Sexism

"Island of the Three Marias" presents the male desire for the opposite sex as an inherently destructive drive which often results in contempt for females. This expression of this contempt is sometimes referred to as misogyny, which means hatred of women. Each of the three men described displays either implicit or overt loathing for females. Faustino pimps for Mrs. Marez, securing the "too young man" for her pleasure; the "too young man," who tellingly calls his pain "wife," calls Mrs. Marez a "whore" after she leaves; and the man in the suit, who takes the (to him) macho name Fresco Peach, never tells his name to a woman. Apart from Mrs. Marez, the other women in the poem are "the pale nuns ofSt. Joseph," who the speaker says "will not be women" on the island, presumably because they will not have relations with men. Such a conventional notion...