House On Mango Street Journal

Reading Journal #4

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (Word count: 8)

Pages Read: 51 pages (pg. 3-55) (Word count: 6)

The narrator, Esperanza, moves into a new house on a street named Mango Street. She describes the inhabitants of the neighborhood and documents her life events and changes. (Word count: 28) Unlike, the previous novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, I could not help noticing the lack of the use of quotations. While it did make me feel uneasy, I feel as if the author did this on purpose to help the plot flow smoothly. This story also differs for the previous novel because while it does not use contractions freely, many of the sentences, I feel, are cut short and are too simple. For example, Cisneros writes,

She is judgemental and unsatisfied child, which can be shown through her disappointment when she describes the house that she moved into and her dream house and her hatred of her name. By her giving $5 to a some young children to make friends, it shows how desperate she is to connect with people. Though a longing to be connected within a neighborhood is typical of a child, a child should not have to pay money in order to make friends. I also feel as if there are many misunderstandings in her childhood. This can be depicted when Esperanza sees the fear in the outsiders’ eyes when they first visit the neighborhood. For example, Cisneros writes, “They think we will attack them with shiny knives.” (Cisneros, 28). However, Esperanza believes that the neighborhood is misunderstood and is quite nice, which can be shown when she states, “They are stupid people” (Steinbeck, 28). However, the neighborhood does not come without its faults. When Louie’s cousin was arrested after crashing the car, it shows how impoverished the neighborhood is. From the context, I assume that he was first being chased for stealing the car. In my opinion, he stole the car in order to impress his parents. (Word count: