Woman Hollering Creek
Sandra Cisneros
Sandra Cisneros, a prodigious writer of Chicana literature, creates true-to-life heroines who face the hardships of poverty, disappointment, and familial strife. Her work includes Caramelo (a novel), House on Orange Street, and Woman Hollering Creek.
The women in Woman Hollering Creek are on what Joseph Campbell called the Hero’s Journey. Campbell states that all hero myths address the transformation of one’s consciousness by a Road of Trials.
In a series of three posts I will examine each heroine of the three longer stories in the collection: “Woman Hollering Creek,” “Never Marry a Mexican,” and “Eyes of Zapata” in terms of the Hero Myth, and will evaluate the heroine’s success or failure to mature as a hero.
“Woman Hollering Creek” tells the story of Cleofilias, a once naïve young woman who marries too early and leaves her family to move to America with her husband, Juan Pedro. When he becomes abusive, Cleofilias begins her hero journey to escape the abusive hand of her husband, saving her unborn child.
Each Hero’s Journey begins with the Call to Adventure which offers Cleofilias the opportunity to face the unknown and gain something of physical or spiritual significance. Cleofilias’s Call to Adventure comes from the telenovelas she watches, which embody the life she covets. Through viewing them, she realizes how miserable she is:
“Not that he’s not a good man. She has to remind herself why she loves him… This man who farts and belches… this man, this father, this rival, this keeper, this lord, this master, this husband till kingdom comes,” (Cisneros 49).
The creek, La Gritonia (translated: Woman Hollering) behind her house becomes her Spiritual Weapon: a power used to overcome the antagonist. The creek is a symbol of escape and freedom from abuse.
The first time Juan Pedro beats her “she was so surprised she didn’t cry out or try to defend herself… She had done nothing but reach up to the heat on her mouth and stare at the blood on her hand,” (47-48). Cleofilias remains passive through most of the narrative, relying on Graciela, a nurse in the hospital, to be the deciding force that helps her accept the Call to Adventure and leave Juan Pedro. Graciela, therefore, is Cleofilias’s Spiritual Mentor.
If the story had ended with Graciala’s call, Cleofilias would have failed as a heroine; however, her transformation is revealed after facing the Final Battle as she waits at the Cash N Carry for Felice to drive her back to Mexico. “All morning that flutter of half-fear, half-doubt. At any moment Juan Pedro might appear in the doorway,” (Cisneros 55). Cleofilias doesn’t break under her fear and as Cleofilias rides over the bridge (the Final Battle), she begins her Triumphant Return to “Eden:” her father’s house.
Felice, the Trickster archetype of Campbell’s Hero Myth, who embodies the mischief and desire for change, gives Cleofilias her Boon, or, reward for her new level of awareness that each hero much acquire.
Her Boon is Felice’s yell as they cross over Woman Hollering Creek, (Cisneros 56). The final step in the hero’s transformation is a moment of death and rebirth, symbolizing the part of the hero that must die in order for the new part to begin. Felice’s yell proves to Cleofilias that women can have power. She is reborn, realizing she can have it, too.
I highly recommend Woman Hollering Creek, even if you’re not familiar with the Hero’s Journey.
Cisneros, Sandra. Woman Hollering Creek; and other stories. New York: Vintage, 1992. Print.
Campbell, Joseph. Hero with a Thousand Faces. Novato, California: New World Library, 2008. Print.
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