The House on Mango Street Group Essay Questions 3. "My Name" What does Esperanza find shameful or burdensome about her name? Why might Cisneros have chosen this name for her protagonist? “In Spanish, it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number line. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing” (10). Esperanza says herself in Spanish her name has more of a sorrow meaning. Since her name means this, it makes sense to see why she has a problem with it. Also, “Esperanza” was her great-grandmother's name. It is said that she lived most of her life in sadness so this adds to the meaning and mood of the story. Going along with that, she …show more content…
You can tell that she is older and more mature by the way her voice changes throughout the three chapters “And Some More,” “The Family of Little Feet,” and “Chanclas.” “The Eskimos got thirty different names for snow… And clouds got at least ten different names” (35-36). This example from “And Some More” shows her immaturity during this period of her life. The grammar she uses shows how she is in a younger less mature stage of her life. Using “got” instead of have is a sign of younger age and immaturity. “Today we are Cinderella because our feet fit exactly” (40). This other early account of Esperanza’s life in “The Family of Little Feet” shows her liking herself. Specifically what she says in that she likes or is okay with the size of her own feet. It also shows how she does not really care how she looks or what she wears. “What about the shoes?... Everybody laughing except me, because I'm wearing… the old saddle shoes I wear to school” (46-47). This excerpt from “Chanclas” helps show a change in voice through that she has changed into consciously thinking about how she looks. What this change in voice shows is that she has become older. “I open up and she’s… got the socks and a new slip with a little rose on it and a pink-and-white striped dress. Her voice within this shows that she has matured since “And Some More” as well as “The Family of Little Feet” because she is using …show more content…
This is shown when Esperanza is talking to the sisters and the sisters say “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 must remember to come back. For the ones who cannot leave as easily as you” (105). This how the children of Mango street will become the adults of Mango Street because they will never leave and fly away as Esperanza dreamed. The children will all stay put because they, unlike Esperanza, don’t work to change their status. They stay stationary demonstrated by the Vargas family when Nenny isn’t allowed to play with them because they are bad. This negative idea is shown when Cisneros writes, “She cannot play with those Vargas kids or she will turn out just like them” (8). These kids are bad, unlike Esperanza they lack loving parents and do not care enough to change. This shows how the fate of the children is inevitable because the circle if no steps in to stop the rotation through care and nurturing it will never stop and will just continue to rotate ruining lives. Esperanza sets an example for how the other kids of Mango Street can shape their own futures by that she gets her own house and decides that she will leave to go somewhere better. “A house all my own” (108). Esperanza getting a house for
Throughout the course of Mango Street, Esperanza’s relationship towards her house change. As time passes her feelings about the house itself change and the emotional impact of the house of her changes as well. Esperanza’s house on Mango Street symbolizes her Mexican culture. For so long she has wanted to leave it. She envisions a different type of life than what she is used to - moving from house to house. “this house is going to be different / my life is going to be different”. One can look at all the things she envisions - the "trappings of the good life" such as the running water, the garden etc. as symbols for the new life.
Esperanza is a young girl who struggles with feelings of loneliness and feeling that she doesn’t fit in because she is poor. She always wanted to fit in with the other kids and feel like she was one of them. She loves to write because it helps her feel better about herself writing about her life and her community. Writing helps her with
People always struggle to pronounce Esperanza’s name. The kids pronounce it funny and Esperanza notices “at school they say my name funny as if the
Esperanza was a cowardly child who transformed into a brave woman. Alicia and Esperanza had a conversation about Mango Street and Alicia says, “Like it or not you are Mango Street, and one day you’ll come back too,” (Cisneros 107). Esperanza replies with, “Not me. Not until somebody makes it better,” (Cisneros 107). Alicia tells Esperanza that even though she does not like Mango Street, she will still come back, but Esperanza says she will not until someone makes it better. Esperanza does not want to go back to Mango Street even though she is a part of it. Esperanza wants to leave Mango Street for good. Although Esperanza knows she is a part of Mango Street, she does not want to be. The ignorant child believed she could leave Mango behind and forget about where she came from, but little does she know that someone will. When Esperanza decides to leave Mango Street, she says, “They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out,” (Cisneros 110). Esperanza will leave Mango Street to come back and help those who cannot escape. Esperanza is leaving not for herself, but for others. She grasped the understanding that nobody would do anything to help Mango Street, or care about what happens to it, and decides to take matters into her own hands. Esperanza realizes that she has to be the one to change Mango Street. Throughout the story
Esperanza, the most liberated of the sisters, devoted her life to make other people’s lives better. She became a reporter and later on died while covering the Gulf Crisis. She returned home, to her family as a spirit. At first, she spoke through La Llorona, a messenger who informed La Loca that her sister has died. All her family members saw her. She appeared to her mother as a little girl who had a nightmare and went near to her mother for comfort. Caridad had conversations with her about politics and La Loca talked to her by the river behind their home.
Esperanza dreams of someday having a satisfying life. She doesn't want her path of freedom to be cleared by having a baby or finding a husband. She has no desires to fall into the trap of dependency. As the author writes, "Her power is her own. She will not give it away" (Cisneros 89).
Esperanza encountered a few tense situations: “The seventh time we drove into the alley we heard sirens… real quiet at first, but then louder. Louie’s cousin stopped the car right there where we were and said, Everybody out of the car. Then he took off flooring that car into a yellow blur” (24). This being told by Esperanza makes the intense situation seem more innocent. The reader is put into Esperanza’s shoes while she is going through theses situations. This point of view expresses Esperanza’s feelings in a better way and gives the book some excitement in what would be dull places. It also helps readers understand what Esperanza is feeling and connects them to adolescent feelings. This helps the reader connect to Esperanza and her
Esperanza begins as a very wealthy girl in Mexico, and doesn’t think about how lucky she is to have the privileges that she has. She can have almost anything she wants and has to do little work. Esperanza barely even thinks about the lower classes. They are not part of her life. But when her ranch is burned down and her father killed, she has to leave Mexico and enter the United States as an illegal immigrant. But by doing so, she is forced into contact with many people far less wealthy and well-off than her. When Esperanza enters Zacatecas to board the train, she is surprised that they are not in the fancy section. Instead, they are in a car with peasants and beggars. “Esperanza had never been so close to so many peasants before. When she went to school, all of her friends were like her. When she went to town, she was escorted and hurried around any beggars. And the peasants always kept their distance. That was simply the way it was. She couldn’t help but wonder if they would steal her things.” (p. 67). Esperanza has an obvious suspicion of the peasants during her train ride. She tells her mother that she cannot travel in this car , and that the people didn’t look trustworthy. A little bit into the trainride ...
In the book, Esperanza doesn’t want to follow the norms of the life around her; she wants to be independent. Esperanza states her independence by stating, “Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s. A house all my own,” (Cisneros 108.) The syntax of these sentences stick out and are not complete thoughts, yet they convey much meaning and establish Esperanza’s feeling of not belonging. Esperanza’s feeling of not belonging is also emphasized when her sisters tell her that the events of her life have made her who she is and that is something she can not get rid of. Her sisters explain that the things she has experienced made her who she is by saying, “You will always be esperanza. You will always be mango street. You can’t erase what you know” (105.) What her sisters are trying to tell her is that the past has changed her but it doesn’t have to be a negative thing; it can be used to make her a better person who is stronger and more independent. Esperanza realizes that the things around her don’t really add up to what she believes is right, which also conveys the sense of not
Esperanza is relying on her childhood to help her through life she feels like “a red balloon tied to an anchor” (9,1,3) This passage describes that Esperanza singles herself out for her differences instead of her similarities and she knows it. She also sees her differences as a source of her isolating herself. She floats in the sky for all of the rest of us to see, dangling from a string. Esperanza is longing on for an escape like a balloon similar to her experiences with our society. However against the face that Cisneroz gives her a light voice, doesn't mean that it's not just as strong and
At first, Esperanza is young, insecure, and immature. Her immaturity is apparent when she talks about her mom holding her, saying it is, “sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you and you feel safe” (Cisneros 6-7). This shows Esperanza’s insecurity because her mom is still a big comfort source to her. She feels a false sense of comfort because her mom is there and will protect her. In addition, Esperanza’s immaturity is shown through her dislike for outsiders of the neighborhood when she says, “They are stupid people who are lost and got here by mistake” (Cisneros 28). This indicates how defensive and protective Esperanza is towards her barrio by calling outsiders stupid for reacting the way they do, even though she dislikes Mango Street....
In class we read the book House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the main character Esperanza lives in a lower working class neighborhood and street called Mango Street dealing with poverty. Her house is an important symbol in House on Mango Street. It represents Eperanza’s process of maturing as a person and the change in her perspective of poverty and struggle being shameful, to it being something to embrace and use as motivation. This is a very important part of the story because it is in many aspects where we are from that make us who we become. This is interesting to see in the book as her opinions and perspective of things inside and outside of her neighborhood are shaped by her experiences.
This quote, to me, embodies every single one of Esperanza’s dilemmas pertaining to identity, which is a reoccurring theme in this coming of age novel. Esperanza considers her name to be a burden, “too many letters”, “a muddy color”. I imagine that she cringes when her name is mispronounced, hating the attention it brings. Early on, Esperanza fails to recognize the beauty of the name that she carries: hope. Her name, Esperanza, connects her directly to her Mexican heritage, which, in her
Throughout The House on Mango Street Esperanza learns to resist the gender norms that are deeply imbedded in her community. The majority of the other female characters in the novel have internalized the male viewpoint and they believe that it is their husbands or fathers responsibility to care for them and make any crucial decisions for them. However, despite the influence of other female characters that are “immasculated”, according to Judith Fetterley, Esperanza’s experiences lead her to become a “resisting reader” in Fettereley’s terminology because she does not want to become like the women that she observes, stuck under a man’s authority. She desires to leave Mango Street and have a “home of her own” so that she will never be forced to depend on a man (Cisneros 108). During the course of the novel Esperanza eventually realizes that it is also her duty to go back to Mango Street “For the ones that cannot out”, or the women who do not challenge the norms (110). Esperanza eventually turns to her writing as a way to escape from her situation without having to marry a man that she would be forced to rely on like some of her friends do.
Esperanza is a very strong woman in herself. Her goals are not to forget her "reason for being" and "to grow despite the concrete" so as to achieve a freedom that's not separate from togetherness.