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.…
Perhaps one of the most important theme of The House on Mango Street is the appearance of home and identity. Esperanza, who constantly moving from house to house, did not feel like she was belonging to the house she lived in with her parents. Esperanza searching for a house of her own also symbolized the searching for her own identity. Toward the end of the book, she said that the house she has been searching for is the house she only dreamed of,…
"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…
In the “Hips” chapter concerning the girls’ images of themselves, I learned that Esperanza sees her hips as a sort of gateway and advantage, though she doesn’t know exactly for what yet, as well as they give her a sense of authority to some degree. “They are… ready and waiting like a new Buick with the keys in the ignition. Ready to take you where?” (pg 49) “… That’s right, I add before Lucy or Rachel can make fun of her. She is stupid alright, but she is my sister… it’s obvious I’m the only one who can speak with any authority…” (pg 50) Rachel and Lucy have already succumbed to a certain cultural view of women as eye candy and baby boomers. “[Hips]… are good for holding a baby when you’re cooking Rachel says… You need them to dance, says Lucy.” (pg 49) Nenny is different from Esperanza, Lucy, and Rachel in the sense that she is slightly less pack-minded, and is instead more individualistic. “Nenny… doesn’t hear me. She is too many light-years away. She is in a world we don’t belong to anymore.” (pg 52) Even if her reasoning is off sometimes, she has her own sense of logic, maybe because she isn’t depending on the other three girls. Esperanza, speaking to the girls, says, “You gotta know how to walk with hips, practice you know - like if half of you wanted to go one way and the other half the other. [Nenny says] that’s to lullaby it… that’s to rock the baby asleep inside you.”…
The work of fiction House on Mango Street is written by Sandra Cisneros. It shows the dreams of Esperanza, a little girl who lives on Mango Street, an impoverished area of Chicago. She likes writing and wants to be an author. Both Alicia and Esperanza view education and writing as a pathway to better life. Through these characters, the author suggests that education would offer a kind of freedom.…
As the reader, I can tell that she is extremely happy when she said, “when we pulled up in front of the house on North Third Street, I could not believe we were actually going to live there” (94). She had never even been close to a house of this size. The neighborhood wasn’t all that…
The House on Mango Street, written by Sandra Cisneros, is a growing up female novel written in the style of linked prose poems. The book displays the hardships of growing up as a Chicana while being surrounded by the pressure of the American dream. The main character Esperanza has trouble with her identity, but learns a lot of important lessons from the people around her as she matures. The struggles she faces are what creates her main quest of using her legacy to take control of her destiny. Esperanza sets herself many goals throughout her journey, and meets people who both help and hurt her, and eventually lead her to change her goals and overall outlook on…
The character of Sandra in Connie Gault’s short story called “The Man Who Followed His Hand” is shaped by the life that she has; she alienates herself from her family and community, thus making her an outsider trapped in a life she doesn’t want for herself. Connie Gault develops Sandra’s character by her thoughts and the way she interacts with other people. The party that Sandra and his husband hosted shows her isolation from her family and community. Sandra hates the party and doesn’t prepare for it; she forgets “to put the wine in the fridge” and her “hair [is] still wet from the shower” when the guests arrive (p.68). She refuses to interact with their guests, “[offending] the women by refusing to allow them into her kitchen” for instance (p68). She isolates herself because she thinks that the guests “wanted only to do what other did and not be embarrassed [and] be revealed for what they [really] are” (p.76). She expects more from the people around her but then she thinks that she should be the one to “change rather than [try] to change everyone else” (p.72). She would rather be speechless especially when it comes to his husband because there’s an unspoken anger between them. When Sandra meets the man who follows his hand, she admires him because he depends only on himself and he makes his own path. Sandra envies the man because he can do whatever he wants and she can’t. She wants to dance with the man and cry very hard; she wants to fight with his husband to break the wall that has been built between them but she remains a coward, fearful of speaking up her own thoughts and feelings. Throughout the story, Sandra’s actions and thoughts gives her a strong character, although she mainly shows it by isolation and inability to achieve her…
In House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, a young Latina girl named Esperanza Cordero, grows up in Chicago while going through a series of events throughout her transition from childhood to adulthood. Esperanza, excited to grow up and have the boys watch her dance, develops hips and soon endures sexual assault and other encounters that are the worst parts of growing up. As her future gets told, she is still optimistic of what lies ahead.…
In all aspects of life, women are pressured to be someone they are not. They are put in situations that force them to chose a path of life. In “The House on Mango Street”, Esperanza is forced to think about leaving Mango Street in the future, because she is surrounded by women who are pushing her to become an adult.…
In The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, a little girl from a Latino heritage is given birth to. Not literally, but in the sense of characterization. Esperanza is a fictional character made up by Cisneros to bring about sensitive, alert, and rich literature. She is the protagonist in the novel and is used to depict a female’s life growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Cisneros creates the illusion that Esperanza is a real human being to communicate the struggles of growing up as a Latina immigrant in a modern world, by giving her a name, elaborating her thoughts and feelings, and illustrating her growth as a person through major events.…
The narrators husband John first demonstrated his insensitivity to his wives's feelings as they were moving in the house. While selecting a bedroom, she had wanted one downstairs. "I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But wall paper and slept on a bed that was nailed to the floor.…
by her house, forlorn and sagging, weather beaten and patched”. (The Welcome Table) It sounds as though the house is in horrible condition, and I can see it in my imagination.…
The Younger family, especially Mama, were used to enduring hardship. The loss of money wasn’t going to let them lose their pride or hope. They picked themselves up and on moving day, and they left their old apartment empty, so that they could continue with their plans to live in Clybourne Park.…
Jeannette was sitting in a taxi, when she saw her homeless mother cover in rags, searching through the garbage. Jeannette was felt ashamed of her mother and ended up going back to her home on Park Avenue. Jeannette feels guilty that she is the reason her parents are homeless and she is being spoiled with all these luxuries however, her mother and father reject all of Jeannette’s offers. The only way she can get a hold of her mother is if she called up a friend of hers. The next day Jeanette and her mother met up at a local restaurant for lunch. Jeannette informed her mother that she is worried about her. In all seriousness, her mother asks for an electrolysis treatment and that she should also accept her parents as they are because that is who they were and they were never going to change. This part of the book introduces Jeannette as an adult and her mother who is homeless. I don’t blame Jeannette for feeling ashamed, she is living on Park Avenue yet her parents are living on the street. Her mother’s comments toward Jeannette prove that she is very happy the way she is and doesn’t want to change.…