A Theme of Coming of Age in Woman Hollering Creek

Sandra Cisneros, the author of Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, uses perspective in an adolescence context to explore and develop her ideas of the raw Mexican-American experience in the opening of her novel. Cisneros threads a theme concerning coming of age and growing up as a Mexican-American child throughout the many vignettes. She portrays growing up as a process full of complications and uncertainty, when discovering identity and how the children use these experiences to shape themselves.

The children from the adolescent perspectives of the opening begin to learn what it means to grow up and come to the realization of how their race, skin color, economic class, and family can define them. In the opening story, Cisneros demonstrates her authorial intent of getting readers to understand the effects of being a young person of color by showing ways young kids make sense of the world as they develop. In, “My friend Lucy who smells like corn”, the narrator announces, “I’m going to sit in the sun, don’t care if it’s a million trillion degrees outside, so my skin can get so dark it’s blue where it bends like Lucy’s. Her whole family like that.” The narrator’s interest in Lucy’s dark skin shows how young children connect ideas regarding race and identity. Thinking that just sitting in the sun will get the narrator’s skin as dark as Lucy indicates that the narrator doesn't understand race but recognizes the difference between them. In“My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn” Cisneros speaks of the children as poor and deprived. The narrator describes the shoes worn by her and Lucy as “aqua flip-flops just like mine that we bought at the K-mart for only 79 cents same time” and also explains that” Lucy has nine sisters, a screen door with no screen”, and “Only girls and one father who is never home hardly and one mother who says, Ay! I’m real tired.” The innocent descriptions create images of a family of poverty, which the narrator sees as endearing similar qualities that make them more like “sisters. ” The vignette is a casual story of two young Mexican-American girls who are best friends. Now, here is the point Cisneros tried to get across and perfectly captures the voice and view of a child. While, as a reader, the signs that they are deprived and living in poverty is very obvious, and as minorities, they face many struggles. However, neither the narrator or Lucy ever acknowledge these struggles or the deprivations that are inherent in poverty. The children do not express feel oppressed because they are still unaware of society and are experiencing the richness of childhood and enjoying life while they still can.

Cisnero continues showing ways young Mexican-American kids make sense of the world as they mature in the vignette, “Eleven.” The narrator, Rachel, describes, “when you’re eleven, you’re also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one…….Like some days you might say something stupid, and that’s the part of you that’s still ten. Or maybe some days you might need to sit on your mama’s lap because you’re scared, and that the part of you that's five. And maybe one day when you’re all grown up, you will need to cry like if you’re three, and that’s okay.” Rachel's understanding of the fact that age cannot define the whole of a person allows readers to recognize her innocent view on a deeper message; she's able to grasp the idea that human beings are multidimensional and are shaped by their past years and experiences. The acceptance and realization of this aspect of humans confirms that children are capable of being perceptive to complex ideas about identity even if their methods of doing so may seem childlike and innocent. Although, on her eleventh birthday, Rachel wishes that she was 102 years old because she’d know how to respond when her teacher, Mrs. Price, takes out an ugly red sweater out of the closet and proceeds to ask the room who owns it. Rachel describes the sweater as, “plastic buttons and a collar and sleeves all stretched out like you could use it for a jump rope. It’s maybe a thousand years old and even if it belonged to me I wouldn’t say so.” All the children all deny ownership but then Rachel’s classmate Sylvia Slyvia says “I think it belongs to Rachel.” which Rachel keeps denying but her teacher doesn't listen. Rachel and her classmates’ hesitancy to claim the sweater suggests that owning stretched out, unstylish, old clothing symbolizes something bad to them and they are aware of implications about its owner’s financial stability. At this moment, Rachel believes that if she were older she might be able to explain to Mrs. Price that the sweater doesn’t belong to her, showing that Mrs. Price doesn’t listen to her students. A significant thing to consider is that Mrs. Price’s name indicates that she isn’t Latina; and from that, readers can reasonably produce the deduction that Mrs. Price is dismissive of Rachel because she has biased beliefs about her cultural identity. She believes that it makes sense that a young Latina is not able to afford a more high-priced sweater.

In the vignette, “Salvador Late or Early”, Cisneros once again demonstrates that children are more intricate than most adults think. She describes a little boy named Salvador who: “lives in a house with an unpainted door, and rouses himself every morning to wake his little brothers, tie their shoes, comb their hair, and feeds them...”. He arrives either late or early at school every day, with his two brothers in tow and the end of the day, he waits for his brothers, standing there in his small body “with its geography of scars” and “history of hurt”. The small boy has already lived long enough to experience many struggles and he shoulders the responsibilities of a caretaker even though he, himself, still needs parental guidance. He also receives no recognition for his efforts, and even his teacher forgets his name. Cisneros suggests that Salvador’s invisibility is connected to the fact that he comes from poverty. The way the teacher doesn’t give him attention is very similar to Rachel’s struggle with Mrs. Price in “Eleven”. In both stories, Cisnero introduces children who are ignored and disregarded because of their cultural and racial identities and the biased ideas people have about those identities.

Conclusion

The overall effect of beginning her book with such a perspective is it shows a different perspective than usual which is more innocent and childlike. It gives the reader a chance to experience the thoughts and actions of the children as they mature and deal with problems. It also shows how Children use their experiences to put together these ideas of race, poverty, etc. which they’re usually unaware of and use them to shape their selves as they come of age and grow.

Work Cited

• Cisneros, Sandra. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.