Character Study in Manual Puigs Kiss of the Spider Woman Essay

Character Study in Manual Puigs Kiss of the wanderer Woman On the surface, Manual Puigs Kiss of the Spider Woman is round politics and oppression. Caged literally and figuratively in an existential cell, both Molina and Valentin be wards of a police state and are therefore powerless to modify their circumstances. But the novel is really about how spiritual freedom is well-behaved and made manifest by Molinas retelling of his favorite movies. Because the substance of the films is first filtered through and through Molinas perspective, his perversion of the characters and plots reflect his own progression from an oppressed prisoner to a heroine who freely chooses the path to her own death. That Molina identifies himself with the heroines in the films is unmistakable by the reverse of the novel. In the first movie he tells to Valentin, a woman who involuntarily changes into a mountain lion whenever she kisses a man is parallel to Molinas life as a homosexual man in a so ciety that condemns him. The panther womans love is dangerous, and so is Molinas. His fatalistic view of his place ...