The Shrouded Woman (Week 4)

From the beginning, I was absolutely sucked in by this novel. I found the descriptions to be so poetic and mysterious and the words flowed in a way that kept me very engaged. I actually found the way this book was written to be very relaxing and calming. Since the last couple of weeks we’ve been speaking so extensively about how we relate to the main characters or not, I would say that I related to Ana Maria a lot throughout this novel. Recently, my grandmother has been sick, which has made me ponder how people are often venturing in and out of our lives in a way where there is constant movement without fully stopping to appreciate them as people and the effect they’ve had on us. Additionally, this novel resonated with me as the feeling of being stuck while people move around you is very relatable. To me, this was represented initially by her watching her body at the funeral while people moved around her and then with the initial plot of Ricardo leaving for Europe. This also brings me to the other theme that stuck out in this novel and that is gender roles in Latin America. 

As a woman who is in a relationship with a man from Latin America, I identified a lot with Ana Maria’s experience on this. While I don’t know if this pertains to only Latin American culture, I find entwining romance in your life as a woman is often very complicated. For me, there is a desire to be attached, as represented by her relationship with Ricardo, and despite loving the man, he ultimately has the freedom to leave and chase his own success without social judgment. Additionally, there is an expectation on Ana Maria to settle for a man who would give her a life of responsibility and children. However, the argument can also be made that there is also this expectation put on men with the mention of Rodolfo being "coerced" (204) into marrying Anita, despite the fact that he does not love her. It is interesting how Ana Maria feels sadness for Anita in this scenario although she is arguably in the same position with Antonio. It is also striking how Ana Maria mentions how "she was not strong enough to cast [Fernando] out" (206). I think this speaks a lot to how women were (and sometimes still are) not given the luxury of choosing love over practicality in relationships and are not given control over such major things in our lives. We often have to negotiate and compromise on these things instead of choosing what makes us truly happy. 

Question for the class: How do you think gender roles and expectations are presented in this novel? Do you think Ricardo affected Ana Maria's view on love throughout her life and if so, how?