The ending of Corregidora was more than disappointing considering the fact that Ursa goes back to Mutt after the abuse and emotional pain that he had inflicted upon her. Mutt's actions were no different than Corregidora's actions towards Ursa's grandma and great grandma in the past, and the physical abuse that they endured. We as readers were proud of Ursa when she shows us her strength and leaves Mutt after he has physically abused her causing her to not only lose her baby, but also causing her to have a forced hysterectomy. The last thing that we thought would happen or wanted to happen as readers, is for Ursa to get back together with Mutt and even give up her power by becoming sexually submissive to him.
"I held his ankles. It was like I didn't know how much was me and Mutt and how much was Great Gram and Corregidora-like Mama when she had started talking like Great Gram. But was what Corregidora had done to her, to them, any worse than what Mutt had done to me, than what we had done to each other, than what Mama had done to Daddy, or what he had done to her in return, making her walk down the street looking like a whore?"(p.110)
Here is where we see the pattern that has occurred over generations in her family of women being sexually submissive and abused by men. We not only see Ursa carrying out the same cycle of submission to the abuser, but we also see her recognize the fact that what she is doing is so similar to had happened to her great grandmother before her. Ursa admits that she cannot find the difference between her relationship with Mutt and Great Gram's relationship with Corregidora.It is at this point that she admits to herself that this is a vicious cycle of abuse, but she allows herself to fall into it anyways. It seems as though it was inevitable for Ursa to fall victim to this pattern, especially with her exposure to her Great Gram's stories since she was a child, it almost provides a sense of normality for this type of behavior to occur in her family.
"On the contrary, in the last few pages when she and Mutt reunite, Ursa is very much aware of how her ancestors live on in her. For once she discovers her mother’s “private memory” she is able to distinguish herself from her ancestors, her mother in particular, and move on to the business of living her own life."
In this quote from Donia Elizabeth Allen's article on The Role of Blues in Gayl Jones's Corregidora, Allen also talks about the pattern Ursa carries with her from her ancestors' abuse, but Allen argues that Ursa is able to distinguish herself from her ancestors only when she discovers her mother's "private memory". Although turning back to Mutt is not the ending that everybody hopes for, it is yet another way that we see Ursa take control of her life.
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