Helena Viramontes Miss Clairol Essay -- short story, Miss Clairol

Helena Viramontes' short story, "Miss Clairol," takes the reader through a day in the life of Arlene, a single Hispanic mother, and her daughter, Champ. They begin their day at K-Mart in search for just the right beauty products for Arlene because she is going on a date that evening. After leaving without paying, they spend the day at home. Arlene prepares for the date while Champ assists her, watches television, and fixes herself dinner. Once Arlene is sufficiently fixed, she leaves for the date, ignoring Champ as she yells goodbye. Although I had to read "Miss Clairol" all the way through several times in order to develop a full understanding of the story and its purpose, I needed no extra reading to understand Arlene and my feelings about her. From the beginning of the story, my gut reaction to Arlene was disgust, and as I continued to read, my distaste only enlarged. Although I do not feel that Viramontes' sole purpose was to disturb the reader by her characterization of this sin gle mother, that was what kept my attention from the moment she was introduced. My dislike for Arlene began with the mere description of her physical appearance . When Arlene is first presented, she is depicted wearing "bell bottom jeans two sizes too small" and "a pink strapless tube top" (78). Not only do her clothes fit improperly, but "her stomach spills over the hip hugger jeans" as well (78). I next realized Arlene is accompanied by her young daughter, Champ. I was caught off guard by her blatant use of profanity in front of Champ. For example, she responds to Champ's question about which Miss Clairol box to grab saying, "Shit, mija, I dunno," and after dropping a gum wrapper on the ground, the simple comment, "Fuck it," expresses her nonchala... ...e next man is so far from romantic in the way I understand the concept, that it angers me to hear about it. Arlene's misunderstanding of romance epitomizes my serious dislike for her. My experience with good parenting and romance is so opposite of Arlene's parenting and ideas of romance that I am repulsed by them. Because it is so easy to develop set ideas of what is right and wrong concerning these concepts at such a young age, it is difficult to rid myself of the biases now that I am a young adult. These cultural biases that created the lens through which I read this story strongly affected my perception of Arlene in a way that no one else can experience. Work Cited Viramontes, Helena. "Miss Clairol." Literature and Gender: Thinking Critically through Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Eds. Robyn Wiegman and Elena Glasberg. New York: Longman, 1999. 78-81. Print.