Women of Color

Leading into the final week of "Women in Literature," it is only appropriate that we shift the focus of our readings to today's women of different colors around the world. In today's age of globalization, recognizing the similarities and differences between women of different colors and cultures has become more important in understanding the women of today. In this week's readings, we compare the various circumstances involving women of Chinese, Mexican and Native American descent.

In Maxine Hong Kingston's "No Name Woman," the Chinese woman's place in society is very well portrayed as rigid and scrutinized. The main character's aunt has "no name" because her family chose to disown her completely. Having had exposure to Pakistani and Indian cultures, I can attest to the fact that Eastern families traditionally expect women to be completely obedient to their husbands and families and they scrutinize women openly for any "sin" committed. It is crucial to note that we don't know whether the aunt was raped or whether she openly conceded to an affair with another man. If we try to put ourselves in her shoes, we see that it is highly unlikely that she would have openly agreed to an affair simply because she knew the consequences. Especially in joint-family systems, which are still very common in Eastern societies, all women, and mostly younger married women, are expected to be completely submissive and pure. Kingston's imagination dominates the end of this story, where she imagines how her aunt was thrown out of the house and how she gave birth to her child and subsequently committed suicide with the child. This pessimism parallels Kingston's view of the traditional treatment of Chinese women.

In Sandra Cisneros' "Woman Hollering Creek," we see how a Mexican woman named Cleofilas changes after marriage. Cleofilas tries very hard to live her life like the women of the "telenovelas," or soap operas, which she used to watch with her girlfriends. Her husband proves to be nothing like the men of the telenovelas, but Cleofilas does her best to cope with the marriage. As we read the story, the words become jumbled and it is often difficult to deduce exactly what is going on and/or what Cleofilas is feeling. This likely represents Cleofilas confusion with her marriage and with life. Her husband beats her regularly, and her doctor, noticing the bruises, arranges to have her taken back home. Instead of resorting to suicide, Cleofilas finds hope in escaping from her husband and going back home over the border. The story ends with Cleofilas in a pickup truck with Felice, the single woman in charge of helping her escape. The image of the "woman hollering creek," I believe, symbolizes the anguish of a woman. Cleofilas sits quietly in the truck as she escapes while Felice's "hollering" continues, possibly due to some hidden anguish in Felice's life.

Joy Harjo's literature is very unique in comparison to that of Kingston and Cisernos. Of the three readings, I found "The Naming" to be the most vivid. Native American culture is unique in its integration of Mother Nature with Human Nature. In naming her granddaughter, the main character "think(s) of names that have profoundly changes the direction of disaster. Of the raw whirling wind outlining femaleness emerging from the underworld." She constantly refers to her grandmother, who seems to have a dark, yet interesting past. Although her grandmother may have hated her mother (the grandmother's only daughter), the main character "[begins] to have compassion for this woman who was weighted down with seven children and no opportunities." She feels compassion for her grandmother who had to give birth to a dead, illegitimate child after being beaten in the womb by her husband for committing adultery. Her compassion for her grandmother guides her naming her child, who is "of [her] grandmother, of [her] mother." However short it may be, this story vividly portrays the respect a woman has for her grandmother and the influence her grandmother has over the naming of her child.

Color is a word with so many meanings. Women of different colors have stories of optimism and pessimism, of joy and fear. Kingston, Cisernos and Harjo, among many others, do an excellent job in bringing these stories to us.