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Comparing Sandra Cisneros Woman Hollering Creek And Margaret Atwood

574 Words3 Pages

Sandra Cisneros’ “Woman Hollering Creek” and Margaret Atwood’s “Siren Song” demonstrate the disparities between men’s desires and women’s desires in the 1900’s through the use of symbolism. In “Siren Song,” the speaker is a siren who complains about being stuck on an island with nothing to do but sing songs to attract sailors and consume them. “I don’t enjoy it here / squatting on this island / looking picturesque and mythical / with these two feathery maniacs, / I don’t enjoy singing / this trio, fatal and valuable.” (Atwood, lines 13-18). Because the siren admits to being a deadly trap, it is implied that the person that the siren is speaking to is not a target of the siren. The siren follows her complaint of being stuck on the island by telling the speaker that …show more content…

The siren is meant to symbolize women in the 1900’s, who were mostly stuck in their homes with nothing to do but attempt to attract successful men to marry. The siren is the same, as the siren’s home is on the island, and the siren must attract men to survive. The siren’s dialogue with the sailor, who can be assumed to be female, is then representing the desire of women in the 1900’s to break free from the necessity of attracting men and how they needed each other’s help. Additionally, the siren’s song being a “cry for help” that works every time implies that men during the 1900’s desired to be the knights in shining armor for women in need and that the men may not prefer women to be able to save themselves. “Woman Hollering Creek,” follows a woman named Cleófilas who ends up in an abusive relationship and eventually finds freedom. In Cleófilas’s story, men are commonly painted as monsters who constantly abuse, sexualize, and limit women, actions that were unfortunately very common in the

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