Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Oppression represents the dominance of something toward another thing, which later creates differences between the major and minor. Oppression is oftenly related to women in patriarchal society. In this case, women are the objects of the oppression, they are dominated by men Abberley, 1987: 5. In relation to women oppression, the researcher discusses about women and patriarchy in Mexico. The Mexicans are very religious, the Catholic Mexicans believe in Lady Guadalupe as the symbol of innocence and purity, and declare her as the role model for Mexican women Fernandez, 2009: 55. The Mexicans also believe that Lady Guadalupe is the keeper of Mexico ethnomed.org. Besides being very religious, the Mexicans also respect the value of family’s hierarchy and structure livescience.com. The Mexicans practice familismo, which prioritizes family matters before any individual matters. Therefore, they commonly live with their big whole family in the same neighborhood which means that there will be some family structures inside the extended family such as parents, grandparents, and children family.lovetoknow.com. The parents are highly respected by the children. Their respect toward the parents sometimes causes a struggle between obeying the parents’ rule and pursuing self needs livescience.com. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI Mexican society is dominated by patriarchal norms in all parts of their life such as decision making and it is started from the family, as Anderson said: Within the Mexican family system, authority and prestige were allocated on the basis of an ascribed agegender status with male authority over women receiving a strong ideological sanction 1996: 93. The Mexicans live in an extended family Riding, 1984: 10 with their division of gender roles based on patriarchal norms. The roles as Mexican men are called machismo. Machismo is described as male behaviors, which contain masculinity performances such as being a father which means he is protective, the fore bearer, and he is the one who provides the family needs Englander, Yáñez, and Barney, 2012: 68. The descriptions as a machismo are not only about the positive sides but also the negative sides. The descriptions above are the positive sides of machismo. The negative sides of a machismo are being aggressive and dominating others. The domination of a man is not only toward women but also in the interpersonal relationships among men Englander, Yáñez, and Barney, 2012: 68. Outside the family, men are also expected to have domination over other men. They tend to pursue recognition as being more powerful than another man. A simple example is two Mexican men competing in arguing over some topics where the argument will end with one “winner” whose argument cannot be challenged. The winner will get respect from the other men GlobalSecurity.org . The privilege as a machismo is that a man is the one who takes control of decision making in his family. The father or the sons usually are the decision maker and their decision is absolute. In other words, the men take domination in the family family.lovetoknow.com. On the contrary, the roles of Mexican women are called marianismo. The obligations as a marianismo is being a mother with love and sacrifice to the family Englander, Yáñez, and Barney, 2012: 69, which contains activities such as breeding, cooking, as well as taking care of the children, husband, and the house. In a nutshell, women’s roles are about domestic areas family.lovetoknow.com. Mexican women also should be bounded to the man in the family GlobalSecurity.org for example; a wife cannot challenge her husband’s decision whatever it is. In relation to the role as a mother, women in Mexico are determined as the center of morality Anderson, 1996: 94 so it is not surprising that there are so many rules on women’s behavior, as Anderson said, “Ideally, a young girl was to be pious, obedient, and virginal until marriage, chaste after marriage ” 1996: 94. This determination is very important so that the whole family will try to protect or limit their daughters from the outside world until they get married. The mother is expected to internalize the traditional norms to the daughters so that the daughters can be the keeper of the norms and know how to be a good woman as expected there family.lovetoknow.com. Even though women have important roles in the family, they are underestimated. Women are considered powerless and less educated. Therefore, it is impossible for women to obtain education as men, as stated “They think that it’s kind of impossible for a fema le to be educated and support herself” thisibelieve.org. Women are also limited in terms of behavior. A wife is expected to ask for, follow, and agree with her husband ’s decision family.lovetoknow.com. Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate has a setting of Mexican Revolutionary War. During that period, patriarchal culture was still practiced and inherited among the generations. Before the war began until its beginning, Mexican women were oppressed by patriarchal norms. ...Mexican Revolution in the years between 1911 and 1920.¹ At this time in Mexican history, a patriarchal society constrained women and limited their lives in nearly every aspect Fernandez, 2009: 53. This novel is worth to be discussed since it contains many interesting information about Mexico and the Mexicans. The novel is also attractively arranged by Esquivel by providing monthly recipe of Mexican food in the beginning of each chapter. Besides, there is an issue which attracts the researcher’s curiosity that is the oppression towards women which is not only done by men, but also by women. As it has been stated above, the mothers should deliver the traditional norms to the daughters. It means during the process of internalization and socialization of the norms, there will be a kind of oppression to the daughters so they will be obedient to accept the norms family.lovetoknow.com. In Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, there is a girl named Tita who struggles against her mother named Mama Elena. She fights against her mother ’s authoritativeness and oppression. By fighting her mother, she also fights against the traditional culture in Mexican society which limits women’s freedom.

B. Problem Formulation