Essay: Comparing 'Quinceanera' and 'Hairbands' - Women in Transition

This essay provides a comparative analysis of Judith Ortiz Cofer's "Quinceanera" and Julia Alvarez's "Hairbands," exploring the theme of women's transition from one stage of life to another. The essay examines the cultural context of "Quinceanera," a celebration of a girl's transformation into a woman, and contrasts it with the themes of aging and marital anxieties in "Hairbands." The analysis focuses on literary devices such as imagery, symbolism, and allusion, demonstrating how the poets use these techniques to convey the speakers' emotions and experiences. The essay highlights both similarities and differences in the poems' approaches, examining the speakers' emotional states and their responses to societal expectations, ultimately revealing the universality of female identity and the social pressures faced by women. The essay emphasizes the use of literary devices, such as imagery and symbolism, to portray the emotional journeys of the speakers and their reactions to societal expectations, revealing the universality of the themes of female identity and social subjugation.

Running head: COMPARING POETRY
COMPARING POETRY
Name of the Student:
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Author Note:

1COMPARING POETRY
The poems “Quinceanera” and “Hairbands” by Judith Ortiz Cofer and Julia Alvarez
respectively, are poems that portray a woman’s feelings after they come of age. The poems
show the kind of transition that every woman goes through in their lifetime. The poem
“Quinceanera” is about a young girl who is being prepared for her transition from a child into
a woman through a Spanish celebration “quinceanra” which is a celebration of a girl’s
transformation to a woman. In this poem, the speaker notices the changes that she had to go
through right at the moment she turned fifteen (Maddox). The poem successfully conveys the
emotion that goes through the girl due to the changes that she has to endure. The other poem
“Hairbands” is a poem that is about a woman who has a nightmare regarding the fat that her
husband is giving away her hairbands which she no longer wears, to certain women that she
is not acquainted with (Matas). The speaker of the poem is in fear that her husband would be
unfaithful to her because she is not young any more like she was before and she fails to see
herself as a beautiful woman since she cut her hair short. The hairbands, to her is like a
reminder of what she sacrificed in order to be with the person she loves. It can be noticed
that both the poems surround the transition of women and their feelings around such
change. There are differences in the poems yet both of the poems meticulously portray the
women’s emotions regarding the transition.
In the poem “Quinceanera” it is the culture of the Latin society that gives a shape to the
poem’ theme since Quinceanera is a celebration in the Latin communities for women who
comes to age; usually when a girl is fifteen years old, the family celebrates her transition
from a girl to woman. The speaker expresses the change that she has to visibly undergo like
“I am to wash my own clothes and sheets from this day on”; the speaker in this line is not just
complaining about doing her laundry on her own, she expresses how the change is affecting
her: “as if the fluids on my body were poison, as if/ the little trickle of blood I believe/ travels
from my heart to the world is shameful.” The speaker’s emotions are clearly show that she

2COMPARING POETRY
does not look forward to her time of adulthood because of the way she is being treated for
being transformed into a woman. Similarly, in the poem “Hairbands” the speaker pits forth
her disappointment in her time that she is spending as an adult. Even like the speaker of the
poem “Quinceanera”, the speaker of the poem “Hairbands” wants to hold on to her
maidenhood which is represented by her hairbands. The hairbands for the speaker are a
companion that went through all of what the woman had to go through at her time of
transition. However, the speaker of “Quinceanera” is about to face the pangs of being an
adult woman in her future and the speaker of “Hairbands” is already facing all such distress
and having nightmares about it. The anxiety, the resentment and fear are same for both the
speakers, just the time period is different; one of the speakers has already faced it and is
continuing to do so, and the other speaker is getting ready to face it all.
Both the poems are full of literary devices and the poets have skillfully utilized them to
portray their emotions behind writing of the poem. For instance, in the poem “Quinceanera”
the speaker says: “My dolls have been put away like dead/ children in a chest I will carry/
with me when I marry” (Cofer). The poet used an imagery to show her transition to
womanhood that would eventually be a burden like “dead children in a chest”. In the poem
“Hairbands”, the object of hairband itself is an imagery as well as a symbol of her
maidenhood. They were her companion when she was young and the fact that her husband
wants her to give up these hairbands following the speaker’s reluctance shows how the
hairbands are like aa reward to her for being able to survive her maidenhood.
Despite the same literary devices, Cofer used a different literary device that portrayed
typical patriarchal mentality which was not used anywhere in the poem “Hairbands”. The
speaker brings in the allusion of Biblical times and the questions the society that why her
blood is considered to be so impure and the bloods of saints and Christ is taken in as
something holy. The speaker openly questions the logic and reasoning behind the way she is

3COMPARING POETRY
made to feel shameful after coming of age. However, as per the poem of “Hairbands the only
dominate literary device used in the poem is that of symbolism which the hairbands reflect;
these hairbands are the “trophies”, her companion and the symbol of her struggle through
maidenhood. However, there is also an image of her impending age that has been portrayed
through the same hairbands: “…magenta rose whose paper petals crumple in the drawer”;
just like the “crumple” in the petals of her hairbands, the speaker is also getting crumpled
with her age and is constantly fearing the fact that her husband would cheat on her (Alvarez).
Thus, in one poem, a speaker is standing up to the patriarchal terms, on the other hand, the
women in “Hairbands” seems to have accepted her misery and is living a life of fear.
Hence, both the poems dive deep into the psyche of a woman and attain universality in
their content as well as theme by talking of female identity and the social subjugation. Yet,
Alvarez’s poem shows how the woman in the poem has given up to this social subjugation in
the form of marriage, but the speaker of Cofer’s poem seems to be standing up when she was
made to feel shameful. It might be for the fact that Alvarez’s speaker is not as young as
Cofer’s speaker who is coming to age and looks ahead not ready to give up just yet.

4COMPARING POETRY
References:
Alvarez, Julia. The woman I kept to myself. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2004.
Chandra, Sarika. "Re-Producing a Nationalist Literature in the Age of Globalization: Reading
(Im) migration in Julia Alvarez's" How the García Girls Lost Their
Accents"." American Quarterly 60.3 (2008): 829-850.
Cofer, Judith Ortiz. Silent dancing: A partial remembrance of a Puerto Rican childhood. Arte
Público Press, 1991.
Maddox, Mary. "ENG 1002-046: Composition and Literature." (2002).
Matas, Manuela. "And Why Did The García Girls Lose their Accents? Language. Identity
and the Immigrant Experience in Julia Alvarez’s How The García Girls Lost Their
Accents." Revista de Estudios Norteamericanos 8 (2001).
Pagán, Darlene. "Ethnicity, Feminism, and Semantic Shifts in the Work of Judith Ortiz
Cofer." info: Ann Arbor, MI: MPublishing, University of Michigan Library 3.1 (2001).