Final Quote Cisneros

“The first time she had been so surprised she didn’t cry out or try to defend herself. She had always said she would strike back if a man, any man, were to strike her.

But when the moment came, and he slapped her once, and then again, and again; until the lip split and bled an orchid of blood, she didn’t fight back, she didn’t break into tears, she didn’t run away as she imagined she might when she saw such things in telenovelas.”

  1. identify the title of the text, Women Hollering Creek
  2. identify the author, Sandra Cisneros
  3. identify the speaker/thinker of the passage, Cleofilas
  4.  Cleofilas is shocked that her husband hit her the first time, however after a while I assume she got more and more used to it and she sunk deeper into reality and realized how her life is nothing like the telenovelas. She didn’t break into tears or run away like they do in television. the reality of it is much darker than she imagined.
  5. The argument that the text as a whole is making is that Cleofilas life is nothing like how she was raised or what she imagined it to be and that is very unfortunate. However, she can control it just by her own actions if she wanted and she did by ultimately leaving her husband and going back to Mexico. All those hours of watching telenovelas only helped her escape to a dream world and by leaving with Felice in the end she was able to escape in the real world.
  6. In the Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator was trying to escape from reality as well throughout the text, by the end she was finally able to break free by tearing apart the yellow wallpaper in her room but in a way she was also breaking free from her husband by going insane.

Internacine

occurring between members of the same country, group, or organization

adjective

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/internecine

“You know you believe it when you start your own little family with some person you met four years ago in a bar and then he tries to open the presents on Christmas Eve because that’s what he did in his family and you have the strong urge to run screaming from the building holding your banner about the end and how it is nigh. It is a moving and comic thing — a Murdochian scuffle between the Real and the Dream — to watch a young couple as they teeter around the Idea of Christmas, trying to avoid internecine festive warfare.”

 

They didn’t want their traditions to clash now that they’re living together.

Ardent

having or showing very strong feelings

adjective

“Certainly better than Denzil’s the year he got his own place and phoned us to say he’d killed a partridge in the backyard with a slingshot and just finished eating it like a proper English gentleman (it was a London pigeon, of course). Oh, we Smiths are ardent seekers after the spirit of Christmas, and we do not listen to Iris Murdoch’s sensible analogical advice: ”Good represents the reality of which God is the dream.” We’re chasing the dream, baby.”

They spent their time better than Denzil did.

 

Proliferation

to increase in number or amount quickly

verb

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proliferation

“Denzil found this out when he attempted, on this most sacred of days, to do the things we could not do because we’d always done them another way, our way — a way we all hated, to be sure, but could not change. Denzil wants to open a present on Christmas Eve — don’t do that, Denzil. Denzil wants to go for a walk — I’m so sorry, Denzil, that’s impossible. We’d like to, but we just can’t swing it. Why not? Because, Denzil. Just because. Because like the two parts of Ireland, because like the Holy Trinity, because like nuclear proliferation, like men not wearing skirts, because like brandy butter.”

She made it clear that the reason they couldn’t go against their traditions or do things differently was because they were so used to it and it’s routine. It doesn’t really need an explanation

 

 

Patois

a flat area of ground that is covered with a hard material (such as bricks or concrete), is usually behind a house, and is used for sitting and relaxing

noun

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patios

“This Christmas was the only time we ever met each other, Denzil and I. He was the gift that kept on giving, with his strange patois and his huge feet and the piggyback rides he conducted out on the balcony because the ceilings were too low. Outside was where he wanted to be anyway — you can tell that much from the look of infinite weariness he’s giving my dad’s left elbow.”

He wanted to change up Christmas, he was very different and fun loving.

 

 

Predate

to exist or happen at an earlier time than (something or someone)

verb

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/predate

“As for the ”Natural Woman” Christmas or the ”You’ve Got a Friend” Christmas – these predate my consciousness. But they must have existed, what with Ben being a September baby and me October. Those were the sexy Noels, delivering babies like presents nine months later.”

I still don’t really understand what this passage means.

 

Thematic

of or relating to a theme

adjective

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thematic

“I think it’s Carole King’s ”Tapestry” on the record player. But which song? ”It’s Too Late” would make thematic sense – my dad’s smile has the let’s-just-get-through-this tension of a code-red marriage.”

I understand that they the Smith family was so used to their own traditions and nothing else made sense. They were listening to a song that represented this “theme” or their Christmas.

Perilous

8)Perilous- full of danger

adjective

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perilous

“Magda was wavering in the perilous sunlight of the arena scribbling on such pitiful little bent shins.” pg2300

I understand that Magda was looking for her shawl even though it was so dangerous out.

 

 

 

Clamor

a loud continuous noise (such as the noise made when many people are talking or shouting

Noun

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clamor

“But now Magda’s mouth was spilling a long vicious rope of clamor, “Maaaaaaa-” pg2300

(This connects to perilous) I understood that Magda felt very disoriented and upset when she lost her shawl so she started to finally scream.