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Regrets and Memories- Shrouded Woman

 This text was my favourite by far, and after scrolling through a few blog posts, it's interesting to see that most people share the same opinion. The shrouded woman was a fascinating text that challenged men's views on women in that day in age. It was super cool to read a book from a women's perspective compared to the other two books we have read so far. A theme I found similar was how a woman shouldn't act out and always listen because their husband can take everything away from them. 

One of my favourite parts was when Maria spoke about how her beauty is lonely. Everyone was envious of her beauty, and all the men wanted her. Seeing it from her perspective was very eye-opening. But, unfortunately, she is only seen for that, and as a child, she was not given any love because she had enough beauty and was isolated. Isolated physically and emotionally from her family. She told us how she did not look like any of her family members and was not connected to anyone. Total and utter loneliness. This made me sad for her and has changed my perspective on living up to beauty standards and consistently trying not to judge anyone based on their cover. 

This book takes us along Ana-Maria's life, her love encounters, her brutal, unloving husband, her children and her sickness. I love how the book started off by describing her illness and being stuck as an alive corpse, and then ended once again, representing her death and her last march through her childhood and life. Ana-Maria had a chaotic life and had friends betray her trust and even her own husband. She holds many regrets about her life and her relationship with God. Hearing her side of the story and the feelings of everyone surrounded by her as she was dying brought me comfort. It may sound weird, but as someone who has dealt with a lot of grief in my life, it is nice to hear a story of one's relief in passing even after holding onto so many regrets. I think Ana-Maria can teach us a lesson. We are alive, we aren't like her living in a corpse, and we still have our lives to live. Even though we have regrets and more to come, we can't let them control or take over our lives. We should enjoy what we have in the present and not focus on the past because we cannot change it and have no control over it. 

The one question I have is...

Do you think if the narrator's perspective wasn't from a dead woman that the book's themes and lessons it gave us from reading it would change/lose their significance? 

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Comments

  1. Jon Beasley-MurrayJanuary 31, 2022 at 3:29 AM

    "Everyone was envious of her beauty, and all the men wanted her."

    Isn't this all the more true of Maria Griselda? How does this character feature in (and disrupt) the narrative?

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  2. Madi WildeJanuary 31, 2022 at 12:18 PM

    Hey Alyssa, I really enjoyed reading your blog post.

    I think that if the story would have been told from a different perspective, a lot of the themes and importance would have been taken away. I believe the reading was so impactful because it was told with the lessons that a woman who has loved and lost, learnt throughout her lifetime. She was able to make peace with her regrets and ultimately with death. I think the story teaches a valuable lesson to spend your life. doing things with people you love because ultimately, that is what you will cherish at the end.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Diya MannJanuary 31, 2022 at 4:50 PM

    Hi Alyssa,
    Your blog post brought a lot of good points. I spend a lot of time holding on to the past and controlling my future, but as you said, Ana-Maria can teach us a lesson on living for ourselves and focusing on the present. This story defiantly was an eye-opener for me and made me question many things.

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