Theory of Fernanda

... New Gallery 2018/9/22 Lamp Post Mule Passage Nanny Death Pear Tree Eatonville setting

Janie's journey in Their Eyes Were Watching is about discovering one-self and strengthening self-awareness. This is precisely Wallace's message in his commencement speech, in which he warns the audience of the importance of being self-aware and of taking control of one's life. This is applicable to Janie’s human experience in the novel, as she challenges the societal conventions of tradition by gradually becoming more self-aware and empowering herself to chase her own goals to achieve a sense of self-fulfillment and emancipation. This is observed in Janie’s marriage to Logan Killicks, in which her naïve assumption that marriage would unequivocally lead to love is dismantled completely. Consequently, Janie starts to develop a sense of self-awareness, in which she realizes that this lifestyle does not concord with her goals. Under Wallace’s philosophy, Janie decides that she does not have to conform with her marriage and, additionally, chooses to prioritize her needs abov...

After learning about gender roles in depth in Language and Literature, my understanding about how they present themselves in advertising was well consolidated. However, when I went back to Mexico this summer for vacation, I was also reminded about how deeply entrenched gender roles can be in everyday society. Perhaps it is the international community I am used to, but it seems that in Mexico the expectation for girls are rigidly always those of decency and submissiveness. This struck me as specially true when  after coming back from the Historic Center of Mexico City– a testimony to the influence of Catholicism in Mexico– we passed by a pro-abortion march in the middle of Reforma street. To me this didn't seem to be out of the ordinary– throughout the world and lately through Latin America, the so called 'green wave' had been spreading, vouching for greater rights for women and the freedom to have a choice. However, it seemed that for the male taxi driver this was outrag...

Coming back to my home country for the summer, I embarked on the initiative to immerse myself in Latin American literature and its genres. In order to fulfill this goal, I decided to first go into safe territory and pick up Laura Esquivel's Malinche , a book narrating the life of Malintzin, an indigenous woman who served as an interpreter for Hernán Cortés when he conquered Mexico.  Although her story, to an extent, is part of general knowledge in Mexican society, I think Esquivel truly managed to encapsulate an intimate, personal approach to Malintzin's personality. The magic realism evident in her writing style showed the protagonist as someone embroiled in an internal conflict– she was questioning her allegiances, her culture and her love for Cortés. The depth of the character is something that I also think added richness to the novel, as we as readers grow with her through the loss of her grandmother to her journey into adulthood, which is accelerated by the arrivals ...