Sexism In 'Fiesta And Giaconda Smile'

Sexism in the twentieth century was very much alive, women were expected to serve their husbands and take care of the children. The stories “Wall of Fire Rising”, “Fiesta”, and “Giaconda Smile” use marriage to portray the sexism that we are accustomed to. They show a pattern of male dominance and a state of patriarchy. This type of portrayal by the authors may be on purpose to show an ugly aspect of our society.

The author of the “Wall of Fire Rising”, Edwidge Danticat, portrayed a female version very different from the ones in “Fiesta” or “Giaconda Smile”. The wife, Lili, even though she was the caretaker, she was the moral support of the household and the stable figure in the marriage. No matter what happened or how bad things got, Lili

The stories demonstrate sexism in different periods of the twentieth century and in different cultures. The Giaconda marriage was set in the early 1900’s and in Europe. The European marriages in the early 1900’s, especially from the upper class, were “arranged” marriages where they pair up aristocratic families to make alliances. They lacked romance and passion due to the fact that most of them were more business based marriages than those of love. We may not know if the “Giaconda Smile” marriage was a business based but it sure lacked passion and romance, especially because the husband was distant, egotistical and vain. He wanted a perfect trophy wife, but at the same time an interesting person he could use to pass the time. The “Fiesta” marriage and the “Wall of Fire Rising” were from similar cultures, but the one portrayed in “Fiesta” represented sexism in a more typical aspect. The husband cheated on the wife, the children knew, he verbally abused the family and perfectly fit the machismo profile. Machismo is a saying that defines man as superior, but does not label women as inferior. The expected male role in a Dominican household is to be the financial provider and the female role is to be the caretakers. In “Wall of Fire Rising” even though they are a Haitian family, they share the same type of male dominated household. The difference was that the man in “Wall of fire rising” was not abusive