Erendira endures a difficult life for a fourteen-year-old girl, considering she was "too meek for her age" (Marquez). The life her grandmother makes her live is inhumane as she attempts to make Erendira pay for her mistake with prostitution. Erendira's prince does not arrive quickly and when he does, she leaves him. Here is where we see the story move from a fairy tale story to one that seeks to explain human behavior. Erendira takes care of herself with the money she feels she deserves. She decides to do so without a man and this makes the story modern while at the same time, very timeless, in that people are as unpredictable as they are predictable. Erendira is an independent woman in need to a way to survive in the world. We also see humor when the grandmother appears to be immune from death. She survives a poison-laced cake and an explosion and when she finally dies, he blood is "oily, shiny and green, just like mint honey" (Marquez). She bleeds like a monster from the cartoons and while she was indeed a real monster, we do not forget her negative nature. Her death is no doubt welcome by the readers but how it comes about is surprising and humorous. With young girl and her Cinderella-like existence, her grandmothers ogre-like existence and the unexpected surprise ending, we see...
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