The conflict in this story is an internal conflict. It centers around Margaret and her inability to adapt to new experiences; the conflict also touches upon Margaret’s self-imposed isolation and how she has to embrace new people and places. This conflict is shown at first by Margaret’s temperature. Isolation caused Margaret to become cold, hence why she was wearing a toque during the summer. Her isolation is also shown when Margaret’s “New York information was at best fifteen years out of date” (10). McLean appeals to pathos numerous times throughout the story. For example, he uses the “pin-man” to help the audience feel sympathy for Margaret, an old woman, going to New York. Margaret’s description of the man as seemingly horrific shows us how out of place Margaret is in New York, furthering our sympathy towards her. Margaret also says New York “wasn’t the way she had imagined it at all” (12), making the audience relate to her confusion of being in a new place. McLean also makes the audience see how Margaret views the city, such as how she considers walking alone unsafe. He makes the city seem unwelcoming by describing the dirty …show more content…
Before eating the first mango, Margaret looked at New York as a scary and threatening place. After eating the mango, however, she begins to look at the city in a different way. Margaret eating the mango, something exotic and foreign, shows how she once viewed the city. New York is much different from where Margaret grew up, a seemingly “exotic” experience, much like the consumption of a mango. Just as Margaret begins to get used to eating the mango each day, so too does she get used to the city of New York. The mango also relates to the theme of the story, which is ‘taking chances and trying new things can be beneficial to your life’. Margaret took a chance by trying a mango, and it changed her outlook on New York, and other people as a whole, thus making her life
Miss Hancock, her personality and beliefs were contrasted entirely by her character foil, Charlotte’s mother, “this civilized, this clean, this disciplined woman.” All through Charlotte’s life, her mother dictated her every move. A “small child [was] a terrible test to that cool and orderly spirit.” Her mother was “lovely to look at, with her dark-blond hair, her flawless figure, her smooth hands. She never acted frazzled or rushed or angry, and her forehead was unmarked by age lines or worry. Even her appearance differed greatly to Miss Hancock, who she described as,” overdone, too much enthusiasm. Flamboyant. Orange hair.” The discrepancy between the characters couldn’t escape Charlotte’s writing, her metaphors. Her seemingly perfect mother was “a flawless, modern building, created of glass and the smoothest of pale concrete. Inside are business offices furnished with beige carpets and gleaming chromium. In every room there are machines – computers, typewriters, intricate copiers. They are buzzing and clicking way, absorbing and spitting out information with the speed of sound. Downstairs, at ground level, people walk in and out, tracking mud and dirt over the steel-grey tiles, marring the cool perfection of the building. There are no comfortable chairs in the lobby.” By description, her mother is fully based on ideals and manners, aloof, running her life with “sure and perfect control.” Miss
The House on Mango Street, a fictional book written by Sandra Cisneros is a book filled with many hidden messages. The book revolves around a young girl named Esperanza who feels out of place with the life she has. She sees that the things around her don’t really add up. The story is told from Esperanza’s perspective and the events she goes through to find herself. Through the strategy of fragmenting sentences, Cisneros establishes that the sense of not belonging, creates a person’s individuality that makes them who they are.
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.
They are already in a compromising situation in celebrating her eighteenth birthday at a gas station having coffee which was already established as being not the norm earlier with Marie recounting her own large party where her “mother made a large party” (154). There reality is broken when the teenagers arrive and “One of the girls went to the juke box and put money in” and they are forced to leave because of Carol condition which causes her to have a breakdown from the noise (157). The arrival of the kids forced them to come into contact with their own reality which can never coincide with the one they have fabricated. This small reminder of what the norm is supposed to be is often brought to their attention through others such as when they “could see, in the light shaft of light, a boy, two girls and a dog” (155). In this instance, they are walking on the way to their weekly picnic, which is in itself repetitive, when they are shown the norm of other having fun “the boy splashing in the water with the dog” while they are forced to go through the motions without much emotion. This depiction of the norm unsettles their reality and, even though they don’t stop trying to alter reality to shelter Carol, shows how dysfunctional their own situation is as it can be seen as a potential version of themselves without Carol’s
“The House on Mango Street” emphasizes on this issue, even broadens to explain other controversial matters such as abuse, misogynistic views, and stereotypes. The protagonist, Esperanza Cordero moves to Mango Street where she must witness the abuse affecting her friends, neighbors, and family. Either Sally a close friend, Mamacita a neighbor, or her own mother handling 4 children. Over the course of the novel Esperanza changes physically and mentally. Through the use of imagery as well as complex, descriptive vignettes Cisneros epitomizes the misogynistic views within Esperanza’s
Modern society believes in the difficult yet essential nature of coming of age. Adolescents must face difficult obstacles in life, whether it be familial, academic, or fiscal obstacles. In the House on Mango Street, Esperanza longs for a life where she will no longer be chained to Mango Street and aspires to escape. As Esperanza grows up on Mango Street, she witnesses the effect of poverty, violence, and loss of dreams on her friends and family, leading her to feel confused and broken, clinging to the dream of leaving Mango Street. Cisneros uses a reflective tone to argue that a change in one’s identity is inevitable, but ultimately for the worst.
Throughout life, many hardships will be encountered, however, despite the several obstacles life may present, the best way to overcome these hardships is with determination, perseverance, and optimism. In The House on Mango Street, this theme is represented on various occasions in many of the vignettes. For this reason, this theme is one of the major themes in The House on Mango Street. In many of the vignettes, the women of Mango Street do not make any attempts to overcome the hardships oppressive men have placed upon them. In opposition, Alicia (“Alicia Who Sees Mice”) and Esperanza are made aware that the hardships presented as a result of living on Mango Street can be overcome by working hard and endless dedication to reach personal hopes
However, each work is special and focuses on a different aspect of life as compared to the other. In addition, the thematic ideas between the two works are often correlated and often overlap between the two. Moreover, the multiple thematic ideas in the novel and the movie can still apply to the people of today as they also go through many hard times much like Celie and Esperanza. The House on Mango Street is able to focus on abuse of women, and discrimination of the female gender much like The Color Purple. However, The House on Mango Street is able to elaborate on the topic of maturity especially through the various experiences of Esperanza. Nevertheless, many important lessons can be learned from both the novel and the movie, among these include treatment of women, discrimination, and maturity. The novel and the movie do a wonderful job at emphasizing and focusing on these relatable topics that are vital to the growth of
The main conflict is Ellen’s inner conflict and the effect that her repressed feelings have on her life and her attitudes.
By doing this, Margaret receives empathy from the audience because the audience may recall a point in their lives where they were faced with similar challenges which were very difficult at the time but now they hold happy associations with those times. For example, Atwood begins her second paragraph with “The year as 1962…It was summer, and I was faced with the necessity of earning the difference between my scholarship for the next year and what it would cost me to live.” This excerpt from her essay is critical to establishing nostalgia because for most young adults, money is a problem and many people can relate to this and they believe that it is the end of the world for them if they cannot make ends meet. However, as one grows older, they come to realize that there will be many more serious problems in life and managing finances as a young adult are among the smallest of problems. Throughout the essay, Margaret continues to retell her challenges such as her uniform misunderstanding, her struggles with the cash register and being harassed by the Greek cook, but she fails to retell any of her successes such as earning enough money or any times when she had dealt with pleasant customers. This helps the author to achieve a nostalgic tone because it reminds the reader that
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
Margaret is an intelligent, articulate, and ambitious woman who desires to rise up in social status by marrying a man of higher social rank. She attends to those above her, in hopes of elevating her status as she becomes closer to the upper-class. As a minor character, she plays a small yet crucial role in advancing Don John’s plot to slander Hero and spoil her wedding. As a lower-class character, Margaret serves as a foil to the rich girls, particularly Hero, who embodies every attitude and mindset Margaret does not. But she also offers an alternative perspective on the upper-class characters in the play. Because Margaret is victimized because of her social ambitions, punished for wanting to rise above her ...
Monique and the Mango Rains is a true story about a companionship between Kris Holloway, who is the author of the story, and a midwife in the village of Nampossela, Mali whose name was Monique Dembele. Holloway made it to Mali as she was in the Peace Corps and had been assigned to Mali for two years and was trained to “give health demonstrations, repair wells, build fuel-conserving stoves, plant trees, and protect the shoots from the ever-hungry mouths of goats” (Page 11). It is here that Holloway meets Dembele to try and help make the health care for the women in the area become better. Monique had been apprenticed for two years to train to become a
Upon arrival into the jungle of vast buildings, the first thing noticed is the mobbed streets filled with taxi cabs and cars going to and fro in numerous directions, with the scent of exhaust surfing through the air. As you progress deeper into the inner city and exit your vehicle, the aroma of the many restaurants passes through your nostrils and gives you a craving for a ?NY Hot Dog? sold by the street venders on the corner calling out your name. As you continue your journey you are passed by the ongoing flow of pedestrians talking on their cell phones and drinking a Starbucks while enjoying the city. The constant commotion of conversing voices rage up and down the streets as someone calls for a fast taxi. A mixed sound of various music styles all band together to form one wild tune.
Getting prepared and ready to explore something new is just minor compared to the actual adventure for a senior anticipating the departure of their school trip. I was a member along with 30 other classmates of the co-curricular group called Business Professionals of America, a club organized through our school. Our teachers, club officers, and all of the members had been planning and fundraising for our trip to New York City for months. The excitement grew more and more as each day got closer to take off. All of us were anixious to see The Empire State Building, "Ground Zero," a Broadway play, and the spectacular views of gorgeous ocean sunsets. We had all been told and were aware of the different surroundings of the environment, or culture we would be experiencing when we arrived. Different cultures are common throughout the world, even in different places around the United States. Going on a trip to explore New York City really made the differences in cultures aware to me.