The chapter 5 and chapter 6 and throughout chapter 8 of the book called, The House On Mango Street; represent an ethnic picture from both the past and the present of Mango Street and the surrounding neighborhood. Cathy, Esperanza’s friend indicated what the neighborhood may have been like in the past, while the two families that moved into her house once Cathy’s left were more representative of the whole neighborhood as Esperanza came to experience it. Along the Mango Street lived the black man who was unwelcome from the rest of the neighborhood, different from the people Esperanza sees from day to day. This guy race makes him so unfamiliar that Esperanza is afraid to talk to him. Cathy has shown Esperanza the neighborhood’s two cultures, Latin American and American, and two languages, Spanish and English, which revealing the new cultural makeup of Mango Street. Cathy also provided a window into how outsiders view Esperanza’s neighborhood, even though Cathy is blind to her own family’s similarities to the families around them. Cathy’s family was moving because the neighborhood is “getting bad,” a racist reason that Esperanza immediately understands. Esperanza’s immigrant family, as well as other families like hers, was, in Cathy’s family’s view, causing the neighborhood to deteriorate, and the only thing to do was to move. However, Cathy’s family did not seem to be struggling any less than the other families in Esperanza’s neighborhood. Their house, which Cathy’s father…
Esperanza is the main character in the book “The House on Mango Street”. She started off as a naive girl that doesn’t know anything about the real world she lives in. As time passes she learns more about herself and the world around her. Another major character in this book is Sally. Sally was born into a harsh family where her father will beats her. Sally was always trapped by her father until one day she marries a man that treats her just like her father but, she doesn’t notices.…
The characterization, in The House on Mango Street, of Esperanza’s great-grandmother and Rafaela is used to convey how women were inferior to men in Esperanza’s society. According to Esperanza, her great-grandmother was a very wild woman. That is why she refused to marry until a man “threw a sack over her head and carried her off” (Cisneros, 11). This shows how unimportant women are, of that time, that a man could kidnap a woman and she could do nothing, no matter how wild she was. Also, despite her wild personality, Esperanza’s great-grandmother shows how women could be forced into marriage without a say in who they marry. Like Esperanza’s great-grandmother, Rafaela has many hopes such as dancing at the dance hall or bar. However, she never…
Esperanza is not happy about the shoes. However, she is even more upset about The House on Mango Street. Esperanza had dreams about having a real house but sadly, The House on Mango Street required her to keep dreaming. “I knew then I had to have a house .A real house. One I could point to. But this wasn’t it. The House on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary says Papa. But I know how those things go” (Cisneros 71). As made clear by Esperanza herself, she is not happy with how she is living but, her family expects her to be and so she continues to act happy even when she’s…
"Esperanza. I have inherited [my great grandmother's] name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window." Young Esperanza's opening thoughts in Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street begins with the introduction of a surprisingly insightful disadvantaged Hispanic girl named Esperanza, who has just moved into a poor Latino neighborhood. Esperanza's opening remarks foreshadow a theme that continues to develop throughout the entire novel, cumulating piece by piece until a complete puzzle is produced. As Cisneros' Mango Street chronicles an emotionally pivotal year in the life of a young girl, the author herself presumably draws on personal experiences of being raised in an environment in which she struggles and feels like she does not belong. It is evident that Cisneros creatively expresses her own experiences in her writing, and goes so far as to dedicate the book "a las Mujeres," or to the Women. Though not purely biographical, striking similarities of race and background exist between the author and narrator such that Cisneros…
This ability that she learns she possesses is her key to getting off Mango Street. Esperanza allows herself to move away from Mango Street because her writing ability requires her to be able to take in her surroundings. Early on in the book, we learn that she is very childlike so she wasn’t able to take in all her surroundings which is what was putting her writing abilities on hold. As she matured through things such as sexual and community experiences she becomes more observant. This is what helps her become a writer that allows her to break free and get away. In the beginning of the book, she is very self absorbed. You can tell by the way she describes the stories, they are mainly about her. As the story progresses, she is able to describe her surroundings and things that go on in the community. By the end of the story you can tell she is slowly becoming more distant from her home and more interested in the outside world and new opportunities. At the end of the book she starts to realize who she really is which reveals how writing developed her sense of individuality and changed her throughout the…
The reason is the book say about the process of growing that Esperanza was writing in the beginning of the chapter and she sounds like six years old because she loves to write about her houses that she described many things about her homes that her family and she didn’t always live on Mango street. Before that, they lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that, they lived on Keeler. She writes, “The house on Mango Street is ours, and we don't have to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with the people J downstairs, or be careful not to make too much noise, and there isn't a landlord banging on the ceiling with a broom” (Cisneros 3). This quote is more detail about the rule around her house. Conversely, Esperanza was six years old…
In The House On Mango Street, the main character, Esperanza, describes the hairs of her family members. The way she describes her family member's hairs symbolizes their personality.…
The House on Mango Street is the “coming of age” story of a Mexican-American girl named Esperanza Cordero. The story covers a year in Esperanza's life starting with when she moved to the house on mango street. As the year progresses Esperanza grows emotionally and artistically, as the novel roams through her experience of life. Esperanza, her friends (Rachel, Lucy), and her sister Nenny have many adventures throughout the book. Esperanza has many life experiences including the art of poetry and music also the downsides of poverty and shame. Although the novel includes unforgettable men it also includes women who a trapped in many ways. For Example, Mamacita does not leave the apartment b/c she is afraid of the English language. Rafaela who…
In the first vignette “The House on Mango Street,” Esperanza's is not able to accept that her house will always be part of her. When she is confronted by a nun outside of her house, the nun said “‘You live there?’ The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there.” (Cisneros 5). The way Esperanza feels embarrassed about looking at her house shows her not accepting the house as part of her. She is ashamed of how the house looks from the outside and disregards how this is the house she is growing up in. On the contrary, In a last vignette “Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes”, Esperanza is able to accept that the house on Mango Street will always be a part of her background. While dreaming about leaving Mango Street, Esperanza's notes that her old neighbors “will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out”(Cisneros 79). Esperanza showing how she would return to Mango Street after leaving to help people she left behind shows her growth into adulthood. This idea displays that Esperanza is accepting her…
In this book Esperanza gets affected by the community she lives in and the people that live there. “On the avenue a boy on a homemade bicycle calls out: Ladies, lead me me to heaven(pg 41).” In this sentence Esperanza is being influenced by the people in her neighborhood because someone around her is complimenting her based on how she looks. This type of compliment happened because of the neighborhood and the type of vocabulary that they use where she lives. There are many things that affect Esperanza.…
As a child, Esperanza wants only escape from mango Street. Her dream of independents and "self-definition" also means leaving her family behind without any responsibilities to her family. Throughout the boo, her has also faced some situation where is feels ashamed to be part of the Mango Street community and in some instances refuses to admit she has anything to do with mango street. At the beginning of the book near the earlier chapters, Esperanza feels very insecure about herself in general along with the house that she lives in. As mentioned before she doesn’t want to discuss her name nor where she lives. In the chapter of "The House on Mango Street", "a nun from my school passed by and saw me playing out front. The downstairs dromat had been boarded up because it had been robbed two days before the owner had painted on the wood YES WE' RE OPEN so as not to lose business. Where do you live? She asked. There, I said pointing up to the third floor. You live there? She responded. You live there? The way she said it, made me feel like nothing". This quote reinforces the fact of how apprehensive and shameful Esperanza is during the beginning of the story, where one can clearly see the state of insecurity of Esperanza. This is ultimately contrasted through the progression of the book when Esperanza maturity is shown in the quote," Passing bums will ask, can I come in? I'll offer them the attic, ask them to stay, because I know how it is to be without a house" through this quote you could clearly see the juristic growth from the beginning of the book. Esperanza grows out of her childish and arrogant state to a more confident becomes to feel more empathy towards others, showing her transformation into a confident mature women. Esperanza will even a homeless a place to stay regardless the state or how the house looks like, but she…
On the book The House on Mango Street Esperanza is a little girl that is affected by different situations. There are things that happened to her that shaped her as an individual and change her perspective of life. Female sexuality is a really strong topic where we can see how young females are affected with it and how they see it. Esperanza is a young virgin girl at the beginning of the book and she longs to have a sexual encounter for it is something new for her. She is just a child and things started to happen in her life and mind that prepared her for that special situation. Esperanza and her friends think that by having sex they will become women, real women. Through out the book we see different situations with sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is a big issue that has been taking over little girls’ minds…
What is the american dream? Many people will answer that question by saying being successful in america. Others would say that having a nice house in a good neighboorhood, a good marriage, two kids and a golden retreiver is the american dream. Unlike these beliefs of what the american dream is for many latinos that come to this country the american dream is simply one word, survival. For esperanza her american dream is to get out of mango street. Something that she wishes for and is certain that when the time comes she will do. The house on mango street by sandra cisneros manifest all the stuggles and hardships latinos go through when they come to this country to try and achieve the american dream. Imagine going outside and not being able to read what the signs in the street say, or going to eat somewhere and not being able to get what you want because no one understands the language you speak. This is a huge struggle that all latinos face when they come here, the language barrier. Home is something that is far far away for latino immigrants. Home is family, friends, smells, food, familiar faces, the place you love. Something that most latinos don't have when they come to america. Esperansa knows that mango street isn't the home she wants. Longing for home is sometimes the biggest stuggle of being an immigrant. Something that esperanza has dealt with her entire life. In the story esperanza learns that achieving your dreams are very difficult speacially if you are a latino women.…
In the critical essay over The House on Mango Street, the essayists main ideas, including feminism and the role of women in the “borrio” are evident. Even though those were the main points, and readily proven, I honestly don’t have an opinion on them. The things I really got out of this essay were the details that I missed in the book itself. The first is Esperanza being born on an “evil day,” I had known she was born in and unlucky year, but I didn’t realize the exact day was evil or unlucky as well (Iliescu: 26). The second comes from Elenita's prediction of Esperanza’s future. When we got to this part of the book in class, I remember connecting that line to only Nenny, who was previously the “anchor” holding back Esperanza’s “red balloon”.…