Them on Us, Us on Them: An Examination of the Views of One Sex on Another

In the grand scope of literature, the theme of male versus female has shown up time and time again. In fact, upon review of a handful of random texts, one may find it hard to pick one that had no form age-old concept. In their works, Sandra Cisneros and N. Scott Momaday, use a unique form to portray this battle, the short story cycle. Using this literary structure, these two authors portray male and female relationship in The House on Mango Street and The Way to Rainy Mountain through the views of one sex on another.

In order to accurately compare and contrast the voices used in each book, I believe it is necessary to first examine the overall similarities and differences of the works as well as how those similarities and differences relate to the interaction of men and women. Overall, Cisneros’s and Momaday’s writings had some very important similarities; first and most obvious being that both are short story cycles. Each book is made up of a number of individual stories that collectively work to define the text – as opposed to a novel that lives primarily as one giant mass. The structure of the short story cycle relates well to the lives of men and women alike because no person’s life is regarded as a seamless mass; rather, it is regarded as a collection of relationships and experiences spawning from a lifetime of interaction with others. Secondly, the works of these two authors are similar in the point of view they portray – that of a minority. Cisneros’s writing shows the thoughts and emotions of a young Latina girl, and Momaday’s work comes mostly from the voice of small Native American tribe. This similarity holds importance because the dynamics of male in female interaction is different within a minority group than an overpowering majority group. Finally, both works show the efforts of either a person or a group in the midst of a struggle. Whether it is the complex fight of a Hispanic girl against poverty in big city or the basic battle to survive off the land, conflict always affects the interaction within and between sexes. These similarities pay a vital role in linking the masculine and feminine voices between the two collections.

Equally as important as the similarities of the two books are their overall differences. As I mentioned before, both books depict the voice of a minority group, and while the voices of minority groups are similar to one another in comparison to a majority, they each hold their own unique characteristics. Obviously, the biggest gap between these two minority groups is in cultural heritage. While the Kiowa share a hunter-gatherer culture, the Hispanic American people hold different customs living in a big American city, leading to a slight difference in the way people within each culture interact. With that in mind, another discrepancy in Cisneros’s and Momaday’s work arises – that of time. Obviously a tribe roaming around the open American plains must have lived in different time than a group of immigrants in a modern American city, and with a drastic time difference identified, we can imagine a communication difference exists as well between the two books. Finally, the issue of age comes into the examination of the voices in the works. As Esperanza is only a young to adolescent girl for the duration of The House on Mango Street, her view of male and female interaction may be slightly different from that of the grown men dominating the stories of The Way to Rainy Mountain. Luckily, with the careful regard for these differences, I have chosen to explore a topic that is colorless and timeless, as well as a good bit ageless. As though it is a part of our DNA, the overall portrayal of males through the female voice as well as females through the male voice changes little from person to person and from time to time.

Focusing specifically on The House on Mango Street, we can get a clear idea of the way the female voice portrays the male. As the book was written by a woman and told through the eyes of a girl, it immediately holds weight in the scope of this exploration. From the beginning, Cisneros declares that males and females “live in separate worlds” (8). This solidifies the idea that the author believes men and women are different and thus may view each other in a varied way. Cisneros establishes throughout her text that women see men as overpowering. In one specific case, the character Alicia has trouble with her father in the story “Alicia Who Sees Mice” (32). This story insinuates that her father has some sort of overpowering role in her life, even though we are left in the dark as to what the role is. Another character that interacts with an overpowering male figure is Sally, who comes to school wearing bruises on several occasions because her father is afraid she will run away (92). Later, after Sally is married, she is bounded within the walls of her husband’s house because “she is afraid to go outside without his permission” (102). The text regarding the men in Sally’s life is a clear scope of the generalized way the female voice views the male in this short story cycle, as well as elsewhere, but one passage does break the mold. In “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark,” Cisneros shows a much more positive view of a man. Esperanza reflects on how she would feel if “her own Papa” died, a though that moves her to “hold and hold and hold him” (57). While this contrasting portrayal of the male character is a breathe of fresh air from other passages, it still holds small weight when compared to the larger scope of negative male illustrations throughout the book.

Looking at The Way to Rainy Mountain, we can spotlight the view of the male voice on the woman. While there is no direct quote in Momaday’s text regarding the difference of men and women or each sexes’ role in society, the implications of his stories are hard to ignore. A negative vibe towards women in the writing starts immediately with story of how the Kiowa came to be. As the Kiowa “came into the world through a hollow log,” it was a woman that stopped their becoming by getting “stuck in the log” (16). Momaday’s text continues to shed negative light on the female labeling them as objects. As though the women are material goods, Momaday explains that in Kiowa culture, “bad women are thrown away” (58). An examination of the implication of this passage shows that men in that Native American culture portray women in a material way. Although a following passage tells the story of Kau-au-ointy, a women who rose from slavery to a prominent member of the tribe, the passage implies that she surpassed the typical “part of a Kiowa woman,” meaning most women of the tribe held lower roles than the males (59).

I raise the point of male portrayal of the female and female portrayal of the male to shed light on an age-old issue of sexual inequality. While the authors of these two texts may not share the views I have touched on, their story cycles show that the issue is alive in the past, as well as the present. The medium through which these ideas were conveyed, the short story cycle, works well to give an accurate depiction of how these issues fit into regular life because of how closely the short story cycle correlates to regular life. Fortunately, each author included a hint of positive view toward the opposite sex, evidence of hope for change and more equally viewed genders.

Later, at the Bar

Later, at the Bar has a very different style compared to the rest of the books this semester.  To be honest, I feel it is a little watered down compared to the moral-rich story collections we saw before it.  The other books were filled with deep ideas like feminism, hope, and entrapment.  The stories in this collection really just seemed juvenile and redundant with a very repetitive form.  But I have spent a lot of time in my blogs this semester talking about the form of the story cycles we have read, and to be honest, I am getting tired of it.  So for the rest of this entry, I think I’m going to try to pull some symbols out of Rebecca Barry’s work instead.

 

First, I feel Lucy’s death is a cyclical symbol.  In the first story, Barry states that Lucy is originally from Alaska, where she experienced a lot of intense snowstorms.  Because of this she feels at home when it snows outside of the tavern.  When she walks outside on the night of her death, she looks like she’s “waiting for something wonderful to happen.”  To me, this is her way of returning to the snowy grounds from which she was born, thus completing a full circle.

 

The other symbol I picked up on was of the tavern itself.  I saw it primarily as a symbol of home.  As I have been writing this blog entry inside my warm house, I have noticed the weather outside as cold, damp, and depressing.  Just as the characters in Barry’s stories are comforted by the walls of the tavern, I am comforted by the walls of my home in troubling weather.  To me, it seems the tavern is a refuge for the characters from the physical weather as well as the weather of their lives and actions.

The Dew Breaker

Every book we have read this year has had a unique form – some more unique than others – and The Dew Breaker is no different. While reading these stories, I felt the presences of fiction much more than in the other books this semester, but I do not see this style as a fault. The form each author chooses for his or her stories is important to the message they intend on conveying. In Danticat’s case, the blanketed theme of cause and effect calls for a slightly more “fabricated” form.

Throughout the book, we follow the story of man that performed horrendous acts of murder in dictator-ruled Haiti as well as the people affected by those acts. All of these people, in one way or another, are related through the Dew Breaker and his actions, but the omniscient view of all these characters brings on a stronger fiction aspect to the reading than other books. For instance, The House on Mango Street showed a many experiences though the eyes of one child in an urban setting, making the story quite believable and true to the reader. On the other hand, The Dew Breaker gives a broader view from different angles on a more singular experience and its effects.

By showing the story of the Dew Breaker as well as the affected people, Danticat touches on the idea of cause and effect. Seeing the lives of people related to the Dew Breaker’s murders allows the reader to understand the ripple effect of actions in the sea of experience. With some characters – those who end up living beneath the Dew Breaker, as well as the killer’s daughter – we see that sometimes the ripples of our actions reflect back to us, thus effects can impact the causer.

Drown

So far we have read two books written by people of a Hispanic descent, first was The House on Mango Street and now Drown.  Like all of the books we’ve read so far, language played a key role in shaping these stories, but for these two books in particular, the use of language served a more important role in establishing the ethnic tone of the book.  Both books used the interchanging of English and Spanish in their text to add a cultural splash to the reading.  While Mango Street made the Spanish words stand out with italics, Drown lets the words settle in regularly with the English text in order to show the fusion of two distinct cultures. 

 

Although the use of interchanging language is important in the style of Drown, even more important is the use of varying diction throughout each story.  I cannot say that I picked up on this variation initially in my reading, but after our interesting class discussion, I couldn’t stop noticing it.  The story these varying tones stand out in the most is “Aurora.”  In this story, Diaz switches immediately between a rough, slang-like diction and a smooth, poetic wording several times.  Phrases like “I want to put my fist in her face” and “feel her soft face on the other side of my fingers” are displayed closely resulting in a conflicting tone. 

 

The juxtaposition of these contradicting styles relates well to conflict of many Hispanic immigrants of that day as well as now.  While the promise of the American dream can be seen as beautiful and enticing, the struggle of attaining that dream can often be harsh; and in some cases, the dream may even be out of reach.

The Things They Carried

A story specifically about war is an interesting twist for this class.  So far, the books we’ve read have been relatively similar in themes and form – not to say I think that The Things They Carried is morally very different – but the war aspect of this book brings in a new dynamic to the story.  The effect war has on soldiers in irreparable, and I saw that come through very strongly in O’Brien’s writing.  Given the background of the narrator, I mostly struggled with taking his stories as complete or entirely truthful, even though the book is dedicated to a group of real, fallen soldiers. 

 

Directly in the text, the narrator states that stories from Vietnam are strange and hard to believe – “some improbably, some well beyond that” (89).  Also he states that in war, soldiers loose their “sense of definite…[their] sense of truth itself” (82).  Statements like these make me skeptical of events before and after them.  While I do believe that major events and deaths did happen, I am still unsure of how they are delivered to the reader.

 

Indirectly, the text is concerning too.  In the final chapter, the narrator talks about how stories help the dead “return to the world” (225).  I believe the he says this to convey that stories help celebrate the life the dead once had.  To me, it seems reasonable for the storyteller to fabricate and stray from truth in order to do so.  Therefore, I do not fully believe every event in this book.

 

I think it is important when reading to always consider whether or not the narrator is completely trustworthy.  In the book particularly, where the narrator is affected by war and the loss of friends, truth must be considered carefully.  I think O’Brien wrote the book in this manner to simultaneously show the effect war has on people as well as celebrate the lives of his fallen friends.     

The Women of Brewster Place

The Women of Brewster Place is a very emotional story collection.  Each story is filled with events that greatly characterize the struggle of an oppressed and impoverished people.  I cannot say that I saw Gloria Naylor’s book as uplifting or optimistic in anyway.  In fact, I saw the book as quite dark, and each time I thought the book would take a surprising turn for the better, the mood dropped again.

 

Starting right away with Mattie, the course of action in the book takes a nosedive.  Her pregnancy turns her away from her family, and even though she is take in by Eva Turner and fortunate enough to buy the house, her son ruins her chances of staying there by skipping bail.  The depressing material continues throughout the book with Etta’s misfortune with men, the death of Lucielia’s baby, Cora’s neglect for her children, and finally the rape of Lorraine.  The events in each of these stories all carry a common, morbid theme, one we’ve seen in so many other books this year, entrapment. 

 

Although each story was mostly depressing, Naylor throws in a few uplifting lines here and there.  At then end of Etta’s story, she excited to go see Mattie, who brings her comfort.  Also, at the end of Lucielia’s story, Naylor writes that “morning would come,” signifying hope for the days ahead.  Still, I hardly find these few lines to be hopeful in the midst of such dark material in the book overall.

 

Taking the moods and events from each story into consideration, I would consider this book a short story cycle.  All of the stories revolve around a common setting, Brewster Place, and each one seems to return to the same dark place it began.  Also, the book begins with “Dawn” and ends with “Dusk,” signifying the cycle of a day.  

The House on Mango Street

I enjoy books that seem real – books that have real-life characters with real-life situations and The House on Mango Street does just that.  From cover to cover, I was easily able to relate to the characters in the story.  I attribute this mostly to the language Sandra Cisneros uses, simple and concise.  This language is not only a nice break from the elegant, over-descriptive writing we have observed, but also a clear way to send a message to readers. The most obvious theme I saw throughout the book was that of entrapment, and I saw it on two separate levels.

 

Esperanza clearly seems to feel trapped by the place she is forced to live during her childhood, and that shows through very well in the language of the stories.   The first level of entrapment is that of class.  In the beginning of the story, we see that Esperanza’s family is not of a lower class.  She immediately expresses her shame over the house they live in, and states that some day she would have her own house, one she “could point to” without being ashamed (5).  Also, early on in the story, we see a decline in the neighborhood’s overall class.  Cathy, a girl living on Mango Street with her family says she has to move away because “people like [Esperanza] keep moving in (13).  Throughout the story, symptoms of a low-class neighborhood continue to pop up with stories of bums asking for kisses from the girls and stories of children like Sally, who is abused by her father.  Ultimately, Esperanza wants to get out and “sleep…close to the stars” in a “house on a hill,” but she claims she will not forget the people of Mango Street.

 

The other level of entrapment I picked up on was that of childhood.  Esperanza seems to be in limbo of childhood and adulthood for most of the story.  In some stories she longs to do grown-up things such as where high-heels, put on make-up like Sally, and have a boy hold her like Sire holds his girlfriend; but in other stories, Esperanza seems reluctant to grow up.  In contradiction to her feelings about Sire and his girlfriend, she is upset when Sally leaves her to kiss the boys in the Monkey Garden.  Also, she seems to talk condescendingly about the girls that get married to early in the story.  These hints of anger and jealousy show conflicting views toward growing up.

 

To me, Mango Street seems to be a symbol of the entrapment Esperanza experiences.  On Mango Street, Esperanza will always feel weighted down, but when she finally leaves, she will be free of poverty and childhood ignorance.  Once she has done this, she can return as she says she will in the end.