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Woman Hollering Creek Analysis

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Woman Hollering Creek Analysis
Raynasha Grant
Dr. Fynboe
ENC1102
16 November 2014
Why I stayed
It happens more times than we care to admit. A woman leaves her family to marry the “man of her dreams.” They believe it will be a change for the better, but most women end up in a relationship that they are not happy with, much like the character of Cleofilas in Sandra Cisneros’ short story “Woman Hollering Creek.” Cleofilas decides to leave her home town and get married to fulfill her dreams of a more wonder life style in the United States. Cleofilas had these images of what her life would be like from watching the soap operas on TV, and it gave her this impression of life. This story suggests and supports the theme regarding the victimization of women in any abusive relationship. …show more content…
The internal conflict is inside Cleofilas, for she cannot decide whether she should leave Juan Pedro. Cleofilas thought life would be wonderful with him. Cleofilas thinks, "This is the man I have waited my whole life for” (Cisneros 249). Then she realizes that she could never be happy with Juan Pedro. The external conflict is between Cleofilas and Juan Pedro. Juan Pedro beats Cleofilas and gets angry because of "her suspicious questions and her requests to fix this and that" (Cisneros 248). Both the external and internal conflicts are resolved when Cleofilas decides to leave her husband. When a person gets the courage to leave a destructive relationship they break free from life …show more content…
It does not state what happened to Cleofilas and her husband after she attempted to leave her husband. The life that Cleofilas had was faced with many experiences and all types of hardships. Cleofilas thought her life would be like that, of the telenovela, only to see the episode got sadder and sadder and to make her believe that she could stay no matter what happens between her and her husband. Then she started to realize what the most important thing in life was, her children and herself. Sometimes we ignorantly base our view of the world on things we have seen on television shows or in Cleofilas case, telenovelas. This sense of blind ignorance can lead us to make decisions that we never thought we would have to make, such as deciding whether or not to stay in an abusive relationship. Sandra Cisneros uses "Woman Hollering Creek" to show her readers there is always a way out of an abusive relationship even if you stayed for so long.

Work Cited
Burris, Skylar Hamilton. "Formalist Criticism of Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros." Editor Skylar. N.P., 4 May 2000. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.
Cisneros, Sandra. "Woman Hollering Creek." Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2007. 246-53. Print.
Herbert, Tracy Bennett. "Coping with an Abusive Relationship: I. How and Why Do Women Stay?" Journal of Marriage and Family 53.2 (2000):
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