Memoir Questions

Woman in Front of the Sun: On Becoming a Writer
by Judith Ortiz Cofer
The Woman Who Slept with One Eye Open

5. Topic/Subjects
a. List the main subject or topics that are revealed in each chapter or selection?
The main subject in this essay are the stories about woman.

b. Are there any Growing Up Themes explored in this selection?
Controlling or grappling with conflicts or issues concerning...
-one's future, goals, or career plans.
-gender role socialization and cultural expectations about gender roles
-beginning the quest for individuality
 
c. What motifs (recurring themes, subjects, symbols, description, sensory images, character relationships, character conflicts) are present, if any, in the chapters or selections that we have seen before?
-Power of women
-trouble of becoming a writer
-comparing two cultures
-machoism
 
6. Title Significance
a. What does the title suggest to you about the selection before you read it?
The title had suggested something about cautiousness. Sleeping with both eyes closed means you are unable to see anything but your thoughts and not the world around you.

b. After you finish the selection, what do you understand the title to mean in relation to the story the writer has told you? Explain briefly.
The title connects to the essay because Maria Sabida is the woman who is sleeping with one eye open. She sleeps with one eye open because she wants to be aware of her surroundings since she is married to a killer.

c. Briefly explain what you think the writer (not the character narrator) intended us to understand as the significance of this memory. Find passages that reveal the significance to you.
The writer intended us to understand the different stories and the difference of the women in each one. She wants us to identify ourselves with the stories. There have been multiple times where I was Maria Sabida and there have been times where I was Maria la Loca.
-writer as an artist