As someone who’s favourite novel became ‘Gone Girl’ at too young of an age, I loved this piece. Someone please get Amy Dunne on this.

This piece details the dichotomy between the expectations of a ‘wife’ and the humanity of a woman. Rosario confirms that a woman’s place is in the kitchen and that she felt learning any skills outside the role of a domesticated woman was useless. She furthers this by explaining that domestication is supposed to be biologically engraved in women, yet she feels out of place in her role. She also compares herself to a slave by saying ‘I can’t change masters’. This emphasizes the feeling of permanent constraint and eternal domestication.

Rosario also emphasizes the objectification of women when she wants to remind her husband whom he is making love to. This shows that women are not viewed as human; a wife simply holds a place and they do not exist outside of it. This also leads to the realization of what is expected of a wife and their sexuality, (aka the Madonna-whore complex which is something that I could go on for days about). Rosario says ‘its rigidity is incompatible with the spontaneity needed for making love’. This shows how a wife is expected to be pure, poised, and perfect, yet her role requires contradictory qualities that seem animalistic in comparison. There seems to be no overlap in a woman being a wife whilst also maintaining a sexual identity.  Castalleno ultimately compartmentalizes her identity to ‘wife’. Using this as her sole identifier, despite adding ‘self-sacrificing little Mexican’ before it at the beginning, has an impact on Castalleno’s self-image. She constantly takes self deprecating jabs and even calls herself an imbecile.

Castalleno consistently emphasizes that her marriage is loveless by comparing it to being as dull as broiled beef and her husband laying on top of her to a gravestone. She says ‘Our meeting was due to accident. A happy one? It’s still too soon to say’ (347). This provides insight on how marriage happens in her culture. She says she met him and was quickly married, and despite an obvious resentment, she hopes that they will fall in love with each other one day.

Rosario says her ‘husband will resent the appearance of my dominance’. Do you think a woman can be both liberated and live a domesticated lifestyle? How do higher education, a career, and personal ambitions challenge the traditional role of a wife? Can they co-exist?