Latin Women Pray vs. Things Cheaply Had

1057 Words5 Pages
Oppression Women from all different countries have experienced some sort of oppression at one point in time. Up until the 1920’s, the nineteenth amendment did not exist and women had no ability to vote in America. Judith Ortiz Cofer from Puerto Rico and Taslima Nasrin from Bangladesh both wrote about how the oppression of women affected them and the society around them. “Latin Women Pray” and “Things Cheaply Had” have many similarities and differences, however the women in both poems do not have corresponding views about their oppression. Submission is the main downfall of both of these groups of women. Although they may have different views on why or how they are tyrannized, it still all boils down to one word; oppression. For example: in the poem “Latin Women Pray,” these women feel as though their god is “unmoved by their persistent prayers” (line 10) and that he “looks down upon his brown daughters” (line 7) simply because they are of Latin descent, not white like their so called “Anglo God”. In “Things Cheaply Had” the Bengali women essentially define the word “oppression;” they are described so poorly that their status is lower than that of a mangy dog. They will even “lick feet for seventy days or so” (line 10) in order to receive gifts from men such as soap or a new nose jewel. These women are so “cheaply had” because they live their lives in order to impress the men in their patriarchal society and not to live their own independent lives. Oppression may be the leading cause of distress in these women’s lives, but the levels of oppression for each is drastically different. The setting of each of these poems plays a huge role in the amount of oppression each group is experiencing. In “Latin Women Pray” the women are in Puerto Rico praying to a white statue of Jesus. One may ask why Jesus would be portrayed as a white man in such a place that is mostly

More about Latin Women Pray vs. Things Cheaply Had

Open Document