The telenovelas describe the love and life many girls anticipated as they grow up to be young women.  Clefilas enjoyed watching telenovelas.  Although often in the telenovelas, hearts were broken and betrayal was common, they depicted the perfect life to live. She has an image that women from the telenovelas possess wonderful lives. She would do her hair and wear her make just like they do. This shows that she is not content with her looks and appearance.  They were also her guide for learning about love. She fantasized of finding her true love, “the great love of one’s life” as she stated.  When she married Juan Pedro, she thought her life would shift and be like the ones from the telenovelas. She dreamed of living a life similar but she finds out that life does not always turn out the way she wants it to be.   Telenovas can also been seen as an escape for Cleofila from the reality of her own life in which the “kind of the books and songs and telenovelas describe when one finds, finally, the great love of one’s life and does whatever one can, must do, at whatever the cost” (page 280, paragraph 1).  She constantly evaluates her love for her husband to that of a soap opera.  She finally realizes that marriage is not always like a fairytale or as it is portrayed on soap operas.  After that she gets the courage to leave her abusive husband for a simpler life back at home and possibly live with her father and six brothers.

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