Monday, July 18, 2011
Sandra Cisneros
I just finished reading the poetry by Sandra Cisneros for class. I was really surprised that poetry was what was chosen to read by her. Her work that I am most familiar with is The House on Mango Street which I loved when I read. I had never read any of her poetry until tonight. I have to say that I am not a huge poetry fan (as we have all established in class!!) but I did enjoy reading these poems. I especially liked Las Girlfriends and thought that the violence of protection in the poem was very well disguised. I found it interesting the descriptions of how the speaker defends her friends in the bar.
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I completely agree with Jenni. I've never read any of Ciseros's poetry before and I really enjoyed it. I thought the poem "old Maids" was funny. It reminds me of the pressures that a lot of older married women put on younger unmarried women. I liked that they seemed satisfied with the lives that they chose (or have). Cisneros addresses the stereotype that people have of unmarried women as "old maids." It makes me think of this one older woman I know that would say "if you're not married by the time you're thirty-nine it will never happen." It seems to me that women put way more pressure on other women to get married than men do. This poem illustrates that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jenni and Kristen, I have never read any of Cisneros’ work before. In “Old Maids,” it was funny to see the narrator point out all the reasons why she was okay being an old maid. The best part to me was when she referenced her aunt’s marriages as being reasons why she did not care to marry. As far as what Kristen said about her known an older lady who says things about old maids, my grandmother actually had a matching game called “old maid.” It was funny that Kristen said that about the old lady because it relates to my grandmother having this game for my cousins and I to play with, when we were children. I also agree with something else Kristen said about how women put more pressure on themselves and other women than men do. Men may be more competitive in a lot of things than women, but getting married is not one of them. The poem illustrates this because nowhere in the poem does Cisneros mention a man. I think that Cisneros is so aware of her Mexican culture that that is why she considers her self a maid. She is so aware of the standards she even mentions it in the poem, “We’re too old, by Mexican standards.” I think it is funny how the standards are set so differently than American standards, because we do not have a set age, it is a wide range of ages for our culture.
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