Exploring Syncretism in Bless Me Ultima and The House on Mango Street
Syncretism is the fine line between Christianity and Native American Religions because it is the ambivalent, simultaneous attraction of choice and identification to the influences of two or more religious belief systems. Syncretism is most common among minority groups such as Hispanics. The definition applied to their unique position of culture is brought about by the Native American and Spanish ancestry. Ambivalence is shown even by the word Hispanic, which is an "umbrella" term. The novels, Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me Ultima(1972) and Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street(1984) explore syncretism and how it enhances and exemplifies the issue of ambivalent behavior in regards to the combined use of Native and Christian religions.
In Bless Me Ultima and The House on Mango Street, syncretism is displayed through the actions of both novels to show that syncretism is the "bridge" of ambivalence. Syncretism in context of Anaya and Cisneros' novels, merge Christianity and Native American pagan religions to form the syncretic nature of ambivalent Hispanic Americans. There are several main points in each text that exhibit the issue of syncretism. These points or issues include the "Christ-like" comparison, the witchcraft comparison, and the comparison of pagan religions of superstition and sorcery. The concept of good and evil revealed in the two Hispanic novels through the mixture of Christianity and Native religions is a type of syncretism created by folk Catholicism. According to Ellwin Stoddard's Mexican Americans, the concept of folk Catholicism, "is driven on the idea that the formal sphere of the Catholic church is blended with the Native ...
... middle of paper ...
...on, folk Catholicism. In consequence, Hispanics have in a sense walked a fine line of ambivalence in relation to syncretic religious practices.
Works Cited
Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me Ultima. New York: Warner Books, 2002.
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Random House, 2006.
Dictionary of Hispanic Biography. "Rudolfo Anaya" Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990.
Penguin Dictionary of Religions, ed. John R. Hiumells. 2004.
Stoddard, Ellwin R. Mexican Americans. New York: Random House, 1973.
The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 3rd.ed., v.1. "The History of the Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531.Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
Wiget, Andrew O., "Native American Oral Narrative" in The Heath Anthology of American Literature 3rd ed., v.1. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. 24-27.
King, Thomas. “Let Me Entertain You. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. 61-89. Print.
Heart rate is an indicator to demonstrate the intensity and duration of exercise. The aerobic system falls under the aerobic threshold. The aerobic threshold is “the heart rate above which you gain aerobic fitness, at 60% of our MHR.” (Bbc.co.uk, 2018). Towards the end of the Aquathon the aerobic system can no longer keep with the intensity, so the anaerobic threshold begins in the last few minutes of exercise. The anaerobic threshold “is the heart rate above which you gain anaerobic fitness. You cross your anaerobic threshold at 80% of your MHR.” (Bbc.co.uk, 2018). The anaerobic systems function without the use of oxygen. “They burn through ATP and then turn to anaerobic glycolysis, using glucose and glycogen for fuel with a by-product of lactate.” (Verywell Fit, 2018). When working anaerobically it creates oxygen debt and can only continue to keep working for a few minutes. Oxygen Debt is the oxygen consumption post exercise to replenish creatine
“Someday, I will have a best friend all my own. One I can tell my secrets to. One who will understand my jokes without me having to explain them” (9). These are the longing words spoken by Esperanza. In the novel The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is young girl experiencing adolescence not only longing for a place to fit in but also wanting to be beautiful. This becomes complicated as Esperanza becomes more sexually aware. Throughout the novel, Cisneros argues the importance of beauty and how Esperanza deals with beauty as a part of her identity. When Esperanza meets Sally a new friend, Esperanza’s whole world is turned upside down. Esperanza’s views on beauty change from a positive outlook to a negative one by watching how beauty has damaged Sally’s life.
“Home is where the heart is.” In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros develops this famous statement to depict what a “home” really represents. What is a home? Is it a house with four walls and a roof, the neighborhood of kids while growing up, or a unique Cleaver household where everything is perfect and no problems arise? According to Cisneros, we all have our own home with which we identify; however, we cannot always go back to the environment we once considered our dwelling place. The home, which is characterized by who we are, and determined by how we view ourselves, is what makes every individual unique. A home is a personality, a depiction of who we are inside and how we grow through our life experiences. In her personal, Cisneros depicts Esperanza Cordero’s coming-of-age through a series of vignettes about her family, neighborhood, and personalized dreams. Although the novel does not follow a traditional chronological pattern, a story emerges, nevertheless, of Esperanza’s search to discover the meaning of her life and her personal identity. The novel begins when the Cordero family moves into a new house, the first they have ever owned, on Mango Street in the Latino section of Chicago. Esperanza is disappointed by the “small and red” house “with tight steps in front and bricks crumbling in places” (5). It is not at all the dream-house her parents had always talked about, nor is it the house on a hill that Esperanza vows to one day own for herself. Despite its location in a rough neighborhood and difficult lifestyle, Mango Street is the place with which she identifies at this time in her life.
Sandra Cisneros' strong cultural values greatly influence The House on Mango Street. Esperanza's life is the medium that Cisneros uses to bring the Latin community to her audience. The novel deals with the Catholic Church and its position in the Latin community. The deep family connection within the barrio also plays an important role in the novel. Esperanza's struggle to become a part of the world outside of Mango Street represents the desire many Chicanos have to grow beyond their neighborhoods.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros with all respect is not my favorite book out of our curriculum, but it was enjoyable to read. During this year we had learned about literary elements that can help us enhance the story. To us younger readers, it may be easier to connect to since its mostly a journey of self discovery. Along with this, The House On Mango Street was different to read because its writing style made you think more about the structural form rather than just the words. The author leads you into a journey of
...l unloved at times. His parent's when he was eleven only seemed to aggravate the problem. Discipline was inconsistent, and often he was able to get around punishment by wearing down his mother, who could be easily persuaded to give in to what he wanted. Family finances were strained. Although Charlie went to school in an upper middle-class neighborhood, his family could not afford to buy him as much as many of his friends’ parents. He began to run around with kids who were associated with a local gang and was rejected by other friends because of his behavior.
Ezperanza’s strength shows that overcoming obstacles can make people stronger. Likewise, Ezperanza relates to this when she described the four trees as, “their strength is… [that they] grow down, grab the earth... and bite the sky [and] never quit their anger. This is how they keep.” (Cisneros 74) The four skinny trees depict Ezperanza’s attitude by showing how the tree roots stay alive by overpowering the earth and sky and standing until the end. Empowerment helps the trees survive just as Ezperanza did. The House on Mango Street is one of many books that explain how overcoming problems help people survive. Not only that, the moment Ezperanza claimed that Mango Street would not keep her there forever, the fear
s…l belt you. Is that understood?'; (6). She acted like a military officer from the Second World War. Charlie did not like staying on the farm there was never anything fun to do. The one thing Charlie enjoyed doing was, hiding in the corn patches spying on people and eating corn on the hottest days. On her farm she did not have any animals except for chickens. Grandma Bradley openly admitted she enjoyed slaughtering them when the time came. Charlie was fascinated by Stanley the rooster.22
... along with the negative lone pair of a different water molecule, termed as hydrogen bonding. This hydrogen bonding is a form of a brittle electrostatic attraction, giving rise to a complicated system of molecules. Thus, water is all the more related to chemistry. In fact, most of the processes and chemical reaction comprises of the molecule of water one way or the other, may that be formation of the solution as a solvent, or may that be the testing of the electronegativity of the substance, every where in the chemistry, we see the role of water. Water is not just related to scientific chemistry, but also related to the chemistry of life, as the life form is more or less comprised and build up of water. References Chemistry in Context" Wm C Brown Publishers, Dubuque Iowa, 2nd edition, A project of the American Chemical Society, ed: A. Truman Schwartz et al., 1997
The story of Esperanza in The House On Mango Street is similar to that of the evolution of a caterpillar to a butterfly. She goes from being a vain, proud, selfish, immature, arrogant yet still sympathetical, child to a selfless, kind, magnanimous young lady. The people, places and experiences that revolutionized her into that is clearly articulated throughout the novel, sometimes obviously, other times inconspicuously.
So as always, my parents being the loud people they are, woke me up. I swear if they lived in another house, I would still be able to hear them. Although they were loud, I was tired and I wasn’t gonna let them disturb my sleep. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw my phone get a snapchat, then I saw the long list of snaps. The list was so long, it seemed like it never ended. I was being put to sleep by the sight of loading sign next to the names, with the dimmed screen.
The precious gift of water, we drink it to stay hydrated, bathe in it, are able to grow produce, harvest electricity from it, clean with it, etc. On a molecular level, plants and animals rely on water to produce and survive. Within the cell of an organism, there are different variations of water contained inside. The different types of water are what makes the creation of life possible on earth. Water consists of very unique chemical and physical properties.
The intermolecular forces between water molecules cause surface tension. Molecules on the surface of a liquid are attracted to the molecules inside and to each other. Molecules inside the liquid have no force of attraction because other molecules surround them.
In Guyana Hinduism is said the experience this creolization- in the performances of its weddings, jhandis and ways of worship.