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Nourah Shaishtar
Susana Marcelo
CAS113B
May 5 2015
The Role of Men and Women in The Good Cripple
In the novel, The Good Cripple, the author Rodrigo Ray Rosa does not portray
women in stereotypical ways, but instead shows them to be full and complex characters
capable of making their own decisions. Women such as Ana Lucia, for example, show
that they are bold and outspoken characters who are not afraid to go against the
stereotypical ideas that society holds about them and women in general. This is
important, especially in a society as conservative as Guatemalan society which often
views women as weak, easily taken advantage of, and always in need of a man. Also, she
shows that she is bold and outspoken, not weak and submissive; therefore, in many
respects, is different from the stereotypical woman. Demonstrating that she is more than
just a stereotype is difficult; of course, especially since many women in the conservative
Guatemalan society in which Ana Lucia lives are unable to show who they really are
precisely because they have been made to conform to a very specific idea of who they
should be. No doubt this is unfortunate, and it is interesting to note that, although the
limitations are different, when limitations are placed on women as they are in this novel,
limitations are also placed on men. In other words, if women must, by social standards,
act in a certain way, men are, by extension, forced to act in certain ways as well.
Nevertheless, by creating a strong female characters as evidenced by Ana Lucia, Rosa
shows that some women can rise above social limitations while, at the same time,
demonstrating that some men – specifically, Juan Luis Luna – can do similarly.
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At various points in the short novel, Ana Lucia, Juan Luis’s girlfriend, shows that
she is more than just a stereotype, and therefore does not have to act in stereotypical
ways. In particular, she is independent and assertive, and not afraid to say what she is
thinking even if she knows that others, and mostly men, are not going to like what they
hear. For example, when Ana Lucia is speaking to Don Carlos, the wealthy and
influential father of Juan Carlos, she tells him that she would not tolerate Juan Carlos
joining the family business because she does not believe that the business is honorable.
“Deep down inside Don Carlos had not given up the fight, and he believed that it was not
too late to make an honorable man out of his son. But that was not how she [Ana Lucia]
saw it – not when ‘honorable’ was synonymous with being married and in the business”
(35). Speaking up against Don Carlos is a tough decision to make, especially since he is
powerful and he is well connected. Moreover, Don Carlos is wealthy, and it is likely that
if Juan Carlos were to join the business he, too, would become wealthy. Ana Lucia,
however, knows that to join the family business is wrong, and she does not want to put
herself in a position in which she is forced to behave, or have her potential future
husband behave, in ways that she might find wrong or immoral. In other words, Ana
Lucia is a strong woman who is not shy about stating what is on her mind, even if what
she has to say will cause problems between Don Carlos and her. Aside from this, by
making it clear that she does not want Juan Carlos to join the business, Ana Lucia shows
that she is capable of not only thinking for herself – why, she must wonder, would she
want to be with someone who is not honorable – but that she is even willing to risk her
happiness with Juan Carlos to fight for what believes in. In the end, in this brief
interaction with Don Carlos, Ana Lucia shows that she is an independent and moral
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woman who is perfectly capable of deciding what she wants for herself without any
outside help.
Most women in Guatemalan society would likely not have said anything,
preferring to keep quiet and stay out of family problems that do not concern them. This
claim is supported by Dan Sadowsky who, writing about a 2005 survey conducted by a
MercyCorps, an international development organization, reports that nearly half of all
respondents to the survey “agreed that the ideal woman [was] meek, docile, sweet, and
submissive” (2). The characteristics that a large portion of Guatemalan men find
attractive in a women are ones that allow them, the men, to be dominant. Put differently,
based off of this survey, it can be argued that Guatemalan society is clearly patriarchal
given that, as women are generally expected to act in ways that are weak, men, on the
other hand, are expected to act in ways that are dominant. Likely then, men must be
aggressive, strong, and controlled, all characteristics that are opposite to those which the
ideal Guatemalan woman is supposed to possess. Referencing the previous scene
between Don Carlos and Ana Lucia reinforces just how different Ana Lucia is from the
ideal Guatemala woman as she, rather impressively, stands up to Don Carlos even though
she must know that doing so goes against nearly everything that she has seen and
experienced in her own society. Don Carlos, for one, knows that Ana Lucia’s behavior is
not normal as, ultimately, he “stopped inviting her to lunch in his house, as he often used
to; whether they met he always seemed to be extremely busy or would come up with
some excuse to keep from talking to her” (35). Don Carlos, as is evident, wants nothing
to do with a woman who is going voice her opinion and beliefs, and so he makes every
attempt possible to keep away from her. Likely, Don Carlos feels threatened by Ana
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Lucia as he wants to be the one who makes the rules and who is in charge. Now,
however, he must compete with another person – a woman – and rather than do this, and
perhaps embarrass himself, he just chooses to ignore her.
A second example demonstrating Ana Lucia’s strong character occurs later in the
novel when mention is made of her desire for a strong education. Education is one of the
main ways in which both men and women are able to rise above their circumstances, but
when a man does not want a strong woman and, instead, prefers to have a weak and
submissive one, an education can be seen as threatening. Still, Ana Lucia does not care
what men think about her, a point made clear from her interaction with Don Carlos, and
she knows that, in the end, she must do what is right for her and her alone. As a result,
Ana Lucia desires to go to the Universidad Francisco Marroquin so that she can “study
anthropology…and take private classes in one of the Mayan languages, maybe Mam or
Kekchi,” (83) and is able to convince Juan Luis to move with her to study. In a
patriarchal society like the one in Guatemala, many women are not given the opportunity
to study since it is thought that the proper role of the woman is inside the household
taking care of the husband and children. Supporting this conclusion is Nineth
Montenegro who writes that “the situation of Guatemalan girls is also precarious. In
education, dropout rates are as high as 81 per cent in rural areas and 51 per cent in urban
areas. Only 17 of every 100 girls complete primary school, and in rural areas 66 per cent
of them drop out of school before completing the third grade” (2). Montenegro’s
research not only shows just how difficult the situation regarding female education in
Guatemala is, but also serves to emphasize how independent a woman Ana Lucia is.
After all, according to the stereotypical thinking, while the woman stays home and
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attends to the domestic life, the man must take on the financial responsibility of providing
for his family. For this reason, a woman’s education is not important since she will just
be in the home and will never have any real use for her education. By desiring to go to
the university, Ana Lucia shows that she will not be confined by limited gender roles, and
it seems likely that, upon graduation, she would even consider entering the job market,
again showing that she is willing to do away with stereotypes and act in the way that
makes her happiest.
It is highly unlikely that, if Juan Luis believed that men should be stronger than
women, that he would have even let Ana Lucia dream about getting an education once
they returned to Guatemala from abroad. As the narrator states, Ana Lucia and Juan Luis
“went back to Guatemala, full of enthusiasm, each with a dream” (83). Since Ana Lucia
is not restricted by the inequality of male-female gender roles, she is able to dream in a
way that is unique and individual. In other words, Ana Lucia does not have to share Juan
Luis’s dream or anyone else’s, and so is able to focus on her desires and her wants
without sacrifice. Of course, there is an argument to be made that this way of thinking is
selfish since Ana Lucia is, after all, in a relationship, and any relationship, if it is to last,
must involve some amount of compromise on the part of both the man and woman.
However, what this argument fails to consider is that, in a patriarchal society, women are
not allowed to have their own dreams, and if they are, these dreams are kept private and
hardly ever realized. Dreams, like education, are threatening to men in a patriarchal
society because if a woman is allowed to dream enough, she may eventually try to live
out her dreams. Living out her dreams may, of course, lead this woman to conclude that
the man she is only an obstacle to these dreams, and therefore she may choose to leave
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him. In other words, a woman who dreams is a woman who is one step closer to
becoming independent since dreams can pull people in directions that they might not ever
thought about going in. Fortunately, with Juan Luis Ana Lucia does not have to worry
about dreaming as she know that he will support her in what she does. In the end, it is not
just Ana Lucia, but Juan Carlos, too, who has a dream and, as shown by the quote, this
dream is not necessarily the same for each of them.
When women are allowed to express themselves fully without worrying about the
ways in which society might view them, men are also able to break out of restricting
stereotypes. In the earlier pages of the novel, Don Carlos is described as a “unusually
vital and ruddy…[a] lustful man…[with] an element of sensuality in everything he did”
who “on the strength of his money and his affability…emerged from a murky past into
the most luminous social spheres” (39). From this brief description, much can be said
about Don Carlos and, as an extension, the stereotypical ways in which men are supposed
to behave. For one, the adjectives that Rosa uses to describe Don Carlos – “vital” and
“ruddy” – serve to emphasize the fact that. despite being seventy years old, he is still very
much alive, a positive fact no doubt, but one that, with the addition of the word “lustful”
and the phrase “an element of sensuality,” demonstrate that Don Carlos is not only a man,
but a man’s man, a central element in the whole machismo idea. Put differently, one
might assume that at the age of seventy Don Carlos is not thinking about sex as much as
he might have been when he was younger and, certainly, one would not expect for
everything Don Carlos did to be full of sexuality. Portraying Don Carlos in this way
makes it evident that age is not going to slow him down, and that he will continue to be a
highly-sexualized creature probably until he is no longer alive.
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Writing about the relationship between machismo and sex, Edward V. Wallace
states that “machismo is a social behavior pattern in which the Latin man exhibits an
overbearing attitude to any one in a position inferior to his, demanding complete
subservience. The male continually seeks to establish his sexual freedom while the
female continues to serve him” (8). Indeed, this seems exactly like what is happening
with Don Carlos, and perhaps even more given that, with his age, he must work extra
hard to show that he is as manly as he always was. Furthermore, another important
element of the machismo culture is power, and there is no greater access to power than
through money. For this reason, Rosa mentions how Don Carlos was able to use his
“money” in order to “emerge from a murky past…into the most luminous social spheres”
(35). Why at the age of seventy Don Carlos feels the need to demonstrate not only how
much he has, but also how much prestige he can buy, is open for interpretation, but likely
it has to do with not wanting to be perceived as in any way weak or incapable. After all,
looking weak and incapable is the role of the woman, at least that is how the stereotypical
thinking goes, and Don Carlos would probably prefer to be thought of in just about any
other way besides womanly. Just as women are boxed into stereotypes that force them to
act in very specific ways, so too are men as demonstrated by Don Carlos and how he acts.
As an extension, when a person is told how to act based on their gender, the person,
whether man or women, is put in a position that is unnatural since the way he or she is
told to act may not be the way that he or she wants to act. Life, then, becomes a play in
which everyone is acting a part.
Juan Carlos, different from his father, shows the reader that, fortunately, there are
still men, just as there are women, who do not fit easily into gender stereotypes. After
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Juan Carlos is released by his kidnappers, he tracks down where one of them, Bunny,
lives, and he contemplates getting revenge on Bunny for the kidnapping. Upon
encountering Bunny’s son, the narrator states how Juan Carlos, “when he had the
opportunity to take his revenge…felt no more than a weak desire for it. He kept on
walking toward the door without turning back, went on, and closed it behind him” (112).
The fact that Juan Carlos is able to track down Bunny and, as a result, is put in a position
to get revenge for what was done to him, and does not, shows just how strong a character
Juan Carlos is. Furthermore, not taking revenge shows that Juan Carlos is not inclined to
aggression or violence like his kidnappers were, an important point since, based on male
gender stereotypes and machismo, Juan Carlos is expected to get revenge for what was
done to him. Aggression, in other words, must lead to more aggression, as this is the way
men must act. By walking away and not hurting Bunny’ son, Juan Carlos proves that he
is the better man, and is certainly not one restricted by the code of machismo. In the end,
he made a wise decision not to hurt Bunny’s son since there is little doubt that, had he
done so, Bunny would have come looking for him again.
Rosas’s short novel, The Good Cripple, explores gender in a way that is
interesting and informative. As shown, society plays a big role in determining how men
and women should act, and there is no doubt that many of the characters in this novel –
including, Don Carlos, Juan Luis, and Ana Lucia – either act in ways that are
stereotypical or actively fight against male and female stereotypes. As a result of his
strong writing and complex characters, Rosa is able to provide an accurate portrayal of
Guatemalan society while, at the same time, showing how social ideas relating to men
and women influence character thoughts and behavior. Based on the fascinating story,
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his unique writing style, and diverse selection of characters, it is understandable how
Rosa has become one of Guatemala’s most famous and well-respected authors.
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Works Cited
Montenegro, Nineth. "The Challenge of Women’s Political Participation in Guatemala."
International Idea, 2002, pgs. 1-5.
Sadowsky, Dan. "Women Stake Their Claim in the Land of Machismo." Mercy Corps. 03
Apr. 2012. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
http://www.mercycorps.org/articles/guatemala/womenstake-their-claim-land-machismo
Wallace, Edward V. "Understanding Sex Practices of Heterosexual Hispanic Males in an
Effort
to Prevent HIV." International J Humanities Social Science 1 (2011): 8-10.
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