“Not that he wasn’t a good man. She has to remind herself why she loves him when she changes the baby’s Pampers, or when she mops the bathroom floor, or tries to make the curtains for the doorways without doors, or whiten the linen. Or wonder a little when he kicks the refrigerator and says he hates this shitty house and is going out where he won’t be bothered with the baby’s howling and her suspicious questions, and her requests to fix this and this and this because if she had any brains in her head she’d realize he’s been up before the rooster earning his living to pay for the food in her belly and the roof over her head and would have to wake up again early the next day so why can’t you just leave me in peace, woman.”
In this passage from Sandra Cisneros’ “Woman Hollering Creek”, Cleofilas, the main character, finds herself inspecting the life she’s been waiting for, and begins to realize that this is not at all what she expected. From the very beginning of the story, which at this point wasn’t very long ago, Cleofilas had wanted what the soap operas on TV said she would get with marriage: love, happiness, and a happy ending. Cisneros makes it blantly clear that that’s not what she got by stating that Cleofilas had to remind herself why she loved her husband. With a striking use of syntax, using only three sentences Cisneros has the sentences get longer and longer, much like her main character’s chore list, as she states all the things that she has to do, that he obviously doesn’t help with. The last sentence starts off with the story’s regular limited omniscient narrative voice that normally follows Cleofilas, but starts to look at her husband’s, Juan Pedro’s, point of view, and finally ends with his last thoughts of, “…why can’t you just leave me in peace, woman,” in first person, and did this effortlessly with a sort of stream-of-consciousness type feel to it. This odd and sudden shift of narrative in this passage helps get the reader get into the feeling of the characters relationship: it’s stressed, and incredibly tense. This knowledge helps propel the reader into the climax of the piece, only a few pages later.
This passage is located in the Rising Action part of the story, where the author is now building anticipation for how bad things are for Cleofilas and her husband. At this point, it’s pretty crucial to provide good imagery to anchor a plight to a character and Cisneros does this by a really informal use of diction that creates a certain feeling in the reader. She creates this look of a run-down house wife trying to do her best with a ‘howling’ baby and a house that doesn’t even have doors for doorways. She makes this especially clear when she says that she “tries to make curtains”. Not only is Cleofilas an ill-appreciated house wife, have to take care of a baby all by herself, she has to make curtains to hang in the doorways. She also uses words like “howling” from the baby to make the reader visualize a baby screaming so bad the house is shaking. Also the authors non censored use of swear words makes the story that much more raw and real. Cisneros didn’t have to use big words to create strong imagery like that.
Cisneros’s theme throughout of the story of “Woman Hollering Creek” was one of disillusionment and empowerment. This passage plays a vital role in showing the disillusionment that Cleofilas has regarding her marriage and the move away from her family. Originally she thought he was the best thing to ever happen to her, and at this point, subconsciously she was really starting to doubt this while consciously she had to keep telling herself that it wasn’t his fault he was like that, or that he was treating her that way. No matter what happened, he was still her husband and she loved him. This passage was also the last of the disillusionment stage for her, and after this she starts to realize that she doesn’t have to put up with him anymore. What kind of effect does her run-on sentence structure of on the reader and the overall feel of the piece?
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