Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories Literary Elements

Collection of short stories

The stories take place in various villages in Mexico, in Italy and in other cities in America.

The stories are often told from a first person subjective point of view.

Tragic, sad, angry,

It is impossible to determine an antagonist and protagonist since the collection is composed out of individual stories. On a more general level, the antagonist is presented as being certain men who mistreat women of various traditions that destroy the relationship between people.

Since the book is composed of various short stories, there are multiple conflicts. Some conflicts commonly found are between the men in general and women and between tradition and modernity, or between individuality and the pressure to conform to social norms.

Every short story has its climactic moment. In the story Woman at hollering creek for example, the story reaches its climax when Cleófilas leaves her abusive husband.

The story Barbie-Q and the game the girls played with their dolls foreshadows a future story in which two girls fight over a man.

When Ixchel talks about Baby Boy and claims he is a prince is an understatement as it is later revealed that he is just a dangerous man who killed many young girls.

The children in the stories are all members of various disadvantaged communities and they have to deal with poverty and other problems. It is alluded that the world is generally unmoved by their struggles and it is implied that the world does not notice them. In the story Salvatore for example, the narrator presents a young boy who struggles to get by and help his siblings and yet no one notices him or his struggles. Though this, the author suggest that we are accustomed to ignoring those who we do not want to see and how society in general is quick to forget those who need us to notice them the most.

Important imagery appears in the story Barbie-Q, when the two girls buy Barbie dolls damaged during a factory fire. To hide the dolls' deformities and the fact that some have a missing leg, the girls made for the dolls clothes to hide their imperfections. The image of the damaged dolls in beautiful clothes is important because the author suggests through this that many people overlook certain defects and flaws just because a person looks and acts right and not because they have any redeeming qualities.

In the story Woman at hollering Creek, the narrator presents a woman named Cleófilas who is abused by her husband. Even though she knows she can return home to her father, Cleófilas refuses to do it, fearing how she will be seen by the people in her village. This element is paradoxical because it shows that some people are willing to suffer just to save face and avoid being asked uncomfortable questions.

The reader can draw a parallel between two women in the stories, one named Carmen and the other Cleófilas and compare how the two women behaved. Cleófilas let herself be controlled by her husband who would beat her often and mistreat her. Carmen on the other side realized the power she had over the men who were in love with her and used it to her advantage, making the men ‘’slaves’’ to her whims. The parallel is important because it shows two different ways through which women can deal with men and how they can navigate through life successfully.

When the characters use the word ‘’thang’’ they refer in general to women who were chased by men.

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