Chapters 3,4, I & II of Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera - Essay Example

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Chapter 3 & 4 In the preceding chapters, Anzaldua still uses intersperse of poems and essays. In the whole book, the author tries to describe the “New Mestiza” by examining her life, her land and her people’s language. While readers are attempting to suggest that her definition of “borderlands” in her writing refer to the physical barrier between Mexico and America, a scrutiny defines the psychological, sexual and spiritual barriers that dominate her society.

In chapter three, the author largely examines the goddess and religion. Later, discussions shift to how Mary became idolized and trace the existence of other religious figures. Also emerging in this chapter is how she brings unity among her people. As the chapter ends, Anzaldua presents the story of how a white woman would follow people who did bad things. In chapter four, Anzaldua still advances her theme of religion and the influence of the spirit in people’s actions. Symbolically she uses the mirror as a portico to the spirit humanity.

In as much as Anzaldua presents the nature of religion, spirituality, and duality in these readings, several thematic questions remain unanswered by her assertions. (Anzaldúa) Firstly, in chapter three she claims a woman in white follows people who do bad things, what is the significance of this woman and her actions? When she claims that her mom covered the mirrors, how and why did she do that? In conclusion, I find these chapters as symbolical in every aspect of the author’s creation. She presents a woman figure as a tool of unity in a male dominated culture.

Her duality ideas in chapter four is a symbolical expression of someone yearning to be inside her culture but still uncomfortable once inside it perhaps due to the existing “borderlines”. Work citedAnzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands - La Frontera: The New Mestiza. 2nd. San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books, 1999.