The Female Fight for Freedom by Author Helena María Viramontes
Angga
Jane Angga
The Big Search Through Confessions
In a diverse society like the one of today, equality among members is a critical issue affecting the harmony of a society. Helena Viramontes’ story, “The Broken Web”, is based on Martha’s desire for confession and goes a long way into showing the struggles and hardship that women in such diverse societies go through. In the story, various social issues such as gender roles, immigration and violence were highlighted. Fundamentally, the story can be divided into four scenes of confession Martha’s inadequate admission, Olivia’s ceaseless confessions, Tomas’ wife’s inconceivable admission, and Martha’s auntie’s admission as an alternative. Each part of these attempts characterizes and restricts the feeling of blame that outbreaks the content and rouses its confession booth driving force. Through the development of plot (literary element), Helena succeeds in bringing issues of gender roles, violence, guilt and confession in the modern society.
When Helena Viramontes was interviewed with Juanita Heredia, she explained how she has also experienced gender role culture issues in her family during the period when her desire to attend higher education and earn a degree was not supported by both parents as she was a Chicana. “Education for females wasn’t easy in our household. I was the first mujer to move out of the house. So I needed parental permission to move into a dorm. I felt I had to move out of the house in order to succeed as a student. My father said that I would move out over his dead body.” (Viramontes, Heredia, and Kevane 3). This statement basically shows the significance of gender role that Helena has to overcome in her family and how she can relate it to her story “The Broken Web”. However later on in the interview she deceived her mother so that she could attend college. “I then approached my mother and basically tricked her. I asked her, “Do you want me to meet a doctor or lawyer? Where am I going to meet them if I don’t go to a university where they are studying?” She immediately signed the paper.” (Viramontes, Heredia, and Kevane 3). Therefore, through the experience of Chicana culture in her family, she was able to reflect, sympathize and interpret the situation of her short story “The Broken Web”.
Helena Viramontes uses plot as a literary element to clearly indicate the problems that women go through mostly in relation to violence and gender roles. The use of multiple plot lines is developed through a series of confessions through which the story is narrated. A plot line is a single chain of events linked by cause and effect. In the detective narrative, the events that cause the murder constitute one plot line. But another one might be the love relationship between the detective and another character (Griffith 53). Through each confession, events that build into the main idea of violence and gender role issues are disclosed.
The story started with an incomplete confession of Martha to the priest and to admit is to overcome blame and disgrace for the sake of truth: Martha confesses of experiencing confusion in the discussion between her parents in the dream. Her parents had a disagreement that lead to the death of the father, which she claims is very disturbing to her. Martha further explains that the nightmare has been haunting her almost every night. “The dream, Father, I am still having that bad dream”(Viramontes 28). Her price is a genuine and sincere attempt to search for the truth and resolve the feeling of guilt. “There He stands Solid. But what happened next I will never understand. I will never be able to forgive myself for letting it happen. I heard something, something loud. A bullet sound. It rang. The ringing visualized into a tail connected to the bullet sound. I saw it pierce the image, burst like a firecracker. Sparks. Pierce it into little pieces before my eyes, flashing light on the screen. I think I know what happened, but it’s a dream. I’m asleep, you see.”(Viramontes 29). It is here that she hopes that the priest sees this guilt and may exonerate it by his authority and power as the priest. Martha explains this through an account of a strange dream that she had been having and which shows here guilt. Here is where Helena Viramontes uses Martha`s dream as a plot to mark violence and differences among her parents within the culture, and in her dream she sees the statue of Jesus that she loved blown up, and the dream becomes more intense where she declares that not even her blood sister would wake her up from the dream. Though she could hear her sister speak from a distance, she could not open her eyes.
The confessions, which would be from the couple and Olivia, would give a possible explanation as to the events take place in the story. Olivia’s confession to Tomas while he was asleep indicates the infidelity of the problem, “He would probably awaken disoriented and bewildered at the unfamiliar room, she thought, but she would assure him that nothing happened because nothing did happen”(Viramontes 33). Olivia lies next to Tomas undressed and though she confesses on not doing anything with the act of being in the same bed is socially unethical. The confession also takes a different dimension when she confesses of touching his chest and having their breath next to each other, which in normal context be an act of romance. Tomas having been married is not excused to have another women. However earlier in the story (confession of Tomas’ wife) Tomas’ wife seems to notice the presence of Olivia and the affair, “Tomas’ wife wondered if that old barmaid (what-was-her-name-now?) still worked there and she wondered if Tomas left her ..” (Viramontes 31). This shows an internal conflict in a plot, Internal conflicts take place within the minds of the characters (Griffith 55). In contrast of this behavior Helena Viramontes depicts that having a mistress is a normal thing in the Chicana and Chicano culture, whereby men are in control of most situation.
In the final confession which involved a conversation between Martha and her aunt who was the sister to her mother, there is more insight into what happened between Martha`s parents. The aunt shed light into the affair of Tomas and his wife and how the two ended up together. “She moaned a lot in her sleep and sometimes she’d say things out loud that she’d never say awake. Since we slept in the same bed, she would sometimes hang onto me and call me by his name. It wasn’t your father’s name thougt; it wasn’t Tomas”(Viramontes 35). In her confession, it is evident that Martha`s mother did not love Tomas but lacked an explanation to give to him. Helena Viramontes shows in the last plot that she went into marriage without love and therefore in in a way the marriage was therefore deemed to fail, furthermore this shows how the act of forced marriage is accepted in the culture.
This story does not only indicate the suffering that Martha and her mother went through but it is an image of the suffering of women in general. A woman is a delicate being and is often affected by the social system in that relationships are of most concern to them. The fact that Martha is haunted by the guilt of the death of the father which was caused by the mother is an explanation to this trend. It is also through the creative ways of arrangement of plots that Helena Viramontes chooses to engage the readers and face challenges that women go through in life.
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Nina Feliciano
Professor Hilda Fernandez
English 1B
20 May 2015
Word Count: 1,588
The Female Fight for Freedom
Author Helena María Viramontes is known in the literary world as a prominent advocate for,
and member of, Chicana culture. In her book The Moths and Other Stories, Viramontes conveys a
multitude of Chicana issues in a mere eight short stories, one of the most prominent being the
difficulties Chicana women face compared to men in their culture. An interview with the author from
2000 explains this important impetus in her writing: “I remember raging against the patriarchal
system, raging against the world and its injustices. I felt as if I had to write out of some type of
understanding of what was going on and what I was feeling,” (Viramontes). In the final story entitled
“Neighbors,” the author offers her intimate take on the issue by associating the unconventional
female character of Aura with certain places that designate where Chicano culture assigns Chicana
women in society. Aura is atypical in that she is a seventy-three-year-old woman who lives alone,
which is unusual in Chicano culture. Though seemingly independent, Aura is unable to break free
from her societal position under men, which is true of many Chicanas. Viramontes employs the
literary element of setting in “Neighbors” to portray the struggles of being a woman in the patriarchal
Chicano culture.
The first sentence in “Neighbors” sets the tone for Aura’s location, and state of mind. It reads,
“Aura Rodríguez always stayed within her perimeters, both personal and otherwise, and expected the
same of her neighbors,” (Viramontes 109). The character of Aura does not leave the confines of her
plot of land for the entirety of the story. Aura remaining “within her perimeters” not only refers to the
perimeter of the wrought-iron fence surrounding her property, but also conveys how trapped she feels
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in her own mind due to the patriarchy of Chicano culture (Viramontes 109). The fact that Aura never
crosses the threshold of the gate that encloses her yard also speaks to how women are not allowed to
do as they please like men are, and that she feels completely disrespected and humiliated by the naïve
teenage boys who imprison her by hanging out right outside of her house. The adolescent boys
represent Chicano men’s superiority over Chicana women. Chicanas feel imprisoned by the
frustration that arises from being part of a society that allows men to torment women with no real
repercussions. Though Aura is many years older than them, the young men do not acknowledge her
seniority because the unspoken rules of Chicano society do not require them to. Aura feels that if she
and her neighbors stay within her perimeters, she can live out the remainder of her lonely life without
being bothered by the patriarchal society that oppresses her. Aura represents the real world gender
norms that Chicanas experience on a daily basis, which have Chicanas to have a much less open mind
in terms of what their options are in life. In Viramontes’ interview, she describes breaking out of
gender norms that seclude her as a writer: “To be alone with your hurt and insecurity is not a good
thing, and yet these are companions of writers. Just when I think I’m sinking into hopelessness, I
begin to think about the stories of the mujeres out there…the brutalities that continue to exist, and
then I become inspired and I am no longer afraid of confronting and sitting with these
companions…” Through the character of Aura, Viramontes wants Chicanas to recognize their
oppression from the male-dominant society of which they belong. The author also wants Chicana
women to break free from the walls they have erected in their minds by reminding themselves that
they are not alone, just as Viramontes is not alone in her writing because of their courageous stories.
Aura is enamored with her garden that she has spent years cultivating. The setting of Aura’s
garden represents her extended comfort zone past her home, which she has slowly accumulated
during her life. Her bravery is greatly diminished following the vandalism of her beloved garden by
the neighborhood boys, which symbolizes the significant and detrimental effects that Chicano men
have on Chicanas’ lives. Viramontes writes, “She rushed over to the chayote vine and made a feeble
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attempt to replant it, but everything, her flowers, chayotes, gardenias, rose bushes, were uprooted and
cast aside,” (118). When Aura finally stands up for her self, she is quickly chastised for her actions
and put back in her place as an elderly woman with no power in her culture. Once the teenage boys
destroy her garden in retaliation for reporting them to the police, Aura is left with a sole chinaberry
tree, symbolic of one shred of dignity. Viramontes also makes sure to mention that these are plants
grown from cuttings from her mother’s garden, showing the passage of female strength through
generations. She retreats to her home and remains there for the remainder of the story, showing how
she no longer has the courage to surpass her comfort zone. In the same token that the author wants
Chicana women to remember that they are not alone, she also realizes the weight of this issue and
that some women are unable to escape their situation. In her interview, Viramontes asserts, “I needed
to recognize that these women were very much silenced in the United States because people were not
covering this type of material.” Though this quote is referring to a different short story from Moths, it
reinforces the fact that Viramontes’ most significant topic in her writing is to break the silence of
Chicana women. Hopefully, bringing up this topic will raise awareness of Chicana issues and, in turn,
give these women more options and support to become free from harrowing situations due to their
lower status in Chicano culture.
With her one shred of dignity, Aura descends to the basement of her home out of fear and
frustration for her lack of power as a Chicana woman. The narrative voice describes her decision to
do so, stating, “She lit the candlestick and opened the cellar door because she refused to be helpless,”
(Viramontes 119). The location of Aura’s basement represents her retreating to the lowest, most
morbid depths of her soul, feeling that doing so is her only option. She finally feels as though she
must do something drastic to change her circumstances. It is not an empowering frustration, however,
as she continues to not push out of the confines of her home. In the cellar, she retrieves a gun from
one of the many boxes in the depths of the dark room. The gun is Aura’s final plea for peace in the
patriarchal Chicano society. When Aura’s fear of death reaches it’s highest point at the end of the
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story, she pulls the trigger behind a closed door, without even being able to see what is frightening
her. This placement of Aura is the ultimate feeling of Chicana women who are desperate to have even
an ounce of power in their situation and, their own minds. They are too blinded by the patriarchy of
their culture to see any other way out. This is Viramontes’ way of showing what horrible actions
Chicanas must resort to when they feel overpowered and that all of their options have run out. In
Viramontes’ interview, she says of Chicana writers, “We are knocking at the door demanding
change.” This is a very powerful statement in juxtaposition with “Neighbors” as the only other
woman character knocking on Aura’s door is what causes her to pull the trigger on her gun. When
this woman asks for change, or help, another woman is too afraid to give it to her. Viramontes wants
to break this cycle of terrified women by getting them to help each other find strength instead of
hurting each other out of fear due to their dwindling power compared to Chicano men.
The various spaces of the character Aura in “Neighbors” portray Chicana women’s struggles
in a patriarchal society. Viramontes, however, also wants to empower them with the knowledge that
they are not alone. She encountered the same feelings as a Chicana female writer, which can feel like
a very solitary venture. The author articulates, “But when it came to the point that I started sharing
my work with other people, they pointed out that this story was theirs as well… Then I realized that I
was not writing personally about myself, but I was writing about a community of people. That’s
when I decided that I had to write the best that I could because I was not writing only for myself,”
(Viramontes). If Chicana women speak up about their troubles, they can join together to represent
their entire community, who all feel similarly oppressed. This feeling of solidarity can give Chicanas
the support and drive to be stronger than they think they are capable of, because they are now are a
part of something bigger. They have a responsibility to fellow Chicana women everywhere not to
back down in order to gain freedom from their patriarchal culture. All women can relate to the
struggle of Chicanas as we live in a patriarchal culture every day. Each one of us can follow the sage
advice of Viramontes to have our voices be heard. Viramontes’ immense literary expertise and
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experience as a Chicana woman allow her to employ setting to effectively articulate Chicana issues,
which are struggles that all women face. The passion she has for change for women is clear in her
writing, and it is contagious.
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Works Cited
Heredia, Juanita and Bridget Kevane. Interview with Helena María Viramontes. Latina Self
Portraits: Interviews with Contemporary Women Writers. By Juanita Heredia and Bridget
Kevane. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000. Print.
Viramontes, Helena María. “Neighbors.” The Moths and Other Stories. 2nd ed. Houston: Arte Público
Press, 1995. 109-125. Print.
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