Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
effect of literature on culture
writing experience in your life
writing experience in your life
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: effect of literature on culture
Discrimination has and always will be controversial, whether it is because of sex or color of skin it will always be around. Writer inspiration seems to come from firsthand accounts and experiences, at least that is the case with Sandra Cisneros, a Chicana writer, and Langston Hughes, and African American poet. When reading their stories the reader can identify how different life experiences have influenced and inspired them to write the way they do. Analyzing Sandra Cisneros and Langston Hughes, and pieces of their writing will demonstrate how similar their writing is, how minority discrimination, and cultural circumstances effect and shape different pieces of their respective writings. This paper will highlight similarities, differences and motives for writing the short story, “Woman Hollering Creek”, and poem, “I, Too” all backed up and supported by research done about the author. Born in Chicago Illinois, into a family of seven children, being the only daughter Sandra Cisneros is a Mexican American novelist and feminist writer. She has been one of the first Mexican American women to receive recognitions for her writing and has sold to date million of copies of her well known book, The House on Mango Street. Sandra Cisneros is an inspirational woman who writes about heroines, strong women who overcome stereotypical barriers. But also gives life to characters who dream and long for economic independence, such as Cleofilas in Women Hollering Creek. Cisneros grew up in the “barrios”, or ghettos of Chicago and moved back and forth thanks to her father’s homesickness and love for Mexico. Being the only woman in the family, other than her mother, she lived a suppressed childhood, wanting to be just as independent as her brothers an... ... middle of paper ... ...n. Works Cited Cisneros, Sandra, and Martha Satz. "Returning to One's House: An Interview with Sandra Cisneros." Southwest Review 82.2 (Spring 1997). Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Anna J. Sheets. Vol. 32. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. Literature Resource Center. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. DiYanni, Robert. "Langston Hughes: Poems." Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 708-09. Print. Presley, James. “The American Dream of Langston Hughes.” Southwest Review 48.4 (Autumn 1963): Rpt. In Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Deborah A. Schmitt. Vol.108. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Web.17 Apr.2014. Shiverly, Charls. “Langston Hughes: Overview.” Gay & Lesbian Biography. Ed. Micheal J. Tyrkus and Micheal Bronski. Detroit: St. James Press, 1997. Literature Resource Center. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
As an American short story writer, Sandra Cisneros was influenced by her mother. She made her get library cards and check out books to read when she was young. During her childhood experiences and ethnic heritage as the daughter of a Mexican father and Chicana mother, Cisneros adresses poverty. She is best known for the award winning House On Mango Street in 1983.This book mainly focuses on the treatment of woman in a Chicano community. The House on Mango Street as well as her recent books, Woman Hollering Creek and other stories have won critical condition of hispanic woman. She wrote the house on Mango Street which started without high expectations. Critics say that this book was highly acclaimed, but she then wrote a poem called The Wicked Wicked Ways, and it was perhaps the most widely read. As today, Sandra Cisneros is considered the most visible chicana in literary circles. She received her first fellowship in 1982,an which allowed her to write full time.She writes in very descriptive; yet simple language creating images through personification. She descriptively wrote on the House on Mango Street about Esperanza’s colorful world of beauty and ugliness. She is a writer who writes in her own way, she wanted to write books that were as unique as her. The books she writes are not like any other books she had checked out form the library or read in school. She wrote about her childhood memories and also the every day language she heard in her “vecindad’ meaning neighborhood in Spanish. She lived in an apartment that had no attic, she felt homeless because neither did she have cellars or crannies but, only a basement which consisted of spiders and mice where no one wanted to store things down there. She then realized that s...
Ed. Jennifer Smith. Vol. 11. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Literature Resource Center. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
Symbolism is the key to understanding Sandra Cisneros’ novel, “The House on Mango Street”. By unraveling the symbolism, the reader truly exposes the role of not only Latina women but women of any background. Esperanza, a girl from a Mexican background living in Chicago, writes down what she witnesses while growing up. As a result of her sheltered upbringing, Esperanza hardly comprehends the actions that take place around her, but what she did understand she wrote in her journal. Cisneros used this technique of the point of view of a child, to her advantage by giving the readers enough information of what is taking place on Mango Street so that they can gather the pieces of the puzzle a get the big picture.
The novels The House on Mango Street (Cisneros 1984) and Woman Hollering Creek (Cisneros 1992) relate the new American through the eyes of Cisneros. The women in both novels are caught in the middle of their ethnic identity and their American identity, thus creating the "New American." Cisneros moved between Mexico and the United States often while growing up, thus making her feel "homeless and displaced" (Jones and Jorgenson 109).
Communities are meant to be a space of security in where community members help each other. In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza, a growing child feels the absence of the community’s help. Through a series of vignettes, Esperanza’s child-like voice reveals the dysfunctionality of the community. Esperanza doesn’t find anyone who she can rely on to help her through her coming of age. The situation is made especially difficult because of her Mexican-American heritage label. The ambiguity of her name presents a bi-cultural identity dilemma. Esperanza’s character represents what many female minorities experience, the lack of agency and solidarity their communities offer to them. The constant similes, through a child’s eyes, are also used to compare the lack of agency females have in this community. Although the community seems to be hopeless, ultimately, Esperanza’s character grows to find that there is hope for her community, igniting a desire to come back and help.
Growing up in two cultures, Sandra Cisneros witnessed the major impact of poverty and racism (Norton Anthology 1587). Using literature as an outlet, Cisneros wrote her first piece of literature at age ten (Norton Anthology 1587). The best lessons come to a person once the lesson is experienced. She often writes about the intricate dynamics between men and women. Cisneros displays colorful aspects of the Chicana culture. The Chicana culture is a unique combination of North American and Mexican American traditions. The skilled writer dominates her field by explicitly revealing the similarities and differences between the two societies.
The author, Sandra Cisneros, grew up as a Mexican-American woman in Chicago, Illinois. Her mother was Mexican -American and her father was from Mexico; she makes a clear point the difference between the two cultures. She graduated from Loyola University in Chicago and from there enrolled in a Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. Bad Boys, a book of poetry, was published by a small press company that specialized in Latino literature in 1980. It received little notice. But her first fiction collection, House on Mango Street, was published in 1984 and gained the noticed of the New York publishing establishment. “The work is organized, like Mango Street, around the central female protagonist, whose views of her extended family help to clarify her own character” (Perkins, 390). The story “Woman Hollering Creek” came from her 1991 book of stories entitled Woman Hollering Creek and Othe...
Cisneros depicts Mango Street as a rough neighborhood, but she also conveys a sense of community. She writes down that “we are safe,” (Cisneros, 28) to indicate that she can find the sense of community. Even if the author does not think she belongs to Mango Street, she does not deny that her community lives there. At the beginning of The House on Mango Street, Cisneros states that “I had to have a house. A real house,” (Cisneros, 5) illustrating that after knowing the American society’s evaluation criteria of success, she wants to follow the upward mobility and be viewed as a successful figure not only because she wants to be appreciated but also because white people will change their stereotypes of Hispanic people if they see that a Hispanic woman can be as successful as other whites. Her ambition triggers her to want to explore the meaning of being a Hispanic girl in the real world. Furthermore, in the “My name” session, the author depicts her great-grandmother’s life. “She looked out the window her whole life… but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window.” (Cisneros, 11) Cisneros wants a marriage formed because of love, like most white people do; her desire indicates that she wants to live like the whites, so that they will respect her and the Hispanic race later. In addition, Cisneros points out that she
Sandra Cisneros reveals her feminist views through her novel The House on Mango Street. She does this by forcing the reader to see the protagonist as an alienated artist and by creating many strong and intelligent female characters who serve as the protagonist's inspiration.
In the novel, The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros describes the problems that Latino women face in a society that treats them as second class citizens. A society that is dominated by men, and a society that values women for what they look like, and not for what is on inside. In her Novel Cisneros wants us to envision the obstacles that Latino women must face everyday in order to be treated equally.
Esperanza, the main character of The House on Mango Street, a novella written by Sandra Cisneros in 1984, has always felt like she didn’t belong. Esperanza sought a different life than the ones that people around her were living. She wanted to be in control of her life, and not be taken away by men as so many others around her had. Esperanza wanted to move away from Mango Street and find the house, and life she had always looked for. Through the use of repetition, Sandra Cisneros conveys a sense of not belonging, that can make a person strong enough to aspire to a better life.
Within the works of Langston Hughes the theme of prejudiceness is portrayed in many pieces (Ed 2). Growing up as an African American boy there were situations where people prejudged him just because of his skin tone, of course the situations were hurtful, but it later on helped build a powerful story or poem (Ed 2). For this reason, Langston Hughes often narrowed in on the African American working class (Williams 2). Coupled with the African American working class, an individual 's race created a separation between people (Sundquist 2). The separation of individuals for no other reason but their skin tone infuriated Hughes and he took it to pen and paper to express the differences and opposing treatment of civilians (Sundquist 2). When it came to Langston Hughes the achievement of being the best was not his goal, rather it was to get his words across and let people relate or realize what he is telling. Along with the process of seeking awareness, Hughes worked with the categories “racial insights and national attitudes” (Emanuel 119). In addition to the way African Americans were treated, the chances of working and education were also unequal. The opening for a job tended to be much easier for a white citizen to get when being compared to someone with darker skin (MacNicholas 318). White citizens also believed they were superior and that African Americans were outsiders, therefore African Americans education wasn’t taken as seriously or wasn’t available to them (MacNicholas 318). Keeping the focus of racial prejudiceness in mind, Langston Hughes’ works pinpointed mainly cities and when being interviewed about what his goal in his writings is “Hughes replied “I explain and illuminate the Negro working condition in America. This applies to 90 percent of my work” (Emanuel 68-69). Langston Hughes, being an African
Have you ever had that uncertain feeling inside that something is just not right and needs to be changed? Sandra Cisneros’s novel The House On Mango Street is about a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago who learns more about herself and what she will become in the future. Throughout the series of vignettes, the reader encounters many women who are constrained by poverty and inequality. Women confront situations where they are waiting for men to help guide them, or they get taken advantage of by men. Although Esperanza experiences and witnesses the struggles and hardships that come with being a woman, she eventually understands that being a woman can be powerful, and that she is able to shape her own future.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros tells the stories of a neighborhood of chicago in poverty and it’s residents through the eyes of Esperanza, a young latina girl living on Mango Street. Even though Cisneros tells the stories through a young narrator, adult themes like identity are not lost. Throughout the novella many things are seen to play roles in shaping people’s identities such as; poverty, name, home, culture, and childhood experiences. Through the stories of Esperanza and her friends it is clear that the most prominent factor in shaping someone’s identity is their gender.
Intertwined in allusions to women of Mexican history and folklore, making it clear that women across the centuries have suffered the same alienation and victimization, Cisneros presents a woman who struggles to prevail over romantic notions of domestic bliss by leaving her husband. In the story Woman Hollering Creek, Sandra Cisneros discusses the issues of living life as a married woman through a character named Cleófilas; a character who is married to a man who abuses her physically and mentally. Cisneros reveals the way the culture puts a difference between a male and a female, men above women. In Woman Hollering Creek, we see a young Mexican woman, who suddenly moves across the border and gets married. The protagonist, Cleófilas’ character is based on a family of a six brothers and a dad and without a mom, and the story reveals around her inner feelings and secrets.