...The novel The House on Mango Street written by Sandra Cisneros is a story about a young girl named Esperanza who lives in an all hispanic neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. Esperanza is a girl who would like to live in a house of her own and live the life she want but she is anchored down by the constraints of society. The story captures the idea of how women are portrayed and their role in society. Relying on men seems like the only way to live for women. Throughout the novel, Esperanza begins to notice how women are treated by men. She notices how gender inequality is common in lives of those dealing with the injustice. Some women find that getting married at a young age is their way to freedom, others find that education is the key to their...
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...Innocence in “Monkey Garden” In the chapter, “Monkey Garden,” from The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the garden symbolizes the archetypal Garden of Eden from Genesis. Similar to Adam and Eve eating from the forbidden tree, Esperanza loses her innocence in this mystical backyard. As an under-privileged child on Mango Street, Esperanza witnessed adult problems that most children her age would never dream of, especially the maltreatment of women. In this fantastical children’s garden, the kids escaped their real-life problems in search of the lost treasures the garden holds. The rich imagery Esperanza weaves into her description shows the evasion of her problems: “There were sunflowers big as flowers on Mars and thick cockscombs bleeding the deep red fringe of theatre curtains.” The images of Mars and the theatre imply entering a fictional or distant world without everyday challenges. In addition, the kids on Mango fabricate rumors that align the Monkey Garden with the Garden of Eden, “Somebody started the lie that the monkey garden had been there before anything.” Through her escape into fantasy, Esperanza kept her innocence. Through it, she stayed a child until the next day. Despite the seemingly irrevocable purity of the Monkey Garden, Sally’s kissing game with the boys not only defiles the image of the Monkey Garden but also substantiates the gender inequalities suffered by the women of Mango. Esperanza’s love for Sally drives her to protect Sally against mistreatment...
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...Comparative Essay: gender roles in The House on Mango Street and Annie John Question 3: To what extent do male and female literary characters accurately reflect the role of men and women in society? In this essay I will analyse to what extent the characters in the novels The House on Mango Street (text A), by Sandra Cisneros, and Annie John (text B), by Jamaica Kincaid, reflect the role of men and women in society. These two novels criticise patriarchal societies, where “women are taught to think as men, identify with a male point of view and to accept as normal and legitimate a male system of values…” . In both of them, there are clear examples of chauvinism, which conditions the lives of Esperanza Cordero, a “Chicana” who lives in a Latin neighbourhood in the USA called Mango Street; and Annie John, who passes her childhood and part of her adolescence in Antigua, an island in the Caribbean which until 1981 was a British colony. In the following paragraphs, I will describe and analyse diverse illustrations of patriarchal society seen in both novels. These examples will be used to explain male and female roles in this kind of society. Firstly, both societies are more permissive with men than with women. In this way, males are allowed to act freely, while women are constantly being judged for their actions. In text A, we can notice Rosa Vargas’s situation. As the text says, “she is the only one against so many […] [and] cries everyday for the man who left without even...
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...“She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow” (Cisneros 10). This quote is a very compelling line from the novella The House On Mango Street, written by Sandra Cisneros. Sandra Cisneros writes about a young girl, Esperanza, who is a typical young girl, at some moments an adult and at some a child. Except,this child can exhibit adult perception. Throughout the story, Esperanza meets all kinds of women who in the end change her perspective of the world. Esperanza is determined not to become a women sitting by a window, like the rest of her neighborhood. However, Esperanza understands that when she departs from Mango Street, she will continue to protect the women in her neighborhood. Sandra Cisneros...
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...on their individual self-expectations. Magazines, television shows, and books are always coming up with new strategies to help parents cope with children’s expectations for life and other material goods. “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros and “Cinderella” by Anne Sexton both show how kids grow up expecting perfect situations in life like fairytales; the main difference is that Cisneros’ story shows a young person waiting for the parents to provide her with happiness whereas in Sexton’s piece the young girl shows initiative to make her dreams a reality. In “The House on Mango Street,” by Sandra Cisneros, a child details her living situation with her parents. She talks about how they lived in apartments and moved around before finally moving to a house. The house the family finally moves to does not meet her expectations that were created by her parents. Although the house is “a real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn’t have to move each year” (Cisneros 392) it has lots of problems and things seem to break a lot. At one point her teacher passes by the house where she sees the girl playing and reacts in a way that makes her embarrassed of her home. The story ends with her expressing a desire to move to “A real house. One I could point to.” (Cisneros 392) but her parents just say this is how it is for now. “Cinderella” by Anne Sexton starts by giving examples of...
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...Tiffany Scott English 1020 Dr. Hall 5/10/2015 The House on Mango Street The house on Mango Street was based on the life of a little girl named Sandra Cisneros. She wrote the book based on her life growing up. She was born in Chicago in 1954 where she had six brothers and was the only daughter. Growing up, her mother and father moved Cisneros and her brother around a lot. “Because we moved so much, and always in neighborhoods that appeared like France after World War II, empty lots and burned out buildings, I retreated inside myself” Cisneros said when explaining all her moves as painful experiences. She found a way to deal with her life by writing. This led her to writing the book, The House on Mango Street. As the story began the writer explained why she had her name. That girl’s name was Esperanza. She was named after her great-grandma. She never knew her great-grandma but she would have really like to have known her. She never liked her named but it did have some meaning to it. Other than it being the name of her great-grandma it also means hope in English and sadness in Spanish. She then explained how they didn’t always live on Mango Street. Before that they lived on Loomis and before that they lived on Keeler Street. But even before that they lived on Paulina Street and that’s all she can remember. This book is written in a very different manner, it seems a lot like a personal diary. The technique of the book is according to a story told from a girl's point of view...
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...Herrera-Sobek, María. "On the House on Mango Street." Critical Insights: The House on Mango Street, Salem Press, Oct. 2010, pp. 3-8. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=57353698&site=lrc-live. Maria Herrera- Sobek received a Ph.D. in hispanic language and taught at Harvard and Stanford University. She is a associate vice chancellor for diversity, equality, and academic policy and a professor of Chicana/o studies at University of California. The House on Mango Street was published in 1984. The book blew up literature for Chicana/ Latina authors in the 1980s, acknowledging other writers such as Ana Castillo, Helena Maria Viramontes, Julia Alvarez, and many more. The triumph of The House on Mango Street stayed relevant...
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...In the novel, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, future opportunities are portrayed that have many obstacles due to Esperanza’s poverty and home life. Esperanza has future opportunities that could be life changing, Rachel is limited because she speaks very little English, and Sally, who is inexplicably beaten by her father, somehow finds a way to escape. There are multiple people that have a chance at having a better life, but are instead halted by obstacles in their paths. Esperanza longs for a better future. Esperanza, being as poor as she is can’t leave right away “One day I will pack my bags of books and paper. One day I will say goodbye to Mango” (Cisneros 110). She obviously can’t leave Mango street now or else...
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...from The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.” • The except “The Three Sisters” is chapter 41 from the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros published in 1984. • The chapter starts of by talking about three sisters, aunts, and they are las comadres and that is a Spanish term given to Godmother, ‘one with laughter like tin and on with eyes of a cat and one with hands like porcelain’. This gave a thought of maybe witches and further research of the novel/chapter reveals that they are representations of the “three fates” of ancient mythology and these are women who decide, death, birth and lengths of lives. • Lucy and Rachel’s baby sister died, and there was wake or a viewing that happened in their home, ‘anybody who had ever wondered what color the walls were came and came to look at that little thumb of a human in a box like candy’. • Esperanza then makes a wishes and the sister who had ‘marble hands’ called her over to tell her something. o “When you leave you must remember to come back for the others. A circle, understand? You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street. You can’t erase what you know. You can’t forget who you are. … You must remember to come back. For the ones who cannot leave as easily as you.” • “The story approaches the fantastical here (in Esperanza’s point of view), as the sisters seem to read Esperanza’s mind and predict her future. They recognize that Esperanza is already strong enough to leave Mango Street, but...
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...have deeper understandings of characters and have better connections to them. Sandra Cisneros, the author of The House on Mange Street, also choses to use literary devices to give readers a clear picture of her character—Esperanza. Literary devices that she uses make this novel more infectious. Sandra Cisneros uses metaphor to emphasize the character’s struggle with growing up and employs personification to describe the character’s connection to their environments. Cisneros uses metaphor to highlight Esperanza’s struggle with growing up. Esperanza has a little sister named Nenny. As an older sister, she has the responsibility to take care of Nenny and make sure she does not play with bad children in the neighborhood. Esperanza does not have any friends her own age. She feels lonely and states, “Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor” (Cisneros 9). By describing Esperanza as a red balloon, Cisneros shows the character’s attitude about growing up. She wants to socialize with girls who she can easily relate to. Cisneros shows that Esperanza does not have the freedom like a balloon. The metaphor Cisneros uses demonstrates that Esperanza’s responsibility with her family is an anchor tying her down. It stops her from going outside with friends and feeling independent. The author explains how difficult it is to grow up, but also focuses on her character’s surroundings. In addition, Cisneros employs personification to depict Esperanza’s connection to her environment...
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...Simon Adelle UCOR 102 Paper 3 Professor Marcum Making It in A Man’s World April 29, 2013 “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros exposes the life of the main character, Esperanza, for one year as she struggles with trying to find her place in America as a Chicana young girl while also coming of age. The novel starts the day Esperanza and her family of six move into a house on Mango Street, and immediately she expresses her antipathy for not only the house, but also for the area in which they move into and the people around who judge them because of their ethnicity. The story is not told in the traditional format of a continuous story divided into chapters, but rather Cisneros uses forty-four vignettes to allow for the reader to fully understand why Esperanza has the struggles that she has. Along with Cisneros’ illustrating Esperanza’s looking for her identity through images of Esperanza’s thoughts and female obedience, symbolism of violence, legs, the Statue for Liberty, and Nenny, and diction of Spanish words, not using quotation marks, and a maturing tone, she also uses these them to permeate Esperanza’s desperation to leave Mango Street throughout the whole novel. Cisneros’ use of vignettes highlights important moments in Esperanza’s life that emphasize how she develops over the course of a year. Cisneros uses the brevity of the vignettes to enhance the imagery to give the most vivid image through her limited amount of words for each...
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...Athalia Mclean Professor Thomas English 150 11 March 2016 Overcoming life Growing up we all has our childhood struggles that we aren't in crony too of. Although things are out of our hands we have the power to change them. For some this change is so imperative they can't but attacks it head on. In “The House on Mango Street “ by Sandra Cisneros and “The Lesson “ by Tori Cade Bambara both characters are made aware of their social status. Despite both being bothered by it one decides to take it initiative, while the other accepts it. In “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara Sylvia was challenged by Mrs. Moore when she took them on a field trip to F.O.A Schwarz and introduced them to life outside of their neighborhood. The children were not used to this this type of environment to they felt out of place. When they arrived to a popular toy store Sylvia was afraid to go inside, while the other children Boldly step past her. As they embark upon the pricey merchandise they question how people can afford these items. Bambara writes “ Who are these people that spend that much for clowns and 1,000 for toy sail boats? What kind of work do they do and how do they live and how come we ain't in on it ?” (335) In that moment the thought triggers in Sylvia mind, why are these people able to buy such expensive things and why are we not on that level. She started to become aware of the social economic Hierarchy, and the imbalance of wealth being spread amount people. This...
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...The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a fictional novel about a twelve year old girl, Esperanza Cordero, growing up in a poor Latino neighborhood in Illinois, on Mango Street. Esperanza dislikes and is ashamed of her house on Mango Street because it represents her family’s poverty. During this time, in the 1980s, all women’s freedoms are restricted and controlled by the men. In her neighborhood, most women are restrained by their fathers or husbands, leading them to wait for someone to change the present society and let women be free. However, Esperanza is different from all of the women and strives to be independent of her poverty and men. Esperanza tells the story about her struggling to live in her neighborhood on Mango Street...
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... | |Selection One |Author: Alice Walker | | |Why I Chose This Piece: I chose this because of the symbolism it uses on the values placed on old quilts. | |Literature |Title: The House on Mango Street | |Selection Two |Author: Sandra Cisneros | | |Why I Chose This Piece: It emphasizes the symbolization on the emotions that Esperanza feels about her life circumstances. | |Topics |Primary Topic: Find the different symbolism and compare them between the quilts and the house. | | |Alternative Topic 1: Find the tone that is set in both stories and a conclusion on what the conflict is. | | |Alternative...
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...For a writer with quite a small oeuvre--a novella, a volume of poems, and a book of short fiction--Chicana feminist Sandra Cisneros has become widely read and known. Cisneros blurs lines between genres, calling her fiction, often vignettes rather than structured narratives, "lazy poems" ("Do You Know Me?" 79). Her Bildungsroman, The House on Mango Street, is read both as a young adult novel and as a work of adult fiction, and her most recent book of short stories, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991), includes prose poems similar to those in Mango Street [The House on Mango Street], and longer works. Most of her fiction is composed as first-person narratives told to us by the central protagonist. She speaks for people like herself or whom she has known--Mexican and Chicana girls and women who grew up "on the borderlands." According to Cisneros, "If I were asked what it is I write about, I would have to say I write about those ghosts inside that haunt me" ("Ghosts and Voices" 73). Part of those ghosts are the myths and legends of the borderlands, which can hold women back in their quests for self-identity, or, when creatively adapted, can offer possibilities for constructing new cultural motifs. In The House on Mango Street, like Cisneros's childhood home, located in Chicago's barrio, the protagonist Esperanza says, "Mexicans don't like their women strong" (10). One could say that all of Cisneros's female characters either struggle to be strong and succeed, thus transcending...
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