The House on Mango Street In the book The House on Mango Street, author Sandra Cisneros presents a series of vignettes that involve a young girl, named Esperanza, growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Esperanza Cordero is searching for a release from the low expectations and restrictions that Latino society often imposes on its young women. Cisneros draws on her own background to supply the reader with accurate views of Latino society today. In particular, Cisneros provides the chapters Boys and Girls and Beautiful and Cruel to portray Esperanzas stages of growth from a questioning and curious girl to an independent woman. Altogether, Boys and Girls is not like Beautiful and Cruel because Cisneros reveals two different maturity levels in Esperanza; one of a wavering confidence with the potential to declare her independence, and the other a personal awareness of her own actions and the decision to take action and wage her own quiet war. Author Sandra Cisneros was born in 1954 in the Latino section of Chicago (Encarta 1).
Cisneros is an American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and poet. Her works have brought the perspective of the Mexican American woman into the mainstream of literary feminism. She earned her Bachelors Degree from Loyola University in 1976 and her Masters Degree from the University of Iowa in 1978. The House on Mango Street is Cisneros first novel, and is her most critically acclaimed. The novel is constructed with a series of short interconnected chapters. Cisneros writes of the hopes, desires, and disillusionments of a young writer growing up in a large city.
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Comparing "Cousin Kate" and "The Seduction" I am comparing " Cousin Kate " bye Christina Rossetti and " The Seduction " by Eileen McAuley. I will look at five points of the poems, language, theme, mood and structure. Although the poems were written at very different times they have many similarities and differences. Cousin Kate is a pity-full and sympathetic poem. Cousin Kate makes me feel sorry ...
After reading The House on Mango Street, the reader is left with a greater sense of the everyday oppressions the roles created for women in Hispanic society. Cisneros decides to accept the oppression as part of culture, but also detach from this view by telling women, old and young alike, to find their own independence. Cisneros uses Esperanza as a vehicle to express the power of womanhood and determination to reach certain goals. In Boys and Girls, Cisneros introduces a gender separation that dominates Esperanzas experiences. Esperanza is dissatisfied that she and her younger sister Nenny are paired as playmates; Nenny is too young to be my friend (Cisneros 8).
Esperanza is dependent on her childhood and is like a red balloon, a red balloon tied to an anchor (Cisneros 9).
This description reveals that Esperanza singles herself out of her differences, of which she seems keenly aware.
She also considers her differences as a source of isolation, as she floats in the sky for all to see. She longs to escape, much like a helium balloon. The anchor hinders her flight, similar to the confines that her granted by her society. Cisneros supplies Esperanza with a small voice, but also with a tone of wishful thinking, which gives her the ability to be powerful. Beautiful and Cruel marks the beginning of Esperanzas own quiet war against machismo (Hispanic culture powered by men).
She refuses to neither tame herself nor wait for a husband, and this rebellion is reflected in her leaving the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate (Cisneros 89).
Cisneros gives Esperanza a self-empowered voice and a desire for personal possessions, thing that she can call her own: Esperanzas power is her own (Cisneros 89).
Cisneros discusses two important themes: maintaining ones own power and challenging the cultural and social expectations one is supposed to fulfill. Esperanzas mission to create her own identity is manifest by her decision to not lay (her) neck on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain (Cisneros 88).
Cisneros rough language and violent images of self-bondage reveal the contempt with which Esperanza views many of her peers whose only goal is to become a wife. To learn how to guard her power from men, Esperanza looks to the example of the movie vixen with (the) red lips who is beautiful and cruel (Cisneros 89).
The Essay on Sandra Cisneros House On Mango Street
Sandra Cisneros It was a cold and windy day, a perfect day to uncover secrets and truths about writers I had heard of, but new little about. I entered the library to escape the weather and lose myself in books about Sandra Cisneros and the characters she creates in her poems and stories. I began my search at a computer resource station, and then absorbed myself in the materials it provided, which ...
Esperanza gains strength in her by accepting the situation she is in as it is, be acquiring a determination to leave it as week, much like author Sandra Cisneros. In both vignettes, Esperanza looks to others for answers, first to the boys in her neighborhood and then to the movie vixen. She does not necessarily make her own conclusions or solutions to her problem of dependency to her restrictive culture.
In The House on Mango Street, there are some similarities, but more differences that separate Esperanzas character, as she grows more mature and aware of the situation that surround her. Esperanza’s desire to baptize herself under a new name indicates her desire to escape the history of hope unfulfilled into which she was born. This desire is linked to that of defeating poverty with her house. Just as she feels she does not belong in the house on Mango Street, Esperanza feels her name does not do justice to the strong convictions and wistful aspirations of “the real me, the one nobody sees,” which is repressed by poverty and machismo. Esperanza’s identity, as revealed in the vignettes, is multifaceted. Her shyness is evident when she is around people who are unfamiliar to her. This is most likely due to the intimidation these people pose.
For example, in the vignettes “The First Job” and “A Rice Sandwich” Esperanza is too shy to eat with her other co-workers and peers, as shown in the following quotation from “The First Job. She says, “When lunch time came I was scared to eat alone in the company lunchroom.” These timid feelings are strangely those of which I can relate to having felt at one point. Another dominant feature in Esperanza’s personality is the trust she has in others. I think this is one of Esperanza’s weaknesses as an individual because it allows her to be gullible and vulnerable. In Cathy Queen of Cats, Esperanza’s gullibility is obvious when Cathy tells Esperanza “father will have to fly to France one day and find her…cousin…and inherit the family house. How do I know this is so? She told me so.” Another error in trusting others is that Esperanza is susceptible to betrayal.
The Term Paper on Haunted House
NOTE: phrases highlighted are being modified to the phrases shown in brackets. (I’ve always found something fascinating about seeing an old dilapidated house along a winding road, they spark my curiosity.) Something about the fascination of dilapidated houses along winding roads sparks my curiosity but most of all give me shivers. (I stare; captivated by the sight) looking at the sight of the ...
At the outset of The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is presented as a shy girl with low self esteem. As the book progresses she appears to become increasingly strong, and clear about her destiny. Her optimism prevails. Cisneross character Esperanza greatly dislikes her house on Mango Street and is ashamed of it. She wanted a nice white house with her own stair and bathroom. But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all. Its small and red with tight steps in the front…
(4).
When Esperanza is forced to point out her house she always feel embarrassed and ashamed of it. The way she said it made me feel like nothing (5).
The fact that the house is the bright bold color red helps point out that it is something Esperanza dislikes and is ashamed of. Esperanza is also ashamed of the day when she, Lucy, and Rachael try on the high heels. The shoes make Esperanza feel grown up, but help her realize she is not ready to handle what consequences they bring. Feeling full of shame and regret, the girls hide the red, yellow and blue shoes, until one Tuesday her mother, who is very clean throws them away but no one complains (42).
Esperanza is happy the shoes are gone and want to forget their foolish actions.
Once again, an area of shame in Esperanzas life is remembered with the color red. One of the most traumatic events Esperanza endured was next to the tilt a whirl near the red clowns. She is left alone and forced upon by some boys. She feels betrayed and lost. Youre a liar. They all lied. All the books and magazines everything that told it wrong.
She is unable to remember the exact events, but distinctly recalls the red clowns laughing their thick tongue laugh. Esperanza is ashamed and angry with Sally for leaving her. The use of the color red signifies her hurt and shame regarding the situation. Another source of shame for Esperanza is her friend Sally. She disapproves of Sally playing kissing games and getting married at such an early age. In the book, Esperanza states, In the movies there is always one with red lips who is beautiful and cruel.
She is the one who drives all the men crazy then laughs them all away. She is referring to Sally and all the other girls who are like her. She emphasizes the color of the lips by repeating it twice, signifying its importance. In the novel, the reader hears a change in voice, which is the main purpose that Cisneros sets forth. Esperanza first identifies her difficulty with her society, and then accepts and at the same time defies it. In Boys and Girls the reader sees a young girl that is investigating her possibilities in life. In Beautiful and Cruel the reader sees a woman who has become independent from the boundaries of her society.
The Term Paper on The Red Scarf Girl
However, when she is selected to audition for the Central Liberation Army Dancer, her parents prevent her from auditioning because of the political background investigations that her family will not be able to pass due to their poor class status. Broken hearted and dreams shattered, Ji-Li follows her parents orders ,and is beginning to doubt whether her goals are achievable now. One weekend, Ji-Li ...
Esperanza is tied down by the anchor, and then casts it off with her refusal to wait for the ball and chain. Esperanza changes from a little girl who makes wishes about her future, to a woman who takes her future in her hands as she begins a war on the limitations that she face in her Latino society. The House on Mango Street, as it has been shown, contains many different themes. There’s Coming of Age, Social Class Differences, Gender Suppression, and Family Traditions. There are many other themes, but the major reoccurring ones are covered here. These themes are things that still take place today, regardless of the fact that this book was written over 15 years ago. And if everybody plays their part, maybe these themes will slowly start to dissolve away and the world will be a better place for all of us.
Bibliography:
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street.
Houston: Arte Publico Press, (1984).
