Female Voice in Multi-Ethnic Literature Thesis

In the 20^th century, perception of women was demeaning. Women writers struggled with identity crisis in the feminist movements with the aim of liberating the women folk. Through the writings of Cisneros Sandra and Kingston Maxine Hong, a major insight on the rich ethnic diversities of their societies is applauded on the facets of proactive change. Thus, this research treatise attempts to presents the struggles of women as captured in the books, “The House on Mango Street” by Cisneros Sandra, “The Woman Warrior” by Kingston Maxine Hong, and Stefanko Jacqueline’s “New Ways of Telling: Latinas’ Narratives of Exile and Return”.

The House on Mango Street

In Cisneros’ book, Esparanza struggles with ethnic identity and moves to Chicago with her family to a poor neighborhood. Most of her neighbors are Spanish. In her daily life, she struggles with her ethnic identity which bound women in gender variance chains. Due to her cultural background, she had no choice of her marriage irrespective of her inner feelings. Cisneros uses the character, Esparanza to bring out experiences of Latin women from childhood. When in Chicago, Espiranza hopes to go back home and save the women folk held by chauvinistic bonds. Reflectively, Cisneros makes her audience perceive her as free woman. She has an open and mature perception of life and the world, in contrast to her friend Marin who is a victim of continuous abuse from her father. On the other hand, Rafaela, a pretty lady, gets married to an older man who controls her life and doesn’t allow her to leave the house or to be seen by other people since she is pretty. Consequently, she loses freedom and opportunities of development upon committing to marriage. In another instance, Alicia’s dream of pursuing university degree is buried with her mother’s corpse as she has to be the sole decision maker for her younger siblings. Here, death as a natural epidemic circumstance has killed the freedom of liberation via educational achievements for Alicia (Seitz, pp. 12-16).

Through themes discrimination, male chauvinism, and partial freedom, identity crisis overcomes women who struggle to accept and live within it facets. Besides, the theme of poverty resonates on persistent social identity crisis. For instance, when Esparanza and her family move to Mango Street, she is disappointed by the new life below the ‘American dream’ of a nice house with a nice balcony and a nice backyard. Contrary to her imagination, she asserts “I knew then I had to have a real house. The house on Mango Street isn’t it?” (Cisneros, p.29). She wants a real house and is considering changing her name to fit ‘her real self’. She believes in making the best out of what she has and not merely settling down for what life presents (Cisneros, p.31). Written in prose form, Cisneros’s novel uses real life experience to bring out the struggles of women from ethnic communities during this era of oppression.

Cisneros uses characterization style to present the theme of gender and sexual identity crisis. Sally, Esparanza’s friend, is sexually active from young age. As an act of rebellion from an abusive father, she sleeps around with boys to escape from her abusive parent. Though young, she dresses provocatively to attract attention of men and besides, disrespects her body. In an instance, she elopes with a man leaving her friend in an awkward position after she gets assaulted by a group of older men. This experience traumatizes Esparanza who responds by swearing to leave Mango Street forever. However, she cannot abandon other young women who need her liberalized mind to escape the snare set up by younger and even older men. Factually, she is the only hope towards salvaging young women from these traumatic experiences.

Also, Cisneros include symbolism, language, and dialect styles in her writing. Through symbolism, the mango tree on the Mango Street grown in a pot represents racial identity. Though Esperanza lives in Chicago, it is not her home rather, she migrated there. As a matter of fact, their stay in Chicago is temporary and she hopes to one day go back to her native land to liberate the women folk to embrace freedom and fight for what they believe in. Also, she is a symbol of ‘strength of a woman’ fighting for liberation (Olivares, p.12). She is not cowed by views of others in her spirited fight for women folk liberation in completeness. In the style of language and dialect, Sandra’s choice of words is captivating. Even in translation; her word choice is poetic and flowery with rich rhyme (Olivares, p.09).

The Woman Warrior

Kingston is another female writer who brings out the struggles of the woman on identity crisis for the Chinese women who lived in America due to ethnic variance in her book. Kingston admits that her writings were inspired by the tales from her mother and personal experiences from childhood in China before moving to America. In her book, she reviews identity issues such as sexual, ethnic, and personal identities among others. In the last chapter “a song for a barbarian reed pipe”, Kingston explains the struggles she had to go through as a young girl from a Chinese family living in America (Kingston, p.99). She reveals the frustration of having a confused personal identity in struggling to articulate words, but as much as people could hear, nobody seemed to understand. Although she lived in America, her beliefs and culture could not allow her to be assimilated in foreign place she should call home, thus, “a major struggle with her own individuality” surfaced (Maxine, p.89). Kingston presents the defects Chinese culture and the struggle to stay put despite these defects.

In the first chapter, Kingston reflects on an aunt who got pregnant while her husband was away in war. This was perceived as a grave offence by the community. Consequently, her home was destroyed and she was banished from the community. She went and had her child in a pigsty before killing herself. Later, it was decided that she never existed according to the laws of the Chinese. Kingston presents the hidden version that this no name woman’ had been raped, but was condemned because she was a woman and her sexuality was controlled by her husband (Kingston, p.55). It is these cultural beliefs that influenced Kingston to write about sexual identity among the Chinese women. In the White Tiger, Kingston reminisce her childhood fantasy of becoming a martial arts warrior and saving her community from war when she returns home. Kingston’s story relates to that of her mother who after having two children, takes an extra step and goes back to medical school. After her schooling, she practices successfully until after joining her husband in America where she opened a laundry shop. Unlike her mother, Kingston would wish to return home and liberate women trapped in demeaning traditional and cultural beliefs.

Besides, Cultural identity as a theme has been tackled by Kingston in her reflection on the struggles of Chinese women held in cultural chains. Her aunt, Moon Orchid, fails to assimilate the American culture. Unfortunately, her husband makes it to America alone and becomes a successful medical doctor. He then abandoned her and remarried. Moon lost her husband because she was not flexible enough to adopt another culture as expected of Chinese culture. When she goes to confront him in America, he rejects her and she becomes dejected end up in a mental asylum. This story and that of the ‘no-name aunt’ are similar in that these women had to pay dearly for the mistakes made by men.

Cisneros and Kingston have successfully used identity as central focus area. They show how women struggle with ethnic and cultural acceptance issues. On one hand, are realities of life and on the other, culture and traditional chains demanding unfair justification for mistakes made by men. Culture is used by male chauvinists to oppress the unsuspecting women held together by traditional bonds of unrealistic expectations falling along the angles of definition partial. Reflecting on personal experiences fused with tales form the silently struggling mothers, the artists are specific and pointblank on collective and personal views on the negative aspects of cultural bondage of the women folks. They are torn between embracing a dominant culture and sticking to the clan-registered behavior orientation irrespective of its flexibility or relevance. “The Warrior Woman” was written first of the two books. Thus, it inspired the views in “The House on Mango Tree”. Comparatively, the main style that has helped bring out heavily on the themes intended by the authors of these two books is characterization as a literal tool for addressing societal ills on the womenfolk. These include constituents of unfair, chauvinistic, and unrealistic demands the tradition and culture heaps on them (Ciabattari, p.18).

New Ways of Telling: Latinas’ Narratives of Exile and Return

Factually, in Stefanko Jacqueline’s “New Ways of Telling: Latinas’ Narratives of Exile and Return,” the main theme is sexual identity as a constraint on gender regression and struggle. Jess, the main character, struggles with the confusion of being transgendered (Stefanko, p.34). The society rejects this biological condition and treats Jess with hostility (Mukul, p.31). Though Jess has no control over her condition, the society is blind of this and constantly discriminates and makes hurtful comments of the same (Stefanko, p.07). Unfortunately, Jess is caught up in the unfair treatment for a condition beyond her control.

Stefanko, Cisneros, and Kingston, have, in their own way, managed to recover the female voice, by highlighting their struggles. These struggles range from sexual exploitation, victimization, discrimination on the facets of gender, and physical abuse. Though the authors are strong-willed in presenting proactive solutions, the magnitude of these burdens is overwhelming. Fortunately, they share a common ground on recommendations and approach towards total liberation of the mind, soul, and physical body to be able to make independent decisions and enjoy unlimited freedom of conscience. Besides, these books remain to be an essential tool in the gender struggle for equality among women folks across the world. Reflectively, the major themes in these writings remain relevant as many women experience silent struggle to forge independent identity. Liberation is both physical and psychological. Before the body is set free, the mind should be prepared to embrace the eminent freedom!

Works Cited

Ciabattari, Jane. “The Best Books of 2002: Fiction.” Rev.of Caramelo, by Sandra Cisneros. Los Angeles Times 8 Dec. 2002: R3. Print.

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street, New York: Bloomsbyry Publishing, 2004. Print.

Kingston, Maxine, Hong. The warrior woman: memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts, New York: Vintage Books, 1989. Print.

Mukul, Sengupta, “’The Ignored Americans, Speak’: Critiquing Native American Female Voices,” in Somdatta Mandal and Himadri Lahiri, eds., Ethnic Literatures of America Diaspora and Intercultural Studies, New Delhi: Prestige Books, 2005. Print. Brady, Mary Pat. Extinct Lands, Temporal Geographies: Chicana Literature and the Urgency of Space. Durham: Duke UP, 2002. Print.

Olivares, Julián. “Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street and the Poetics of Space.” Chicana Creativity and Criticism: New Frontiers in American Literature. Ed. María Herrera-Sobek and Helena María Viramontes. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1997. Print.

Seitz, Matt Zoller. “Life in the Sprawling Suburbs, If You Can Really Call It Living.” Rev. of, Radiant City, dir. Gary Burns and Jim Brown. New York Times, 2007 late ed.: E1. Print.

Stefanko, Jacqueline. “New Ways of Telling: Latinas’ Narratives of Exile and Return.” Alabama: Frontiers, 17.2, 1996. Print.