In 'The Hungry Woman,' an apocalyptic play written at the end of the millennium, Moraga uses mythology and an intimate realism to describe the embattled position of Chicanos and Chicanas, not only in the United States but in relation to one another. View MoragaThe Hungry Woman.pdf from THE 1041 at Baruch College, CUNY. r '-O(o. The Hungry Woman A Mexican Medea by Cherrie Moraga j 1. v- Version based on Stanford University.
I thought it would be interesting as we are discussing the literary technique of the uncanny and The Hungry Woman,which partially stems from the Mexican urban legend of La Llorona, as a springboard to compare it to another American folklore legend of “Bloody Mary”. There are many similarities to both stories and their ultimate cultural admonition but what I found in each was their use of mirrors as a reflection of something supernaturally skewed from reality.
- The Hungry Woman, Cherrie Moraga Jason Tattoo The hungry woman or read online here in PDF. In The Hungry Woman, an apocalyptic play written at the end of the millennium, Moraga uses mythology and an intimate realism to describe the embattled position of Chicanos and Chicanas, not only in the United States but in relation to each other.
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There are many different variations of the story of La Llorona but one in particular has become one that stands out above the rest. A young Indian woman becomes infatuated with a Spaniard who is a part of higher society. His opinion of her lower status becomes a reason he won’t marry her. She births three children by him but he still cuts all ties. In order to win his affection, she drowns the three children one by one in the lake but he still refuses her. Her actions lead her to madness and her spirit is said to represent “death and misfortune”.
The most popular version of the legend of “Bloody Mary” is said to have stemmed from Queen Mary I of England who was cursed from numerous miscarriages and false pregnancies. The legend says that people stand in front of a mirror and chant the name “Bloody Mary” numerous times until she appears behind covered in blood.
One of the main things I took from both legends is the identity of women in both stories. They are represented as destructible, vengeful, and temperamental women who should be feared and avoided. With the discussion of doubling in the uncanny in literature, I found it noteworthy that this author made the connection between mirrors in connection to Bloody Mary, and the reflective nature of the lake to La Llorona. Both have the supernatural feeling of gloom and perpetual dread. They also both share a connection with eyes, which are also a form of reflection. La Llorona’s eyes, in some versions of the legend are deformed because of all the crying she has endured over the loss of her children and the loss of her lover. In the case of Bloody Mary, she has been said to scratch the eyes out of anyone who dares look directly at her.
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In The Hungry Woman, we are first introduced to the character of Medea in a psychiatric ward. She is driven to madness after her exile for being a lesbian and an ex Revolutionary in a dystopian society. The very first introduction has the stage directions including a mirror: “MEDEA is downstage, looking directly into a one-way mirror through which all activities in the psychiatric ward can be observed” (Moraga 10). The mirror represents a glimpse into her soul and as a literal representation of the actions she has taken and the consequences of those choices. Mirrors are described again as a mediatory of her past and present: “She abandons the breakfast, crosses back to the wall of mirror, examines her face” (Moraga 11). Mirrors are in the middle of her present conditions in the ward and her past reflections in Arizona. These stage directions are pivotal and can be easily passed over if not examined closely. Medea is in a state of self-reflection in her time in the ward. She has nothing to do except sit with her choices in life and deal with them in her own way. That’s why a mirror literally and figuratively separates her past and her present situation: “(At the mirror) My chin is dropping … One morning I’ll open my eyes and the shades will be drawn permanently” (Moraga 12). Mirrors offer her a glimpse into the woman she has become.
All of these women act out of pure emotion and suffer the consequences of their actions. The reflective nature of a mirror plays a huge part in all their stories and add an uncanny element of distortion.
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Works Cited:
“Bloody Mary and La Llorona”. California Folklore. N.p. 1 Aug. 2007. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
Moraga, Cherrie L. The Hungry Woman. Albuquerque: West End Press, 2001. Print.
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