Stephanie Dawkins: Caramelo

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Often times throughout the course of the book, I found myself confused and uninterested. Caramelo was not an easy book to follow and I probably would not have chosen to read this book if it wasn’t assigned.  However, I do feel that the book is a powerful peace of art. Cisneros illustrates so much in this novel. She allows her reader to delve into the Mexican world and get a clear understanding of their world as it is a big difference than the culture of Americans. I found the hierarchy of men and women to be very different in the Mexican culture. In the text, the women seemed to always be the head of the household and the men had to follow their orders. In America, this is almost never the case. Men seem to always be in control and dominate over women in almost all situations. Cisneros also compares modern day American women to Mexican women and how they always seem to bump heads about what is right or how things should be done. My favorite part of the book is where awful Grandmother tells her son how his daughter does not need a rebozo because she will not understand the significance of it and not most women will.
What was most compelling for me was the fact that Cisneros uses two language throughout the text. It was interesting seeing how she was able to be bilingual in her novel and still make sense to her readers while allowing them to see the significance of the language and the diversity. 

Comments

  1. Ms LopezSeptember 28, 2016 at 9:19 AM

    I like that even though you weren't necessarily into it yourself, you can see the value of the novel as a piece of artwork. I would say that women in America have much more influence in the household than it might seem. Women are certainly the major 'buying power' in our economy. As the ones who buy things for the household like groceries they make a lot of decisions. They also have a great influence on children. I think both societies are patriarchal but it is visible in different ways. Mexican women are 'in charge' when it comes to the household as in raising kids, preparing food, etc, but culturally a woman is still influenced to get married and have babies, to find a man who will support her. I think the same is sort of true of here in the US as well.
    I like your insights into the book!

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  2. UnknownSeptember 28, 2016 at 8:58 PM

    I like that you bring up the whole idea of women being in charge because I was not surprised to find out Cisneros was a feminist. Firstly, he has a female character who began as a child who is weak and morphs into a stronger girl who understands the importance of culture and knowing family stories. I do like the idea of doing little snips of the story at once, and I like the poetic tone of voice. Yet, I also agree that it was hard to follow everything even with chronology. I wish she would have just written in the same style but in chronological order instead of jumping around so much and leaving us to piece it all together chronological

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