Omar Sigfrido Castañeda was born on September 6, 1954 in
Castañeda was an award-winning writer, earning such prestigious honors as an Ernest Hemingway fellowship, a Critchfield Research Award, a Fulbright Central American Research Grant (during which he wrote Among the Volcanoes), and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Some of his work reflects the magic realism style so popular in
Castañeda died of a heroin overdose in January 1997. He was a professor of writing at
INTRODUCTION:
For a number of years already, there has been an unending clamor for women’s equality to men. Women continue to claim for every social freedom, advantage, and opportunity enjoyed by men. Although numerous women around the world have achieved such desire they crave, it is still a fact that there are a number of women who are trapped in the dark dungeon of oppressive patriarchal society. Women marginalization remains a poignant issue in some societies until now.
Such oppression is reflected even in many literary materials such as Castañeda’s Among the Volcanoes. This is where feminist literary critics came into existence.
Feminist critics largely agree on three-fold purpose: to expose patriarchal premises and resulting prejudices, to promote discovery and reevaluation of literature by women, and to examine social, cultural, and psychosexual contexts of literature and criticism. Feminist literary critics try to explain how what they term engendered power imbalances in a given culture are reflected, supported, or challenged by literary critics. Feminist critics focus on the absence of women from discourse as well as meaningful spaces opened by women’s discourse (Guerin, 1992).
Many critics have come into scene working in a greater variety of areas. Elaine Showalter’s divisions of types of feminist criticism have been influential. She identifies four models of differences used in theories of women’s writing: the biological, linguistic, psychoanalytic, and cultural. The last one is considered by many feminist theorists as a model that offers a more complete way of talking about the difference of women’s writing because it plays feminist concerns in social contexts. The female psyche as a construction of cultural forces acknowledges class, racial, national, historical differences, and determinants among women but offers a collective experience that unites women over time and spaces – “a binding force”(Guerin, 1992).
This analysis attempts to employ Showalter’s cultural model of difference. Specifically, it uses two types of contemporary feminism which Ruthven has identified within Showalter’s cultural context: (a) sociofeminism, which studies the role of women in literature and (b) Marxist Feminism which views women as members of the oppressed working class.
Vis-à-vis with Allen’s view, it could be deduced that Castañeda’s Among the Volcanoes as a representative literature that features a holistic portrayal of Mayan culture in Guatemala, reveals patriarchy and a male dominance which undermines women belonging to such type of society.
“A girl was more burden than asset until she becomes a woman … (p. 64).” This statement gives us a synthesis of the poignant issue of marginalization and discrimination of women in the culture – bound society of the Mayans in
Among the Volcanoes recounts us a story of a young adolescent Isabel Pacay who longs to go to school and dreams to become a teacher. However, in the society where she belongs, these dreams seem not to be possible for her age of fourteen, their tradition expects her to marry her boyfriend Lucas Choy. Further, she is also expected to take care of her ill mother. Things get even more complicated when her boyfriend becomes cold to her after Isabel’s acquaintance to Allan Walters, an American medical student, who intends to help Isabel’s mother. She then discovers that her boyfriend’s coldness is due to her best friend Teresa (who secretly loves her boyfriend) who has been telling Lucas lies that Isabel does not want to marry him and exploiting his insecurities and jealousies about the American student. Isabel resolves the conflict by deciding to marry her boyfriend but asks him to promise that they will try to find a way for her to be both wife and teacher. He cannot see a way but he agrees that they will try. She is thrilled.
The novel primarily depicts the culture of the Mayans in a small Guatemalan village and largely revolves around the role and identity of women in the poor
At the onset of the author’s narration, he establishes the setting of the story.
“She went gingerly down the dirt avenue from her family’s hut and towards the lake’s age … with the slowness of the dawn, the small homes of few hundred families were completely revealed … (p. 1-2)”
Through these lines, the author provides poverty as the story’s backdrop. This latency of the village and its dragging economic condition could be attributed to the people’s traditional mindedness resulting to “the cultural isolation of the Indians which accordingly brought about their underpresentation in the national life (Britanica Encyclopedia).” Subsequently, such economic condition extremely affects, most especially, the existence of women in Chuui Chopalo especially considering the division of classes in such society – the Indians which pertain to the Native Guatemala and are the ones who are suffering from extreme privation and the Ladinoswhich refer to the wealthy families of the village who are mixed Mayans and Hispanic.
In the light of this class division among the villagers of this Mayan community, Marxist Feminist argues that women belonging to the proletariat are the ones who are profoundly oppressed. “Woman is being rooted in nature; she is enslaved to the species than is the male (Beauvoir, 1986).”
Isabel suffers much as she is one of those unfortunate Indians. She longs to go to school and become a teacher yet “in families like Isabel’s, the idea was ridiculous. These families needed the children for hard work in the coffee and corn fields. Usually, it was the wealthiest families or the Ladino families – mixed Mayan and Hispanic – that allowed their children to continue and become teachers (p. 14).”Moreover, as the eldest daughter, her burdens pile up even more.
In the commencement of the novel, Isabel spies her father. She finds her father dong some ritual and sacrifices to the gods. What frightens Isabel is that her father’s prayer is meant for her:
Lord God, Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth
Give my daughter strength, give her courage
To not err, to not make a false step… (p. 8 & 9)
Her father’s idea that Isabel would commit mistake emanated from Isabel’s great desire to study and become a teacher which is a deviation from their culture since, in their society, a girl of Isabel’s age who belongs to the low class family is expected to find a partner and settle into marriage or if not, she’ll remain a burden of the family and will be forever trapped serving her family.
Taking the feminist view in action, this is an apparent marginalization of women. Isabel’s brother (Jose) who does not like to study and opt to do farming is encouraged by his parents to take proper education, while Isabel, who prefers to study rather than being enslaved in the house, as a woman, she is compelled to do the house chores and remain stagnated.
In existentialist terms, according to Beauvoir, patriarchy constructs woman as immanence (as stagnation and immersion in nature) and man as transcending (as continually striving for freedom and authenticity) thereby impending woman’s struggle to achieve existential freedom and autonomous subjectivity.
Let us further our understanding with Beauvoir’s point on woman’s immanence in a patriarchal society by taking these lines where Isabel has had a conversation with two married women of her age, teasing and taunting Isabel with questions as to why she was waiting so long to marry (p 65 – 56).
“Become a woman,” they urged.
“Perhaps she doesn’t know what fun it is to be married.”
“Tell her
“Where should I begin?”
“There’s endless pleasure.”
“Well, she knows about washing clothes.”
“And she knows about cooking.”
“Surely she knows about working from dusk till dawn while men are asleep.”
“And she knows about taking care of children.”
These lines illuminate to us the laborious tasks and roles portrayed by women in this male dominated society. Beauvoir, one of the leading feminist theorists, believes that what women do - childbearing, motherhood, housework, as immanent. Such tasks forfeit women to acquire ultimate independence and spread their wings into higher horizon. Beauvoir’s contention does not necessarily imply that women should do away from marriage and motherhood, but, that the holistic development of a woman does not solely rely on these aspects. These of course, are contributing factors of a woman’s growth and development. But marginalizing her role into such tasks only is a different story. Womanhood is not only about becoming a wife and a mother. There are even more things outside the four corners of the house which woman should venture so as to attain growth of her entire aspects.
The lines of the two married women in their conversation with Isabel also lead us to interpret that they are seemingly enjoying what they’re doing – their immanent roles – unable to detect that they’re trapped on a concrete fence created by the patriarchal society. They seem to believe that this is really where they’re destined to. Such behaviors of women who are blinded with this kind of notion are explained by Beauvoir. She concludes that such situation as the Mayan women makes a woman liable to her subjugation. She is not entirely innocent of her oppression. Her physiological nature or societal function is very complex that she herself submits to it as to some rigmarole from outside. More so, her body does not seem to her to be a clear expression; within it, she is a total stranger to herself.
Amidst this women’s situation in such society, men on the other hand seem to have shut their minds completely that they pay no heed to this women’s predicament. For instance, men are asleep while their wives were working like slaves (p. 66). They don’t even bother to extend a hand. Men’s numbness is also conspicuous in their eating culture. This is shown during which Isabel and her little sister Marcelina were ought to attend to some obligations while the three men in the family were busy smacking the foods which they have prepared for them, having no slight inclination to invite the girls to eat with them (p. 40). Moreover, Eziquel, the town’s healer seems to be insensitive of Isabel’s feelings and circumstances when he uttered, “Fortunately, you have such a strong daughter to help you when you’re ill (p. 38).” This could hardly be taken as a compliment but a manifestation how Eziquel is inconsiderate to Isabel’s feelings – her sufferings – considering only the advantages the family gets from Isabel oblivious of Isabel’s miseries as she sheepishly chokes herself with such obligations.
The feministic approach sheds us light as regards these attitudes of men in response to women’s role in the society. “Men need not bother themselves with alleviating the pains and burdens that physiologically women’s lot since they are intended by nature; men use them as a pretext for instance … by making her work like beast of burden (Beauvoir). More so, this has been what the feminist argued to be women’s reduction into objects for men. Because men imagined women as the ‘Other’ – who would do everything in their behalf, thereafter, women have been denied subjectivity and that men are unable to penetrate her special experience through any working sympathy.
As the story progresses, Mayan prejudices to women adjudging her as more sinful than men is also palpable in the novel.
“It was customary for men to wait outside until the women filled the front rows. Later, when word came that father Ordoña had really arrived, they would sit the furthest rows, even if there were empty pews between women and men. Father Ordoña would enter the small room to the side of the church and hold guide confessions before mass. Except for those with altar boys, these confessions were all with women (p. 97).”
That Mayan men gives way to women in taking the first rows is arguably out of thoughtfulness. Simple logic would tell us that women should take the first rows because they are the ones who needed the priest’s sermons the most. They are in fact deemed to have committed more sins than men and are more susceptible to committing sin. This idea is supported with having the confessions with the priest made exclusive for women which could be interpreted that men are more immaculate than women.
Zooming into the history of the Mayans, the self sacrifice of a young man to absolve the sins of his people (just as how Jesus Christ suffered in the cross in order to exonerate our sins), appeared in the earliest tradition of the Quetzalcoatl on the erstwhile Mayans (Brown, Angels and Demons).
Feminists debate that in a patriarchal culture like that of the Mayans, man is the norm and woman is the deviation. Man is the accepted standard – man is the authoritative model while women are departure of the accepted behavior. This contention is salient in the above religious tradition of the Mayans.
Feminists further contend that since man occupies a privileged situation in this world, he is in a position to show his love and all his other emotions actively and explicitly. Take this conversation for example:
“I don’t know why he (Lucas) should be angry,” said Isabel.
“HE’S A MAN THAT’S WHY (P. 56),” Teresa replied.
This goes to show that since they’re men, whether or not their anger is reasonable, they can freely express it. If women would do such, she is a deviant.
During the time also that Isabel kissed Lucas in public, she was condemned by the villagers. Juxtaposed, somehow, even until now, here in the
The novel reached its climax when Isabel’s mother becomes severe but resisted medical treatment. Her boyfriend is also getting cold towards her. These perplexities led to Isabel’s realization that her dreams are hills like white elephants. The author resolves the story with Isabel blaming herself for all these shortcomings she and the people around her are suffering.
“Isabel felt the worst symptom of this ending lay in the deterioration of her relationship with Lucas. So much was in ruin, so much in private desperation that Isabel becomes convinced that everything – her mother’s illness … Lucas’ final word to her – all of it was entirely her fault. She had caused it all by thinking selfishly, by turning away from what was expected of her, by being convinced that she should be an exception to the volcanic forces that smelted people into acceptable molds (p. 158).
To this account, the male author tries to conclude that women, that Isabel, could never escape from their culture and social realities. Just like most women in their society, she’ll be forever trapped as a woman who will yield to her culture - to marry and become a mother confined in the house. As what the novel’s title suggests, she (Isabel) would be among those women ensnared within their traditional society (which literally is surrounded by numerous volcanoes). She could never go against their patriarchal society.
The story ended with Isabel deciding to marry her boyfriend. To a modern feminist, marriage is an institution developed to establish and maintain male supremacy.
CONCLUSION:
In this novel, Castañeda offers a portrayal of male and female roles in a Mayan society where he once belongs scrutinizing their various positions while harshly indicating their boundaries especially women. With the male author’s treatment of his woman characters in this literary context – urging the readers to believe that women are too weak to go against male superiority – this novel could be regarded as one of those literary material considered by feminists to be a result of a male – biased research in a patriarchal context.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Castañeda, Omar (1991). Among the Volcanoes.
Press Inc.
Brown, Dan (2000). Angels and Demons.
Press Inc.
Guerin, Wilfred et. al (1992). A Handbook of Critical Approaches
to Literature.
Paula Gunn Allen: “Kochinnenako in Academe: Three Approaches to
Interpreting a Keres Indian Tale” from The Norton Anthology
of Literary Theory & Criticism edited by Vincent B. Leitch
© 2001 by W.W Norton &Company, Inc.
Simone de Beauvoir: “The Second Sex” from The Norton Anthology of
Literary Theory & Criticism edited by Vincent B. Leitch
© 2001 by W.W Norton &Company, Inc.
Omar Sigfrido Castañeda
<http://www.wikipedia.com/Omar_Sigfrido_Castañeda>
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