Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 44

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz - Essay Example The remarkable details of her challenges in life focus on her quest for knowledge. At a very tender age of three, she has showed signs of commendable intellectual skills that the collection of books of his grandfather served as her mental refuge. It was likewise revealed that by the age of six or seven, her burning desire to learn more through formal education led her to beg her mother to send her to Mexico University, an institution exclusively for males, as she planned to disguise as a boy (Oregon, par. 5; Kantaris, par. 12). When her grandfather supposedly died, she was sent to Mexico to live with her aunt. It is here where she had learned lessons in Latin grammar, which, as averred by Kantaris, â€Å"enabled her to read philosophical and theological works in the language, and she came to be considered as something of a child prodigy. She began to be lionized in high society for her intelligence and also for her famed beauty† (par. 12). Her works that focus on the right of women to education were highly admirable given that she lived during a time when rights of women, especially to higher education were not yet encouraged, nor acceptable. In her literary work entitled Reply to Sor Philothea, the depth of her contentions revealed that: if fathers wish to educate their daughters beyond what is customary, for want of trained older women and on account of the extreme negligence which has become women's sad lot, since well-educated older women are unavailable, they are obliged to bring in men teachers to give instruction...As a result of this, many fathers prefer leaving their daughters in a barbaric, uncultivated state to exposing them to an evident danger such a familiarity with men breeds (Oregon, par. 2) Further, through personal determination and discipline, she harnessed her skills, knowledge and abilities that enabled her to achieve what she sought for, despite difficulties and challenges of her times.