Race, Gender, and Power in Angelou and Cisneros

Introduction

Race and gender are features that often determine access to power in a society. Moreover, race and gender are critical to personal identity formation, just as they locate an individual within the stratifications of society. Authors like Sandra Cisneros and Maya Angelou draw on their personal experiences to critique perceptions of female sexuality, female power, and particularly the power of women of color in America.

Sandra Cisneros's short story "Woman Hollering Creek" is a potent and disturbing tale about a woman's power to give life but also to kill. The story raises serious questions about the role and status of women in society, as well as about the connection between domestic violence and patriarchy. Cisneros also models her modern folk tale after a traditional legend of a woman like her very own protagonist Cleofilas, who kills her children and is forever haunted by her deed. Whereas "Woman Hollering Creek" remains tragic throughout, Maya Angelou's poem "Still I Rise" offers an uplifting and positive message about self-empowerment. "Still I Rise" celebrates black female identity in a culture that is both racist and sexist. Angelou is an African-American author and poet who devoted her career to writing about the black female experience and identity.

Although Cisneros and Angelou use different poetic and literary devices, they make similar statements about race, power, and gender in America. Specifically, Angelou sends her readers an optimistic message of self-empowerment, while Cisneros opts to use the medium of traditional storytelling more as a warning to women about how patriarchy strangles their power and self-reliance. Essentially, both send the same message using different media and different tones.

Intersection of Race, Gender, and Power

The intersection between gender, race, and power is one of the most salient themes in both "Still I Rise" and "Woman Hollering Creek." Cisneros and Angelou both write from the perspective of minority females to convey their central themes. In "Woman Hollering Creek," Cisneros paints a portrait of a woman deeply dissatisfied with her role as housewife because "there isn't very much to do except ... to watch the latest telenovela episode and try to copy the way the women comb their hair, wear their makeup" (p. 220). Cleofilas has been typecast in her stereotypical female role, and her worth is based solely on her relationship with her husband. The author shows how women have few strong role models and thus learn their position in society only from male-dominated discourse.

Cisneros is also concerned with the way patriarchy and sexism can lead to domestic violence, a central theme in "Woman Hollering Creek." Cleofilas muses on other instances in which battered women resorted to violence themselves, foreshadowing her own violent response to patriarchy: "Maximiliano who was said to have killed his wife ... when she came at him with a mop. I had to shoot, he had said — she was armed" (p. 225). As Wyatt (1995) points out, Cleofilas "wrestles with Mexican icons of sexuality and motherhood that, internalized, seem to impose on them a limited and even negative definition of their own identities as women" (p. 243).

Angelou also recognizes that powerful women seem to upset the status quo. "Does my sassiness upset you?" For Angelou, it is important for women to be unafraid of being "sassy," confident, and sure of themselves. Instead of allowing herself to become broken down by patriarchy like Cleofilas, the narrator of "Still I Rise" asks, "Do you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes?" Here, the poet uses the question form to antagonize those who would believe that women — especially women of color — should be subservient. The contrasting fates of the two protagonists illustrate how intersecting forces of race and gender shape a woman's capacity for self-determination.

Literary Form and the Expression of Empowerment

Angelou capitalizes on the form of poetry to convey empowerment, using rhythm and rhyme schemes, whereas Cisneros employs the short story to encapsulate the systemic problem of misogyny. In "Still I Rise," Angelou addresses women's sexuality as a core component of their self-empowerment: "Does my sexiness upset you? / Does it come as a surprise / That I dance like I've got diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs?" The rhyming presents a powerful musicality that parallels the content of the lines about dancing. Furthermore, Angelou's narrator is unafraid to speak frankly about her sexuality. Referring to her female sexuality with the metaphor of diamonds sends a strong message about the intersection between financial empowerment and sexual empowerment. Patriarchy presumes that male sexuality is dominant and normative, leading to problems like rape and domestic violence; an empowered woman knows that her sexuality is just as wealthy and powerful as any man's. Angelou thus subverts patriarchy through her poem.

As Higashida (2011) points out, Angelou's popular success is based on her ability to use the universal form of poetry to show how patriarchy and colonialism share much in common in terms of the abuse of power and systematic oppression. Cisneros, by contrast, uses the short story to establish the primary themes of the indigenous legend "Woman Hollering Creek." It is significant that Cisneros chooses the storytelling format, which traditionally allowed women to hold positions of power in their communities as repositories and transmitters of cultural knowledge (Garcia, 2014). The author ironically juxtaposes the traditional art of storytelling — used to preserve cultural identity — with the "stories" in the news about domestic violence. As Cisneros writes, "Was Cleofilas just exaggerating as her husband always said? It seemed the newspapers were full of such stories" (p. 225). In a patriarchal culture, men become blind to systemic violence, and the storytelling form itself becomes an act of resistance.

Conclusion

Multiple forms of literature can convey similar themes related to the intersection between race, gender, and power. Using the medium of poetry, Maya Angelou sends a powerful message about how women of color can uplift themselves simply by feeling strong and refusing to bow down to patriarchal social norms. Using the medium of the short story, Cisneros warns her readers of what can happen when women succumb to social pressures.

Cisneros's story is based on a traditional narrative about La Llorona, the crying woman who can still be heard at the titular Woman Hollering Creek. Like the legend, Cleofilas kills her own children as a sign of her ultimate despair. Instead of directing her anger at patriarchy, she internalizes it. Cisneros therefore warns readers against failing to stand up for themselves, while Angelou shows the rewards that come to those who do. Together, the two works demonstrate that literary form — whether poetry or short story — is never merely aesthetic; it is itself a vehicle for political and social meaning.

References

Angelou, M. (n.d.). Still I rise. Poem. Retrieved from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/still-i-rise

Cisneros, S. (n.d.). Woman hollering creek. Retrieved from

Garcia, A. (2014). Politics and indigenous theory in Leslie Marmon Silko's "Yellow Woman" and Sandra Cisneros' "Woman Hollering Creek." In Folklore, Literature and Cultural Theory. Routledge.

Higashida, C. (2011). Reading Maya Angelou, reading black international feminism today. In Black International Feminism. University of Illinois Press.

Wyatt, J. (1995). On not being La Malinche. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, 14(2), 243–271.