Americans often forget or overlook all of the reasons to be honored and thankful for that come along with being a citizen of the United States. “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros and the poem “Learning to Love America” by Shirley Geok-lin Lim. In the story “The House on Mango Street” the point of view is told by a first-person narrator just like in the poem “Learning to Love America.” “The House on Mango Street” has one main character (the narrator) and her five family members who consist of her Mama, Papa, her two brothers Carlos and Kiki, and her sister Nenny. I think Sandra Cisneros choose to add multiple characters so that the reader could get a good perspective of what it must be like to live like the narrator. “Learning to …show more content…
Love America” has two characters, the main character who is also the narrator and her son. The plot of “The House on Mango Street” is about a young girl who lives in a small run down house that she and her family aren’t proud to call home. The narrator feels embarrassed and assumes the nun from her school thinks of her less than her affluent classmates when she asked where she lived because of her reaction when she pointed to the third floor of the building on Loomis. Every family member has to share a room and there is only one bathroom in the house for all six members to use. The family has lived in several dilapidated apartments, such as the one on Loomis where the water pipes broke and they had to get water from their neighbor and use their bathroom. They have always dreamed of owning an average size home in a middle class neighborhood that had a spacious unfenced yard. The family also wanted to live somewhere, where they wouldn’t have to pay rent to anyone, worry about being too loud, share the yard with other residence, or have to relocate every year. This is a dream that most likely won’t be lived because papa always describes the house when he is holding a lottery ticket and mama mentions it when she is telling bedtime stories. The reader can also assume this when reading the family of six doesn’t own their own car yet and when the narrator says, “But I know how those things go” (Cisneros, 552), when her parents tell her that the house is only temporary. The narrator is thinking like a stereotypical adolescent and expecting things such as a nice house, but in reality it takes a lot of hard work to own one. The narrator in the story is also fixed on what others think of where she calls home, where as the narrator in the poem is so grateful to just have a house in general that she can walk barefoot in. The plot of the poem “Learning to Love America” is about a woman who moves to California and who isn’t a native to the United States. She is learning to love America like the title states and is trying to find things to remind herself what there is to love about America. She left her native country to give her son a better life in America, what some would call the American dream. She then comes to realize that America does not have only one ‘type’. This is present when the narrator says “because it has no pure products” (Geok-lin Lim, 1108). She says this meaning that all the citizens that make up the United States come from different ethnic backgrounds, countries, and religions and that there is no such thing as just an American nationality. The names of the characters in “The House on Mango Street” make me assume this family isn’t Caucasian and America may not be every member’s birth place just like the narrator in the poem. The narrator in poem expresses that she misses her native country, but she is finally adjusting when she states “because my senses have caught up with my body, my breath with the air it swallows, my hunger with my mouth” (Geok-lin Lim, 1108). Then she goes on to expresses her gratitude for the United States and the freedom and privileges that the citizens have here when she says “because I live in California, because I have eaten fresh artichokes” (Geok-lin Lim, 1108). This is also present when she states “because I walk barefoot in my house” (Geok-lin Lim, 1108). When she says this the reader can assume that the narrator comes from a country where this is prohibited and enjoys this privilege to do as you please in your own home. The narrator then also acknowledges that her son is a symbol of America and with her son, she also gets a part of America. She also states “because countries are in our blood and we bleed them” (Geok-lin Lim, 1108). The meaning of that is we as humans take pride in the countries we come from and represent them. The last line of the poem is “because it is late and too late to change my mind, because it is time” (Geok-lin Lim, 1108). This lets the reader know the Narrator realizes this is the best choice for her son and her and they have already made the journey. The setting in the short story “The House on Mango Street” is a small red brick house that’s falling apart located on Mango Street, in a poor neighborhood. From what is described the story sounds like it takes place somewhere in America outside of a middle class community. I think this because many people in America live pay check to pay check and have the same exact living situations or similar to the narrator and her family. I also get this idea from the fact that the narrator attends a Catholic school.
The setting in the poem “Learning to Love America” is in the United States in the state of California, inside the home of the narrator. I’m assuming it's somewhere near the coast because the narrator says “because the Pacific Ocean sweeps along the coastline, because the water of the ocean is cold, and because land is better than ocean” (Geok-lin Lim, 1108). I think this because I assume she would only know the temperature of the ocean if she were near it and would appreciate being on the land due to the coldness. This may indicate that she and her son travel via boat to America and had a long cold journey across the sea. Also because of this I’d also assume it’s either fall or winter in California at the time. I feel that the main character in “Learning to Love America” is more grateful for her life and the privileges she has lived in America as opposed to the main character in “The House on Mango Street”, though this could be due to the fact that the main character is not a native and is much older than the main character in “The House on Mango Street.” There are two themes of “The House on Mango Street” and “Learning to Love America” the first is to appreciate all that you have because there is always someone who has less than you and struggles
more. The second theme is always strive to better yourself and the life you live. The narrator in the story and her family can make their dream of having a nicer house a reality if they try. It might not be easy, or the exact way they envision, but anything is possible. The narrator in the poem proved that making a better life for yourself is possible even with challenges when she left her native country and decided to raise her son in America.
Have you ever loved a place as a child, but as you got older you realized how sugar coated it really was? Well, that is how Jacqueline Woodson felt about her mother’s hometown and where she went every summer for vacation. The story, When A Southern Town Broke A Heart, starts off with the author feeling as if Greenville is her home. But one year when she has 9 she saw it as the racist place it really is. This causes her to feel betrayed, but also as if she isn't the naive little girl she once was. By observing this change, you can conclude that the theme she is trying to convey is that as you get older, you also get wiser.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is about a girl who struggles finding her true self. Esperanza sees the typical figures like Sally and Rafaela. There is also her neighbor Marin shows the “true” identity for women on Mango Street. She also sees her mother is and is not like that at the same time. The main struggle that Esperanza has is with beauty. This explains why most of the negative people that Esperanza meets on Mango Street, and her gender, helped her see the mold she needed to fill in order to give herself an identity.
Various people have different beliefs on the importance of having dreams The speaker in “Kitchenette Building,” by Gwendolyn Brooks and Beneatha in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry both have contrasting views on the significance of dreams. In the poem “Kitchenette Building,” the speaker discusses how arduous it is for a dream to survive the hardships and harsh realities of life in a cramped kitchenette
The poem begins with the speaker addressing her moving to America, whilst using poetic devices to reveal the blending of the ethnic groups in America. The speaker tells us that “everyone seemed more American/than we, newly arrived/foreign dirt still on our soles” (Alvarez 1-30). Upon arriving, the narrator feels foreign right off the bat as other immigrants appear to be more adopted into America. The harsh word “dirt” helps to portray to the reader that although the foreign dirt is still on her shoes, the speaker leaves behind her native country, but still naturally carries her roots with her. The soil wears off eventually as revealed when the speaker mentions that “By year’s end, a sprinkler waving/like a flag on our mowed lawn,/we were blended into the block” (Alvarez 4-6). The simile of the sprinkler on the lawn recognizes that much like the spraying of the sprinkler symbolizes the speaker’s family finally being used to their new home, it can be compared to the waving of a flag that symbolizes the family embracing America. The word choice of...
The narrator also discusses about a girl about the same age as her would have never been the “right kind of American.” Minorities such as the African Americans, Dominican Americans and any other ethnicity that came to America were looked right under the microscope. This perplexed me I do not understand why they are treated unfairly by the “True Americans.” There is no such thing as True Americans and that this poem definitely targeted it's audience through racial discrimination rather than cultural changes within a neighborhood in Queens, NY. Another Poet had a much refined and unique style of another part of New York City, he is one of my favorite poets Langston Hughes.
In the novel The Great Gatsby, by F.Scott Fitzgerald and Chicago. Directed by Rob Marshall, they all wanted two things money, and power. Both characters had a false view of the American Dream ,they thought having both money and power will solve their problems but in reality, them trying to achieve their goals only made life worse in their case. Also how they view their accomplishments ruin their life, both characters all wanted to be happy. Gatsby wanted money to have his love of his life, and Roxie wanted money and power to get away from her old life.
As the chapter opens, the first impression of Sire is one of a James Dean type of character. Sire and his friends are just sitting on their bikes, pitching pennies, or in other words, gambling. Esperanza tells us that she is scared of them, which makes me wonder why she would be afraid of them? She then says how her dad calls him a “punk.”
A common theme shared by "Dreams" and "A Dream Deferred" is that you should keep on working to fulfill your dreams because if you don't, you will never achieve them and your life will be miserable. Hughes uses imagery and figures of speech to showcase and develop this theme throughout the two poems. In "Dreams," Hughes writes,"Hold..." This decisive use if a metaphor illustrates how life would be much more difficult and sad if we gave up on our dreams. In "A Dream Deferred," Hughes writes,"Does...?"
Gabriela Quintanilla Mrs. Allen A.P English 12 12 March 2014 The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros once said “'Hispanic' is English for a person of Latino origin who wants to be accepted by the white status quo. ’ Latino' is the word we have always used for ourselves.” In the novel I read, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, the main character, a twelve-year-old Chicana (Mexican-American girl), Esperanza, saw self-definition as a struggle, this was a major theme in the novel through Esperanza’s actions and the ones around her. Esperanza tries to find identity in herself as a woman as well as an artist throughout the novel through her encounters.
Every cold Alberta winter, or dry summer, makes me long for the East Coast. When I grow tired of the brown dirty hills of Alberta, I can close my eyes and picture being back in New Brunswick, bright green meadows and clear rivers. I miss how the fog creeps into your yard in the early mornings, the bittersweet smell of the sea that never could be washed out, I miss the feeling of home. As a child, my family and I would road trip, traveling East to the sea. I remember how the vastness of Alberta would change into the golden prairies of Saskatchewan, then shift into the forested hills of Ontario, and finally the calm rocky shores of New Brunswick. I remember the house we lived in, white paint peeling off the sides of the house, a Canadian and Arcadian flag flying on the porch (put there by my historian of a cousin), floral green wallpaper clashing with antique, mismatched furniture. That house has been in my family for generations, each of our stories have been told, beautiful new memories have been made there. I miss it so much. I miss the beach side bonfires, sparks drifting so far away they became stars, the rainy marketplace days, coming home and smelling like fish. The Alberta cold makes my heartache, I want to go home. My home is a comfortable old cabin, where I grew to not be scared of a
The film, Life is Beautiful, and the memoir, Night, were both composed to tell about events in the same time period. Although many aspects of these are the same, the memoir and film differ in a numerous amount of ways.
Poems are forms of communication that give an applicable view of the past, present and future events. Reading the poem titled “America”, written by Richard Blanco brought me memories from my childhood in my parent’s house and also what is happening now in my house as a parent. The poem explains how one person doesn’t have all the knowledge about something. It also, describes the daily life struggles I experienced during my childhood, when my parent 's and I moved from our hometown to live in another town becuase of their work and it brings to light the conflict of cultures I and my children are going through since we moved to United State of America .
Dreams are goals in life where people aspire to execute their passionate desire to an extent where it motivates them, allowing many to grasp their objectives (Dictionary). However, the dream can consume someone’s thoughts and acts, altering their persona. The nature of each protagonist in the novel, The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, and in the film American Gangster by Ridley Scott, were very similar due to the fact that their dreams destroyed their character. The protagonist in The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, first aspired to become a rich man. In efforts of fulfilling his desires, his own dream destructed his emotional conscious. Similarly, the main character of American Gangster, Frank Lucas was destructed, but by immorality and wrongdoing
...in her essay “No Name Woman”. The Chinese tradition of story telling is kept by Kingston in her books. Becoming Americanized allowed these women the freedom to show their rebellious side and make their own choices. Rebelling against the ideals of their culture but at the same time preserving some of the heritage they grew up with. Both woman overcame many obstacles and broke free of old cultural ways which allowed them an identity in a new culture. But most importantly they were able to find identity while preserving cultural heritage.
What is a dream deferred? Is it something children imagine and lose as they grow up. Do dreams ever die, as we find out, the world is it what it seems. The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and Harlem by Langston Hughes talk about dreams deferred. It shows a African American family struggling to make their dreams a reality. Although Walter, Ruth, Mama, and Beneatha live in the same house, their dreams are all different from each other.