“Maria Concepcion” is a short story by Katherine Anne Porter about a young Mexican peasant woman who kills a young girl who threatens her marriage, and thus wins back her husband and restores her universe to order. It is only after a cold act of murder that her world assumes its former balance. Being set in Mexico where women were under the impression to be submissive to men even when they are in the wrong of their actions. Women were not allowed to be in a position of dominance. Porter develops María Concepción into what could be called a powerful round character by contrasting her attitude in the first part of the story to the end of the story. Porter is able to convey the characterization of Maria by the use of the narrative point of view and the setting to show the power of a woman.
María 's transformation from a young passive, laborious, and religious woman into a hateful, revenge-oriented, and dominant woman becomes obvious through her actions. Her daily routines were domestic including carrying “about a dozen living fowls,...the food basket, and she was hungry after her long morning’s work.” Putting aside her own needs to only attend the needs of her husband but the men that he works with too. María was silent and almost timid in her approaches to conflict, when she first discovered her husband’s infidelity, and even when he ran off with another woman. She "did not stir nor breathe for some seconds," instead she watched from a distance of the betrayal between Maria