In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros the protagonist, Esperanza, is exposed to a variety of potential female role models. By observing characters, like Marin, Alicia, Lois and Sally, Esperanza matures and gains a more complete identity. Esperanza and her friends admire Marin, the cousin of their neighbors, because of her seeming worldliness and maturity. Marin knows about themes foreign to the girls, like makeup and sexuality. Esperanza admires the fearlessness in Marin’s attitude towards boys explaining, “she looks at them without even blinking and is not afraid” [27]. Like Esperanza, Marin dreams of a better life and of moving away from Mango Street, however, where Esperanza hopes to escape through her own abilities, Marin imagines …show more content…
being rescued by a man. From Marin’s wishful ideals, Esperanza perceives the dangers of treating life like a fairytale. By hoping for a chance event to change her life, Marin dooms herself to perpetual dreaming instead of actual change. In contrast to Marin, Esperanza’s friend, Alicia, sacrifices her sleep, her time and the respect of her community to build a better life for herself by getting an education. Although Alicia’s father believes “a women’s place is sleeping” [31], Alicia instead stays up late so she can both study for college and still care for her family. Like Marian, Alicia wants to escape Mango Street for a better life. However, where Marin hopes a man will save her, Alicia uses hard work and sacrifice to achieve her goals. Esperanza admires Alicia’s dedication toward pursuing a better life and perceives Alicia’s bravery in trying to overcome the problems in her environment that others deny, citing how Alicia faces “the mice, the one’s her father says do not exist” [32]. Alicia is a positive role model for Esperanza in a community where few such examples exist and shows Esperanza that she can pursue a life outside on Mango Street. Although Esperanza desires Alicia strength, in “Sire”, she admires Lois, the girlfriend of a neighborhood boy, Sire, because she is childlike and pretty. Lois lives out Esperanza’s adolescent wish to be seen as desirable-- to “sit out bad at night, a boy around my neck” [73]. When describing Lois, Esperanza compares her to a “baby” thrice in a paragraph and connects Lois’ weakness and dependence on Sire with her desirability by asking “Lois who can’t tie her shoes.
Where does he [Sire] take her?” [73]. Lois makes Esperanza consider how desire for a romantic relationship could conflict her wish for independence and autonomy. When Esperanza first notices her classmate, Sally, she idealizes her. To Esperanza, Sally seems to have combined Esperanza’s desire to be attractive with her wish for maturity and independence. Although the “boys at school think she’s beautiful” Sally seems independent-- she spends her time leaning against the school yard fence and dresses defiantly. However, rather than help Esperanza, Sally’s “maturity” contorts her idealistic view of sex, friendship and community. Rather than be independent as Esperanza envisioned her, Sally is abused by her father, partially because of her beauty. When a group of boys steal her keys Sally allows herself to be sexually manipulated under the pretext of “maturity” and mocks Esperanza for trying to defend her. From Sally’s, behavior Esperanza perceives the dangers of growing up too fast. Ultimately, the role models Esperanza encounters in The House on Mango Street help her discover the best way to pursue her desires and see the dangers that come with her aspirations. From characters like Marin, Alicia, Lois and Sally Esperanza is able to learn about who she is and who she wants to
become
The House on Mango Street is a novel by Sandra Cisneros. It is set in a poor, Latino neighborhood around 1960. The main character, Esperanza, is expected to get married in order to support herself. However, Esperanza strives for independence, and seeks to end the cycle of abusive patriarchy that holds Mango Street in thrall. Through the use of syntax and figurative language, Cisneros establishes that a sense of not belonging can fuel an individual’s desire for a better future.
Throughout The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, many symbols, themes, and motifs appear while analysing the story of Esperanza growing up on Mango Street, a poor neighborhood. Symbols are a very big part of this book, because without deeper consideration of the text, this book would just be a series of dull, unrelated stories. One of the most prominent symbols in this story is the symbol of shoes representing our main character, Esperanza, maturing and adjusting into womanhood and her sexuality.
“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
In The House on Mango Street, Cisneroz agitates the theme of diversity through her use of characters and setting. Cisneroz paints a multitude of events that follow a young girl named Esperanza growing up in the diverse section of Chicago. She is dealing with searching for a release from the low expectations that the Latino communities often put women whether young or old are put against. Cisneroz often draws from her life growing up that she was able to base Esperanza's life experiences on and portray an accurate view on Latino societies today. Cisneroz used the chapter “Boys and Girls” and “Beautiful and cruel” to portray Esperanzas growth from a young curious girl to a wise woman. She came into her own personal awareness and her actions that she has to now be held accountable for.
There was another time when Esperanza wanted to eat lunch in the canteen at school. She was not allowed to eat at school, because she lived close enough to walk home for lunch. But, Esperanza wanted to feel special like the other kids, so she convinced her mother to write a note to the nun in charge giving her permission to eat in the school canteen. The mother wrote the note, but the nun was not convinced. So, she made Esperanza go to the window and point to her house. She was too ashamed to point to the old-run-down home where she lived. This was one of her most embarrassing moments. Not to be outdone, Esperanza said, "I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to" (page5).
Sandra Cisneros's writing style in the novel The House on Mango Street transcends two genres, poetry and the short story. The novel is written in a series of poetic vignettes that make it easy to read. These distinguishing attributes are combined to create the backbone of Cisneros's unique style and structure.
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.
Life as a kid is effortless, where the only motive is to have fun. Some people never want to have responsibility and complexity that comes with being an adult as they realize they must take accountability sometime. Likewise in "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza tries her best to avoid is renegade against the normal expectations of women on Mango Street. Esperanza's only way to avoid having to become part of the adult world around her, is by entering The Monkey Garden where she gets to be a kid. Esperanza's depiction of the serene and carefree descriptions of the garden contrast the confused and disturbed attitude Esperanza has towards Sally and the boys' game. As she finally realizes she cannot remain a kid forever, Esperanza feel alienated and alone.
In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, there is an emphasizes on how rough it is to be part of the low economic class . Through her words you can create an image about the way poverty affects children. She goes through the book making great remarks on the topic. The different experiences that Esperanza goes through have a lot to connect with her family's financial status. She specifically describes her feelings about the poverty they live in through three of her short stories. The three short stories in which poverty seems to be an obstacle are The House on Mango Street, Our Good Day, and Chanclas. When the book begins the downgrading of Esperanza's esteem begins with it.
“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.
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
She wanted to give a little sense to the audience on how her life was growing up. Aspired to her life Cisneros writes about conflicts dealing with feeling alone, disgraced, poverty and cultural reliability. As similar to Esperanza the character in “The House on Mango Street”, she would describe her penniless young child, who yearns for security in the house. Making a connection to the book moving for Cisneros was as a nauseated and unpleasant occurrence. Cisneros stated that relocating into neighborhood as in” France after the World War 2”. Meaning that the building was collapsing and the place were dead. In addition, Esperanza had no voice when it comes to authority meaning that she is pressure of being married than having an education. This shows a connection because her father wanted her to go to college just for finding a husband. She stated, “All that college wasted, and still no husband” she had realized that she has been disgracing her father’s approval in chasing her dreams than chasing a man. Prior to her life experiences the novel, the characters were a variety of people who she had encounters at different times in her
“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.
Esperanza, a strong- willed girl who dreams big despite her surroundings and restrictions, is the main character in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Esperanza represents the females of her poor and impoverished neighborhood who wish to change and better themselves. She desires both sexuality and autonomy of marriage, hoping to break the typical life cycle of woman in her family and neighborhood. Throughout the novel, she goes through many different changes in search of identity and maturity, seeking self-reliance and interdependence, through insecure ideas such as owning her own house, instead of seeking comfort and in one’s self. Esperanza matures as she begins to see the difference. She evolves from an insecure girl to a mature young lady through her difficult life experiences and the people she comes across. It is through personal encounters and experiences that Esperanza begins to become sexually aware and acceptance her place and self-definition in her community.
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).