Esperanza and Capitu as Young Wives and Young Women - Essay Example

? of the of the Submitted Epseranza and Capitu as Young Wives and Young Women Q. Compare and contrast the character Esperanza from “Let it Rain Coffee” and the character Capitu from “Dom Casmurro” by Joaquim Maria Machado De Assis as young women and as young wives. What is their overall role in their respective novels? Introduction Life is all about challenges, some material and some moral. It is how we face these challenges that determine our eventual destiny. Both in Angie Cruz’s Let it Rain Coffee (2005) and Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis’s Dom Cassmuro (1998), the authors have invented strong female protagonists (or co-protagonists) that are the focus of these stories and how they react to the happenings around them. In the course of these novels, significant causes for comparison and contrast emerge between the portrayal of Esperanza Colon and Capitu as young wives and young women, as they take these stories to their eventual conclusion. Discussion Let it Rain Coffee is all about how an immigrant family has to face a series of problems on immigrating to New York from the Dominican Republic. It is a story about the harsh realities of life, and shows that dreams are much harder to achieve than in reality. Epseranza Colon, the protagonist, a young wife and mother of two children, dreams of moving to New York from the Dominican Republic in order to live the American Dream. She cannot help being overawed by life in America as seen through the US TV channels, and saves up dutifully to achieve her aspirations. Finally the day dawns when she can flee to New York, and it is agreed that her family will follow later. All goes according to plan and she is joined by her husband, Santo, and their two children, Bobby and Dallas. Santo's widowed father, Don Chan, also joins the household ten years later. In New York, Don Chan is full of nostalgia for his political past in the Dominican Republic. Don Chan has always been disappointed that his son married the daughter of supporters of the brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo. He himself was a fan of Miraluz Natera, whose passion for change after Trujillo's assassination equalled his own. Suddenly things begin to go downhill for the Colon family. It all starts when Santo is murdered in his cab, then Don Chan loses his grip on reality. As if that were not enough, Dallas with her neighbourhood friend Hush goes through the tricky waters of adolescence and Bobby inadvertently becomes involved in a shooting after which is sent to a juvenile detention facility. It is getting all too much for Esperanza Colon to bear and she inadvertently blames herself for all that has taken place. When yet another tragedy occurs, they all return to the Dominican Republic, where each family member finds some measure of peace. While the book would seem a bit critical of the USA the point that the author is trying to establish is that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence and that we should think twice before making any big decisions in life. Sometimes we will feel it was not worth the risk, especially when things are falling apart like it unfortunately did for this family. Nevertheless the author Angie Cruz's stark yet sympathetic account of immigrant struggles in the USA makes this book a real eye opener. First published in 1899, Dom Casmurro is one of the great unrecognized classics of the turn of the 20th century by Machado de Assis, one of Brazil's greatest writers. It is an extraordinary love story between Bento and Capitu, childhood sweethearts who grow up next door to each other in Rio de Janeiro in the 1850s. The author was a known critic of realism and therefore writes in a deceptive style that communicates directly with the reader. His themes explore the hidden realities of socially conservative Brazil in the 19th century. In Dom Casmurro, the author Machado de Assis explores the themes of marriage and adultery. His suspicions of his wife’s infidelity destroy the relationship with his wife and son. Dom Casmurro or ‘tight-lipped man’ is the name given to him by a neighbourhood kid on the street considering his demeanour. It is a reflection on this that one day prompts Bento to open up his heart and memories and blurt it all out. The story is narrated by Bento who suspects that his wife Capitu had a relationship with his best friend Escobar. A large part of the book is written in first person. The reader is thus captivated right from the first paragraph with this scenic representation of a love ritual. “A palm tree, seeing me troubled and divining the cause, murmured in its branches that there was nothing wrong with fifteen-year old boys getting into corners with girls of fourteen; quite the contrary, youths of that age have no other function, and corners were made for that very purpose. It was an old palm-tree, and I believed in old palm-trees even more than in old books. Birds, butterflies, a cricket trying out its summer song, all the living things of the air were of the same opinion" (Machado de Assis, 1). The narration is in a style that is tender yet true, unashamed and unrepentant. The story forwards to a memorable Sunday when the news that his friend Escobar has drowned reaches Bento. Attending the funeral, Dom Casmurro notices a tear in Capitu’s eyes. He cannot free himself from suspicion and jealousy and suspects that Capitu? has betrayed him with his best friend. The supposed affair is made more plausible by the fact that there is indeed some physical similarity between Escobar and Bento’s son. “Capitu? and I, involuntarily, glanced at the photograph of Escobar, and then at each other. This time her confusion was pure confession. They were one; there must have been some photograph of Escobar as a little boy which would be our little Ezekiel” (Machado de Assis, 264). He refuses to believe otherwise and Capitu is forced to live a live on her own with their son. Many regard this work as a critique of Catholicism by the author, in which God is put into the role of a divine accountant whose ledgers may be balanced in devious as well as pious ways. Dom Cassmuro is also a story about love and its obstacles, deception and self-deception, and the failure of memory to make life's beginning fit neatly into its ending. No wonder critics have put it on a footing comparable to Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary and the Scarlet Letter for its unhesitant portrayal of adultery. Conclusion We can see that both in Let it Rain Coffee and Dom Cassamuro, the authors have put Esperanza and Capitu in the eye of the storm, having to take the blame for what has happened, and be guilt due to real or imagined crimes. Works Cited Cruz, Angie: Let it Rain Coffee: A Novel. Simon & Schuster, 2005. Machado de Assis, Joaqium: Dom Casmurro: A Novel. Oxford University Press, 1998. Read More