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Jessica Barboza
Dr.Jeffries
STACC English 100
November 18, 2014
Re-envisioning / Literary Analysis Essay
Sandra Cisneros, author of Woman Hollering Creek, uses the theme of love and passion
to show how someone could be so naïve. That sets the character, Cleofilas with quite a big
disappointment. Cleofilas is blind with the thought of being in love so she doesn’t take in the
reality of what disrespect. So desperate to know what love feels like she forgets what she truly
deserves. Don’t make yourself naïve because of other people, put your self before anybody else.
Cleofilas is a woman who watches telenovelas that make her have so many fantasies of
how things should be. She wants to live the life of the characters in the show. “Always loving no
matter what, because that is the most important thing” (Cisneros 458). Cleofilas feels ……. The
thought of suffering and love together just sound so good to Cleofilas. She doesn’t realize what
the suffering and betrayal can do to someone.
Finally Cleofilas’ desires come true. She’s going to have a wonderful wedding with a
sterling ring, a perfect wedding dress, and a nice new pickup truck. To whom is she going to
marry? Juan Pedro is the man that chooses her and she is quickly going to get married in the
spring. Cleofilas doesn’t even know the man that she’s going to marry. She doesn’t know his
favorite color or his favorite food. Does she even know what he’s allergic to? All that she’s
really thinking about is the home they’re going to have and the children they’re going to have as
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well. Who knew marrying a stranger could be so exciting? Cleofilas has all her priorities messed
up; she needs to think of all the things that she wants in a practical matter…….
Seeing all this telenovelas and how the woman are superior and don’t tolerate anything
they know isn’t right is how Cleofilas wants to live. Nobody knows what it’s like to go through
something until it happens to them. You can have strong opinions about how you know you’re
going to react if something happens to you, but that’s not true. In Cleofilas’ case the first time
Juan Pedro puts a hand on her “it left her speechless, motionless, numb” (Cisneros, 460). Even
after looking at the blood, she can’t believe that it happened to her and she doesn’t do anything
about it. Cleofilas imagines she would hit him back or away yet that’s not how she reacted at all.
Maybe this is what suffering from love feels like but is it worth it at the end? I can only imagine
what you’re going to be left with at the end. Juan is a man who cries after he strikes Cleofilas
and is ashamed of it yet keeps doing it over and over again. Where is the love and affection in
that? He doesn’t have one ounce of respect for Cleofilas. “Cleofilas thinks, this is the man I have
waited my whole life for…has to remind herself why she loves him,” (Cisneros, 461). Clearly,
she isn’t in love but she’s trying to make herself feel like she is. That isn’t the way Cleofilas
should go about finding love, you shouldn’t force yourself to love someone. Cleofilas is
disappointed in her husband, he was supposed to be the love of her life and she was supposed to
be in love. “This man…who doesn’t care at all for music or telenovelas or romance or roses or
the moon floating pearly over the arroyo, or through the bedroom window for that matter” is the
complete opposite of what Cleofilas wanted (Cisneros, 459). Being in love is all about having
your desires being filled. Both people in a relationship let alone in a marriage should want the
same thing. Cleofilas wouldn’t want her husband to strike at her, I’m sure. Why doesn’t Cleofials
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leave her husband like the people in the telenovelas do? The brave Latinas on the show wouldn’t
put up with what Cleofilas is dealing with.
How dare a woman who doesn’t speak English, is an immigrant, and is part of a Mexican
culture, and leave her husband. This is the exact thing someone in her family or even strangers
are going to say. Cleofilas can’t run to the police office, because she doesn’t know English and
they’re going to know that she’s an immigrant. Cleofilas can’t bear having people gossip about
her, especially if she goes home to a place where she never imagines going after already having
one kid and being pregnant with another. Cleofilas stresses herself out about what people are
going to say about her. She’s living in a town where it’s okay for a husband to shoot his wife
because she is armed with a broom and fight back. This story only makes Cleofilas more scared
to tell anybody. She lives with a fear of her husband and isn’t able to run away is a complete
nightmare.
Respect is the one thing that you need to have in any relationship for it to be worth it.
Cleofilas is left with nothing in the U.S not even her telenovelas; she has to stick with her love
storybook. To only have Juan Pedro throw it across the room because he wants to. This makes
Cleofilas feel so disrespected; her own husband can’t even respect her own things. The values
you have for yourself should be looked upon not looked down at. Juan Pedro should take
Cleofilas’ values seriously not as if it’s nothing.
The theme of this story is love and affection yet the irony of it is that it’s more of the
thought of love rather than the actual feeling of it. The idealization of love is shadowing what
really does happen in a marriage with abuse. Cleofilas has this desire for love and affection and
focuses so much on it, yet she doesn’t receive what she wants. The thought of wanting something
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so bad and knowing deep inside that there is now way of getting it if you don’t change what you
choose to surround you. Cleofilas chooses for an abusive husband to show her the meaning of
love, that’s complete nonsense. The first thing that pops up is to run away. Because of the
circumstances Cleofilas has to deal with; not knowing English, being an immigrant, and not
having anyone to help her. Cleofilas can’t just run away like nothing. She never gives up the
hope that maybe one day she will have the things that she sees in the telenovelas she watches.
You could say Cleofilas is a hopeless romantic even though she’s already married. What a
nightmare being in such a big denial.
Cleofilas is already pregnant with her second child when she has to go for a medical
check up. The only thing different is that she’s going to show up at her appointment with bruises
all over her body. Her husband is concerned since the nurse or doctor might see all the bruises.
When the nurse looks at her with sympathy, she begins to bawl. Who knew this was going to be
the point where Cleofilas is set free from Juan Pedro? The woman who saves her isn’t her
neighbor that sees her bruises quite often but a woman who only sees her bruises once and
doesn’t hesitate to help. To Cleofilas, going back home feels like such a relief. Before she just
wanted to leave that boring old place but now she is very grateful for that place. For that place
Juan Pedro isn’t going to be there. She has more of the possibility and hope of finding the love
and passion she desires by leaving. That’s what love is all about being able to have one slight
possibility of being in love is what is going to be worth it at the end. One has to have a bad
experience of love so you could learn from it and put yourself first. That’s when you’ll receive
love when you put yourself first and know that you deserve love.
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Everybody has the desire to find love and passion. It’s the way you go about finding it.
Going through hell with someone and it being “worth” it is not the way to go. Going through hell
with someone and knowing you don’t deserve it and simply walking away and being able to say
you still have hope in love is worth it. If you have to suffer so much and sacrifice your own
respect to get what you want then it’s not going to end well. If you lose yourself in the progress
of getting what you want, then it’s worth it once you know what love and passion really is all
about. Reevaluate what you want and you’ll find out that love and passion aren’t what you see in
telenovelas but what you receive daily from someone who loves you as much as you love them –
someone who respects you as much as you respect them.
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Annotated Bibliography
Thomson, J. (1994). “What is called heaven: Identity in Sandra Cisnero’s Woman Hollering
Creek.” Studies In Short Fiction, 31(3), 415.
Summary: Author Sandra Cisneros not only writes Woman Hollering Creek but other short
stories that relate. One thing that all this short stories have in common is the theme; love and
passion, how it turns women so vulnerable. Women in Sandra Cisnero’s short stories especially
the narrators have no voice for themselves. I choose this article because it proves my point in
which women are vulnerable in the though of love and passion. Also, having the other stories
that the author wrote to relate to.
Saldivar-Hull S. WOMEN HOLLERING TRANSFRONTERIZA FEMINISMS. Cultural Stidies
[serial online]. April 1999;13(2):251-262. Available from: Academic Search Premier,
Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 18, 2014.
Summary: This article specifically talks about feminisms that the author Sandra Cisneros is. Also
how she was starting new writers of Mexican feminisms in the 1980’s. Mexican women being
set up to be the kind of women that clean, cook, and raise the children. Nothing of being
themselves and doing something they enjoy. The women must keep the husband happy and after
maybe she can make herself happy. The Mexican women look after everybody else but have no
one to look after her.
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Romo L. Sandra Cisneros’ “Barbie-Q”: A Subversive or Hegemonic Popular Text?. Studies In
Latin American Popular Culture [serial online]. January 2005;24:127. Available from:
MasterFILE Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 18, 2014.
Summary: It focuses on the values the society wants a women to have which is way different on
what a women herself values. There a difference between what everybody wants you to do than
what you want to do. This only influenced by the culture one is in. This is written in the last
paragraph when she decided to go back home.
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Works Cited
Romo L. Sandra Cisneros’ “Barbie-Q”: A Subversive of Hegemonic Popular Text?. Studies In
Lation American Popular Culture [serial online]. January 2005;24:127. Available from:
MasterFILE Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 18, 2014.
Saldivar-Hull S. WOMEN HOLLERING TRANSFRONTERIZA FEMINSIMS. Cultural
Studies [serial online]. April 1999;13(2):251-262. Available from Academic Search
Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 18, 2014.
Thomson, J. (1994). “What is called heaven: Identity in Sandra Cisnero’s Woman Hollering
Creek.” Studies In Short Fiction, 31(3), 415.
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Revision Suggestions/Comments
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Develop into possible thesis
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What idea are you trying to communicate here?
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These seem like unnecessary asides.
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Citation corrected
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Spelling grammars
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Comma slices
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How so? Is this what the story suggests? Where?
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Is this what Cleofilas thinks?
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Why does Cleofilas do this? What does the story suggest?
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What does the story suggest?
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What? Reality of abuse? Vs. idealization of love? Marriage?
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Awkward wording of sentences makes ideas difficult to understand.

Which is? Does the story suggest a response to this?
Revision Suggestions: Thesis needs to be further developed-how does the themes contribute to
development of Cleofilas and her ideas about love?
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Revise awkward sentences and connect run/ones and fragments and comma slices throughoutthey make paper’s ideas very difficult to understand at times.
Remove unnecessary and often unclear personal asides and commentary. Use outside sources
and the story itself to support your claims.
Add specific examples where indicated.
Revision Plan
After looking at all the suggestions and comments I first choose to fix all the grammar
errors, comma slices, run-ons, and fragments. Once I have all those errors fixed that’s when I’ll
remove all the unnecessary information. I’ll begin to reread what I have so far in my essay and
fix small errors. Once I have all the little things fixed. I’ll go ahead and fix the important things,
which will be improving my thesis, fixing all the awkward sentences, and the things that are
difficult to understand. After all that I’ll fix the works cited page. Re-read one last time and fix
anything else.