55 pages • 1-hour read
The Hungry Woman
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Act I, Scenes 5-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Act I, Scene 5 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of substance use.
The prison guard takes Medea to the hospital room, then returns to playing dominoes with the nurse. Medea pumps milk from her breasts, tasting the milk as she does so. She speaks to the audience about Jasón, admitting that she was not faithful to her husband. It was her son, Chac-Mool, who won her love. A memory of Jasón appears on the stage, muttering to himself about this betrayal. The nurse throws nursing pads to Medea to mop up spilled milk. Medea remembers that she never really weaned Chac-Mool; he simply stopped wanting to be breastfed one day. She attributes this to peer pressure at age three, as he was embarrassed to be offered his mother’s breast in front of a friend. Medea could not help but take this personally, she tells the nurse. Medea accuses the nurse of being “childless, a dull mule who can’t reproduce” (32). This, Medea believes, means that Medea will always be more of a woman than the nurse. The nurse confirms that she was deliberately sterilized in Puerto Rico in 1965. Medea and the nurse swap insults, then Medea insults the guard who turns up the radio to spite her.
The telephone rings, and Medea speaks into the one-way mirror as Jasón appears again. Medea asks Jasón about her “status.” Medea reminds Jasón that she still has the right to return, though she has not exercised this yet. The land remains in Jasón’s custody. If Medea were to give up Luna, Jasón says, she would be permitted to return. Jasón does not want to talk about his impending marriage, but Medea insists that it matters. Medea holds her hands over her ears as the telephone continues to ring.
Act I, Scene 6 Summary
Sounds from a tenement basement cover the ringing of the telephone. The guard announces that the scene takes place on a weekday evening in Phoenix, one year earlier. Luna stands in the laundry room, folding clothes with Savannah. Luna explains that she uses the laundry room to escape from Medea sometimes. Her sculpting tools are also down in the basement, and she is saving up for clay to begin sculpting again. Medea, Luna says, has no interest in her tools. Upstairs is “pure chaos,” Luna tells Savannah, and it turns her into someone she does not want to be. Luna tries to keep their home organized, but Medea is very untidy. Luna hears Medea on the phone often. Medea claims to be working on Chac-Mool’s behalf, but Luna is less sure. The apartment feels overbearing, but Luna finds peace in the laundry room. Medea enters; Savannah soon leaves. Medea accuses Luna of having an affair, revealing a long hair found in their bed. Luna points out that the 45 apartments in the building are all taken up by every “queen and queer and party animal in Phoenix” (36), so a hair may have gotten mixed up in the dryer. Medea accuses Luna of being weak and of not loving her. Luna tries to leave but Medea grabs her arm, demanding that Luna not give up on her. Luna wants to go to her friends and relax, whereas Medea wants Luna to fight for her. Luna runs outside, where Mama Sal and Chac-Mool are sitting in the garden. An animal cries as Luna passes them, then exits. The animal cries again. The animal is a cat, Mama Sal explains, looking for a mate. The cry of the cat, Mama Sal suggests, is the cry of La Llorona. Chac-Mool insists that he was never scared of La Llorona, remembering hearing the ghost’s cry in Aztlán. Chac-Mool felt like La Llorona was calling directly to him. They hear sounds of fighting in the distance. Chac-Mool mentions that his mother and Luna fight often. Mama Sal knows that Medea can be very stubborn; she warns Chac-Mool not to “make a mother choose between blood and love” (38).
Act I, Scene 7 Summary
Savannah and the Tattoo Artist dance to music in a bar. Luna watches them while nursing a beer, then complains about the music. Savannah suggests that they head home, and Luna complains that in Aztlán, the night would just be getting started. Luna wants to stay out, so suggests a bar named St. Josie’s. Before leaving, however, she must use the bathroom. Savannah holds the broken bathroom door closed as Luna complains about the limited bar options for gay women. Luna notes that she is just repeating the things Medea says to her. As Luna exits the stall, Savannah confronts her about Medea. Savannah is “tired of seeing someone [she loves] being played” (40); Savannah tells Luna that Medea will soon leave her and that she wants to take Medea’s place. Savannah presses Luna against the wall and kisses her deeply. Medea has long been jealous of Savannah, Luna says. Arms around each other’s shoulders, singing, they exit the bar.
Act I, Scene 8 Summary
After a night of drinking alone, Medea lies on her bed imagining a conversation with Luna, until Luna herself enters. Luna is surprised to find Medea still awake. Trying to help Medea into bed, she nearly trips over an empty bottle of tequila. Medea mumbles incoherently. She does not like to be alone, she says, but Luna notes that Medea never wants to go to the bar. Medea says that she does not trust herself as Luna begins to undress her. Medea reminisces about their sex life in their younger days. As Luna warns Medea not to be cruel, Medea insists that she is not. She is simply “dying to make sense of it” (43). Things are different now, Luna agrees; they have become used to one another. Medea always imagined that they would return to Aztlán, that the men of Aztlán would change their minds. Medea admits that she spoke to Jasón, who is sending custody papers to reclaim Chac-Mool as his new wife is “barren.” Luna is sorry. Medea stirs, and Luna must lead her back to bed. They begin to make love, then Luna speaks about a creation myth focused on hungry mouths. After they have had sex, Luna inquires about Medea’s life with Jasón. She is intrigued to hear that when Medea would have sex with Jasón, Medea felt that it was somehow not “enough.” Luna kisses Medea. She feels as though they have been together forever, though it has really been seven years. They can measure their relationship by how much Chac-Mool has grown. They are unsure what they will do next; Medea resists Luna’s attempts to hold her. Medea asserts that nothing matters anymore: Her “tragedy will be an example to all women like [her]” (46). Luna, a lesbian, will not understand how it feels to cross the metaphorical border of bisexuality, as Medea has done. The border, Medea says, has now closed behind her.
Act I, Scene 9 Summary
Medea wakes and slips into a black dress as Luna watches. Medea asks for help with the zipper; Luna does not help, but the prison guard enters to assist while handing letters to Luna. The guard then announces that this scene takes place several months later. Medea admits that she is going to see Jasón. Luna is confused as to why Medea cannot just admit to herself that she is a lesbian. She wishes that Medea would “shove [her sexuality] in his face” (47), but Medea fears that Jasón will try to take Chac-Mool from her. Luna throws the letters to the floor; they are letters between Medea and her remaining friends in Aztlán. Medea still hopes to return there one day, and she wants to take Luna with her. Luna does not want to return. As she cannot return to Aztlán, Luna says, Medea cannot deny that she is a lesbian. Medea carefully responds that she is not like Luna. She is just a woman who is concerned about her son. Luna, Medea says, is trapped in a prison of competition with Jasón. Medea confesses that she is unhappy with their situation. Luna warns that Jasón is dangerous.
Luna exits and finds Mama Sal smoking her pipe outside. Inside, Medea continues to dress. Mama Sal hands Luna a cigarette. Mama Sal believes that women in their culture go “from a daughter to a mother, and there’s nothing in between” (50). Being a mother, she says, is the only shot they have of being a woman. For all of Luna’s revolutionary actions, she will not be able to forget her own mother. In Medea, Luna found another mother. Mama Sal tells Luna that she should leave Medea, even though Medea is Mama Sal’s granddaughter.
Act I, Scene 10 Summary
Medea stands before the altar of Coatlicue and burns copal. She prays to Coatlicue to make Jasón “small and weak” (51). Jasón appears standing beside a window, remembering a time when he felt like no one. He is glad to see Medea face-to-face after receiving her persuasive letters. Jasón pours each of them a drink, apologizing for the quality of the border motel where they are meeting. Medea laughs when he suggests that her black dress is tormenting him, though she insists that the flattering dress is purely for her own sake. Nevertheless, she still occasionally needs to feel as though she is tormenting someone. Jasón admits that Medea is still beautiful “for [her] age” (52). Medea confesses to being jealous of Jasón’s new younger bride, a third of his age. They admit that they still think of one another and, when he asks why she has changed her mind, Medea tells Jasón that she wants what is best for her son. Jasón assures her that she does not need to stay in this border place. He does not believe that she is a lesbian. Medea admits that she is not like Luna, but she cannot go back to the way her life was in the period after the war and before Chac-Mool was born. Back then, she says, she felt “completely naked in the world” (54) and devoid of purpose (54). Jasón tells her that she does not need to go back to that time. He assures her that she was not mistaken, and they begin to have sex.
Act I, Scenes 5-10 Analysis
As with many characters in the play, Luna is defined by internal contradictions. She is a creator, but she has lost her ability to create. She once worked as a sculptor, but her sculpting tools are locked away in the basement because Luna fears Medea’s reaction. This is an example of how these two women are slowly sabotaging themselves with their relationship. Luna’s creativity—her stated purpose in life—is being suppressed to conform to Medea’s view of how she should live her life. Medea, a symbol of resistance against oppression, is also an oppressor in her own right.
Even as she abdicates her role as an artist, Luna also plays the role of mother to a son who is not her own. For seven years, Luna has raised Chac-Mool alongside Medea. They have raised the boy in a matriarchal society, having been exiled from the patriarchal society of Aztlán. Their exile is one of The Harms of Anti-LGBTQ+ Bias, but within this injustice, they have forged a community built on solidarity and mutual support. Luna finds a creative outlet in Chac-Mool. He may not be her son, but he becomes a vector for her ideas and traditions. She teaches him about ancestral farming techniques, much to Medea’s annoyance. Chac-Mool is a young boy being raised in an entirely new type of society. He is the wet clay in the creator’s hands, though his life is yet unplanned. Luna’s journey through the play illustrates that fundamental human instincts such as creativity cannot be suppressed. Luna herself becomes an archetypal illustration of the buoyancy and endurance of human artistry.
If Luna is helping to imagine how a new society might operate, then Mama Sal is a living relic of the past. She is Medea’s biological grandmother, but in a more symbolic sense, she is the grandmother to the community of exiled women. Mama Sal was a lesbian in the 20th century. She still remembers the violent oppression of the era, and she can recall how she was forced to hide her sexuality from her world. Now, she lives in a society that is two revolutions removed from what she once knew. As well as the social revolution which that people to reveal their sexuality to the public, there was an actual revolution that created a series of new nations. Then, the revolutionary spirit of these new nations gave way to reactionary nationalism, and queer people were sent into exile, evidence of The Persistence of Social Injustice. Mama Sal no longer has to hide her sexuality, but she no longer has a choice. In many ways, she is as much a relic of a cultural past as the Aztec statues and deities. For queer women such as Luna and Medea, she is an artifact of an old struggle, someone who does not fit into the modern age but who can be turned to for guidance in moments of crisis. Mama Sal is less a character than a memory of an age long past, a figurehead of a different world to remind the people in the present what they want to achieve.
While the queer people of Aztlán were sent into exile, heterosexual men like Jasón were entrusted with constructing the post-revolutionary world. Jasón returns to the play through his betrayal. After helping to build a nation defined by shared ethnicity, he is now hoping to marry outside his group. He plans to marry a much younger woman and seeks Medea’s signature on his divorce papers to do so. As he reminds her, Medea’s accession is a mere formality. He plans to marry a woman closer in age to his son than himself because—as one of the architects of a patriarchal society—he views women as sexual commodities rather than humans. Jasón’s plans to marry a younger woman and his role in persecuting anyone who does not conform to heterosexual norms elevates him to the status of the play’s antagonist.
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