Review of Never Marry a Mexican by Sandra Cisneros
Sandra Cisneros "Never Marry a Mexican" introduces readers to Clemencia. Cisneros eludes Clemencia equally a woman who appears proud of her Mexican heritage, yet knows not how the slanderous phrase "Never ally a Mexican" uttered from her well-pregnant mother's trusty lips about Clemencia's own Mexican male parent negatively foreshadows her seedy life and gloomy world perspective later downwards her subversive journeying of machismo.
Simply put, Clemencia's relationship with her female parent is "similar she never had one" (Cisneros 131) especially during the concluding moments of her sickly male parent's life. When Clemencia'south mom meets a white human during her father's hospitalization, Clemencia's mom instantaneously begins dating him. Why non? Owen Lambert is definitely non Mexican. Clemencia'southward mother seems to exist in her own globe every bit she completely disregards her life with her former married man and their children. This does not bode well for Clemencia as she holds a lot of resentment towards her mother, that will likely never resolve due to the fact that Clemencia'due south mom is not around in the globe anymore. Fifty-fifty though her mother may not be in this world anymore, Clemencia volition e'er wonder why her mom did marry her father.
On the other paw, Cisneros depicts Clemencia to be a flake of a "daddy's girl", so the degrading mode her mother talks about him as if Clemencia'south father is "nothing but a showoff"(Cisneros 128) irks Clemencia immensely. Clemencia sees her father non as a showoff, but just similar his things: "calidad. Quality" (Cisneros 129). Clemencia's father was not born in the U.s.a., and then her own father views US Mexicans to exist not on par with the Mexicans who originate from Mexico. In her male parent's opinion Mexican girls" who didn't know enough to set a separate plate for each course at dinner, nor how to fold cloth napkins, nor how to set the silverware" (Cisneros 127) are ridiculous. Clemencia knows not how to do these things.
When Cisneros begins to depict Clemencia's intimate life, Clemencia appears to be a femme fatale through the eyes of others. She has numerous affairs with married men but will never ally herself as Clemencia claims she's" likewise romantic" (Cisneros 127). Why is that? Does she not consider herself beingness able to love or have someone dearest her?
Clemencia thinks of herself as "amphibious," a person who "doesn't vest to whatsoever class." When she was young, she moved away from home and lived with Ximena, whose husband recently left her. At this point, Clemencia coveted the idea of condign an artist, hoping to be like Frida Kahlo. But she and Ximena lived in a dangerous neighborhood, where gunshots rang out all nighttime long. This reminded Clemencia of her babyhood since the ii girls grew upwards in an even worse neighborhood. Once their begetter died, their mother married a white man despite their protests, justifying her decision by pointing out that she married so young that she never got the chance to exist young, "your father," she said, "he was and then much older than me." Clemencia holds this confronting her mother so much that she has disowned the one-time woman entirely.
The anger Clemencia feels toward her female parent has to do with the idea that her mother is disloyal to her father. In her eyes, not only has her mother betrayed her begetter'south honey, but she'southward also betrayed her cultural identity by marrying a white human, of grade, this is in keeping with her mother'south belief that no woman should never marry a Mexican human. And while Clemencia seems sometimes to agree with this sentiment, she still appears to want her female parent to respect her father's legacy. As such, she condemns marriage in full general, turning abroad from information technology in her own life in favor of independence.
Clemencia addresses a human named Drew in her narrative, request him if he remembers speaking Spanish to her as they make love. When Clemencia and Drew lie together, she writes, her peel is dark against his, and he calls this cute. He whispers Spanish into her ear while "yanking her head back by the complect." Despite these intense moments, though, every morning he leaves before the sun rises. Still, Clemencia admits that she likes when he speaks to her in her own language; "I can beloved myself and think myself worth loving," she says.
When Clemencia says she can conceptualize herself as "worth loving" when Drew talks to her in Spanish during intercourse, it becomes clear that her notions of cocky-worth and love are entangled in a broader consideration of cultural identity. This makes sense, because how much attention she pays to her mother's ideas most how romance and cultural identity interact with i another. For her, then, dear is a complicated mix of identity and passion.
Clemencia asks Drew if his son knows the role she played in his birth. Pushing on, she insists that she was the 1 who convinced Drew to accept the babe when his married woman was meaning, he was unsure whether or not it was a adept idea to have a child, but Clemencia convinced him to not suggest that his wife get an ballgame. When information technology finally came time for his son to enter the world, Drew wasn't next to his wife in the hospital room; while she was in the throes of labor, he was having sex activity with Clemencia in the very aforementioned bed in which his son was conceived. "You're zero without me," Clemencia tells him at present. "I created you lot from spit and red dust. And I tin can snuff y'all betwixt my finger and thumb if I want to."
Critics praise Cisneros'due south ability to explore conflicts directly related to her upbringing, including divided loyalties, feelings of alienation, and deposition resulting from poverty. Although she addresses important contemporary issues associated with minority status throughout her two collections, critics have described her characters as idiosyncratic, accessible individuals capable of generating compassion on a universal level. Commentators laud her lyrical narratives, bright dialogue, and powerful descriptions, applauding her poetic depictions of life equally a Chicana woman, every bit well every bit her deft handling of such controversial themes every bit sexism, racism, and poverty.
Source: https://professorramos.blog/2019/05/20/literary-analysis-never-marry-a-mexican/
0 Response to "Review of Never Marry a Mexican by Sandra Cisneros"
Post a Comment