Metzger is a Ph.D. specializing in literature and drama at the University of New Mexico, where she is a lecturer in the English department and an adjunct professor in the University Honors Program. In this essay, she discusses the divisions and implications of the feminine and masculine spheres present in Manuel Rojas' "The Glass of Milk."

Manuel Rojas' short story "The Glass of Milk" offers two distinct images, each one in direct opposition to the other. One image is that of the male sphere, the public sphere of male employment and masculine strength, a world of independence and self-sufficiency. This is the sphere that the boy seeks to join. This male sphere is balanced by the feminine sphere, the domestic world of comfort and nurturing, of tenderness and security. This is the world from which the boy has traveled on his journey to manhood. In spite...