Compare And Contrast Mercedes And Erauso

There is a consistent ideology of what a woman is supposed to be, what she should look like, or how she should behave. This all falls under the patriarchy, which has always been in favor of men, with women questioning the role they play, or how much actual control they have over their own lives. The memoir by Catalina de Erauso, Lieutenant Nun perfectly tells the story of a woman entering the patriarchy as a male so she is able to explore the new world. Erauso the main character shows us an astute rebellious woman who is privileged through her basque status. Maria Ruiz de Burton’s Squatter and the Don, is a wonderful novel that tells the story of multiple characters and how they dealt with the new American coming into California, shortly after Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. …show more content…
Both characters share multiple similarities, Mercedes and Erauso are both women living under the patriarchy, with privileged status in their own way. There are also many differences within both characters, Erauso is astute in her decisions, while Mercedes is naive and does as she is told. Mercedes is limited within her sexuality while, Erauso is free to do as she wants. Both novels use different tones to create two different stories, Erauso’s novel has a condescending tone, because Erauso believes she is superior to the people she sees in the New world. While Ruiz de Burton uses a benevolent tone in her novel, which we see through the character of Mercedes, who does not want to go against her parents, and lives a life consistently worried about what others think of