Cleofilas, Carmen and Clemencia - FINAL DRAFT

            Cleofilas, Carmen and Clemencia are three female characters in Sandra Cisneros book Woman Hollering Creek and other stories that represent three totally different ideas on love and self worth.  The three women left me wondering; what is a good woman?  Is this woman evil?  What would I do in this situation?  After reading all three stories and analyzing each character, I have decided to explain my thoughts on each woman’s idea of love and how that relates how she values herself. 

            In our first story, “Woman Hollering Creek” written by Sandra Cisneros, Cleofiles is introduced to the us as a young girl who is about to be married off to a Mexican American man.  She has an idealistic view of how the marriage will be as she watched telanovelas all day religiously in her home country of Mexico.  She is excited to experience marriage and dress fancy like the ladies in the soap operas she idolizes.  Cleo has no idea there is so much more ahead for her that she is too naïve know about.  But, before she leaves, her father reminds her that he will always be there for here to come back to if she needs to come back (43).  Once she is married, reality sets in after she already has kids and feels stuck with an abusive husband who talks down to her while she is also in between Dolores and Soledad, her neighbors.  Cleofilas is admirable because she tries as hard as she can to make the marriage work because that is what she believes to be the right thing to do at the time.  She reminds herself why she loves her husband (49).  That says so much to what she is feeling inside about her unfortunate situation with this manor lacking man that she feeds and cleans, which seems to be thankless tasks.  She quickly becomes depressed and the legend of the woman who drowned her kids in the creek enters the story.  Once again, Cleo is strong.  She is so blue that she seems to be drawn to the creek and it seems to pull her thoughts into a dark area where she seems to be considering taking the lives of her and her children to escape this hell she is stuck in.  But no, Cleo is strong.  She tells her doctor about the abuses she endures and like a good loving mother should do, she finds a way out.  She goes back to her loving father with help from the character Felice who happily drives her to the border and inspires our strong character to take matters into her own hands and be a strong woman.  I found Cleo’s character annoyingly naïve but amazingly strong in the end.  She helped herself out of her situation and I think many women would applaud her actions.  She envisioned her marriage to be loving and a fairy tale but it wasn’t, and I believe that the love her family gave her as a child and growing up shaped her to be able to leave this situation and love herself enough to know she deserved better.

            Carmen, on the other hand “is a take-it-or-leave-it type of woman” (61).  She is the character gossiped about like a legend in Sandra Cisneros short story called “La Fabulosa: A Texas Operetta.”  Carmen seems like a vibrant, intelligent woman that enjoys the finer things in life and knows exactly how she is going to get them, by dating powerful men.  To me, it seems it is more than just the material, it’s the fame.  The spot light is what she craves to fill her void.  I say void because she has to have something missing to date the military and not fall in love.  Some people would say she is playing him while others would say she is just keeping her options open, I would agree with that but only if I can add that she is missing a sensitivity chip.  That’s how Jennifer Aniston described Brad Pitt after he left their marriage for his costar Angelina Jolie.  For a woman, not doing to shabby on her own, to have the guts to live her life the way she did, you had to give her some credit.  She gave them something to talk about, that’s for sure.  In the end, it is sad because Carmen might have been entertaining and lived a glamorous life, but she was not searching for love and did not even seem to crave it by what was gossiped about her.  Who doesn’t want to be loved?  Was this her version of love?  Maybe Carmen was misunderstood.  Some might say she loved her self more than she loved those successful men she “dated”.  I think she must have been hurt along the way and she was a living callous that found a way to be happy with fabulous things her powerful boyfriends could provide.  I am not knocking her, because at least she was not out to hurt anyone.  Maybe just break a few hearts.

            Clemencia, Clemencia, Clemencia, where do I begin?  Clemencia, the woman with a black soul that is introduced to us in a very compelling story called “Never Marry a Mexican”, also by Sandra Cisneros, in which a woman exposes us to her charcoal heart, and obsessive love that is nothing short of Satan’s thoughts.  Her upbringing molded her into the woman she is today.  The way she loves today.  Her love is hurtful to women.  Clemencia is the other woman and that is what she likes.  She just wants the “sweetest part of the fruit” (69).  There is no love here in this story for another being.  In this story it’s the selfish thoughts of a brat of a woman turned psycho when she can’t have what she wants.  She falls for Drew, a married man who gets his wife pregnant and stays with her over Clemencia.  Clemencia feels like she damn near controls Drew’s life with his wife and he lets her think this, which leads to some sick thoughts on Clemencia’s part.  Sick thoughts of the son born to Drew and his ginger wife, where Clemencia waits oh so patiently to seduce the son of the man that left her for this woman, his wife.  This woman, Clemencia, is so shattered inside.  Her love is not sane, sweet, and gentle but the killing kind.   She seems to think she is protecting herself from the ills of love and a normal marriage but she is anti love or anti marriage and she is reaping what she sews.  She cannot have Drew, whom she wants so badly and you can tell how it eats away at her heart.  I wonder who naïve is really at this point. Cleofilas from the first story of Clemencia, when believing Drew really loved her and she wasn’t just some tramp he was having sex with on the side?  I mean, who really thinks that the man that is bedding her while his wife gives birth is worth a damn anyways?  Clemencia.  That is who thinks that she is loved and cared for by this man.  Any strong minded woman would see she is being taken for a ride by this smooth talker.  Clemencia, on the other hand, is insane and is very damaged inside. 

            Each woman, Cleo, Carmen, and Clemencia had their own tale of love in which it seems each one of their loves went bad in the end.  But, in the end, only one of these ladies shown through to be a heroine and respectable and that’s Cleofilas.  Her father’s love for her, I think, helped her through her stormy marriage and gave her the will power to get through it.  She is an amazing woman that faced becoming a mockery in her hometown in Mexico so that her children could live a better life.  Unfortunately, even though Carmen was not out to hurt anyone physically, she had cold intentions with love and the gossip mill says she might have paid dearly for that.  Even though I see nothing wrong with her light loving ways, her actions in love might have ended her life.  Clemencia, Clemencia, Clemencia with the black heart.  Not strong enough to leave a man that strung her along so she plotted.  She didn’t have the love inside to know better.  I am sure readers will be able to identify strengths and weaknesses in each one of these interesting characters but, in my opinion, there are only two women that show healthy signs of self respect and self worth.