions of La Llorona in order to relieve her