Respond to these two comments1. In Sandra Cisneros’ Never Marry a Mexican there are elements of Realism in her style of writing. The short story is focused on one character named Clemencia in which she narrates mainly the negative aspect of her life, starting with the cultural difference between her mother and father and to the relationships that never worked out. By definition realist characters are psychologically complicated, multifaceted, and with conflicting impulses, and most of these characteristics fit the main character Clemencia. For example, on page 184, the narrator said, “Once, drunk on margaritas, I telephoned your father at four in the morning, woke the bitch up” (Cineros 184). She calls man she is having an affair with in the middle of the night just to create conflict with the man’s wide. This shows the impulsiveness of her character and that she makes rash decisions that creates conflict in the story. Furthermore, realism has a different focus on social class which was mentioned on page 181 when the narrator said “I don’t belong to any class. Not to the poor, whose neighborhood I share. Not to the rich, who come to my exhibitions and buy my work. Not to the middle class from which my sister Ximena and I fled” (Cineros 181). This establishes the character as an individual who is in between social classes and that was one of the things that sort of motivated and shaped her as a character. Overall, the author Sandra Cisneros should be considered a realist when analyzing her short story Never Marry a Mexican for her depiction of the main character.
2. The shot story Never Marry a Mexican should be considering a romantic movement because of melancholic point of view about marriage that comes from the author. The disappointment towards marriage started with all her intimate partners, and the type of relationship they held. None of them were official nor public relationship since all of her previous companions had already an existent partner, in the public eyes, while the author lived in the shadows hidden from any other pair of eyes “Unzipped and unhooked and agreed to clandestine maneuvers. I’ve been accomplice, committed premeditated crimes” (Cisneros 179). If a man had an existing partner, why would there be the need of a unknow second one? In my point of view, this was the moral question the author asked herself every time guilty knocked at her door. Romanticism is a mindset in a way of a feeling, and the author created hers based on the past relationships she experienced. Cisneros expresses her desires of a so called “normal romantic experience,” whit all the delightful feeling this one would bring to her, and the absences of fear from the public opinion when she said “I admit, there was a time when all I wanted was to belong to a man. To wear that gold band on my left hand and be worn on his arms like an expensive jewel brilliant in the light of day” (Cisneros 179). However, this feeling becomes a lie when the insincere men decide to have a second life, which trigs the author’s repudiation towards a fake happiness called marriage. Marriage meaning varies from person to person depending in the environment and experiences lived, such as the case of Cisneros with her intimidated partners or her own parents during the course of the story. Her blur memories about a marriage gave her the romantic mindset of avoiding marriage as she said at the very beginning of the story “So, no. I’ve never married and never will” (Cisneros 179).
