The function of telenovela plays a big role throughout the story. In the story we are introduce to a woman named Cleofilas who is from Mexico. Cleofilas has been growing up watching telenovelas her whole life while she was living with her parents. Coming from a Spanish home as well I can totally relate to this, I have been growing up watching these types of show as well is very interesting that Cleofilas wants to live her life like a novella because I feel many people will love too , but that’s something that its unrealistic.  Watching these shows has caused her to fantasize of living a similar life as the actors.  She wants to dress and do her makeup like the actors she sees in the show. Cleofilas wishes to get marry and live with her husband forever. After she gets married with Juan and moves away from her parents she realized that her dream of having a perfect romantic life is actually the opposite. Her husband is abusive and mistreats her dealing with something that she is not used to gives Cleofilas a hard time to cope with the situation. She always told herself that she will not deal with domestic violence when she saw it occurring in the telenovelas, but when she actually experienced it herself she contradicted herself. In the story it states “ Cleofilas thought her life would have to be like that, like a telenovela, only now the episodes got  sadder and sadder” She realizes that something love is not as great as its shown in the telenovelas. I think she used these shows to escape from her true reality  after she married Juan it was a way that still gave her hope of true love and that made her feel a little bit better. At the end she finally was brave to leave her husband and return to her family a place that she probably wishes had never left.

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The importance of telenovelas in the story is that since Cleofilas grow up with out a female role model in her life so she learned all of what a woman is supposed to be from soap operas. This gives her un exaggerated and idealized view of both life and love, and intern believes that life has to be filled with passion, to the point of being delusional “one does whatever one can, must do, at whatever the cost.” she implies as if there is a sweetness of suffering for love. This however Is far from here reality as her husband has taken to beating her despite the fact that she emulates all that she saw in the telenovelas for being a good wife.

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In Sandra Cisneros, “Woman Hollering Creek”, telenovelas play a big role in the their lives. After reading the story I noticed that Cleofilas dream life was probably like the lives of the women from the telenovelas. Where she grew up, there isn’t a lot to do. Its not very exciting. In telenovelas theres always a lot going on and the protagonists that are in love always end up together. You can tell that the telenovelas influenced her a lot because she would compare certain parts of her life to them. She would watch the way the women would do their hair and make up and would even buy a hair dye to get the actresses hair color. The love aspect of the telenovelas influenced her the most. She compared how love should be in real life compared to them, although that’s not how it really turned out. She didn’t realize that love isn’t always like the telenovelas until she saw how damaging it was for her to have an abusive husband. I think that Cleofilas always wanted her life to be like a telenovela, but life doesn’t work that way. I don’t think she ever pictured her life to be how it turned out. I think this is why she wanted to leave her husband. The telenovelas seemed to give her life lessons, and it looks like she would take mental notes.

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