Minority: House on Mango Street and Fences
From the abolition of slavery by President Lincoln to the civil rights victories of Martin Luther King, Jr., discrimination against and among minorities is still very real even today. Minority issues are popular themes with writers who would be considered “minorities” themselves. Two stories in particular, Fences by August Wilson and House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, reveal common and familiar minority issues such as race and gender injustices through their writing styles. In the play Fences , the main character Troy, had a big dream of becoming a professional baseball player, but his dream was soon crushed when he couldn't play Major League Baseball because of his race.
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He is building “fences” between himself and the ones he loves like his sons, his wife, and his friend. Troy ruins his son Cory’s dream of going to college and playing football, ruins his relationship with his wife, and leaves his son Lyons when he was just a baby. We also see similar minority issues in the story House on Mango Street whose main character is a twelve year old girl named Esperanza. Esperanza's family is very poor which leads them to move into a “not so nice” house on Mango Street. While living in this house, she gets made fun of by fellow minority neighbors which makes Esperanza motivated to achieve her one and only dream when she grows up, to live in her dream house out of the area where minorities are forced to live. Both of these stories show us that if you don't work hard and just forget about your dream, you will never achieve it, but if you work hard at it, it will come true. While both Wilson and Cisneros are very effective in conveying similar minority issues through the their writing styles, Cisneros use of poetic vignettes and figurative language is more effective than Wilson’s use of a play with a heavy reliance of …show more content…
First off, Wilson shows us the minority of African-Americans by the set time in the play. August Wilson makes the set time of the story the 1950s which is after abolition of slavery but before the Civil Rights Movement. The South was still segregated, and African Americans still faced many hardships in the North. There is very little progress towards equality, so minorities live a very hard lifestyle by being treated differently and unfairly because of their race. One example that shows little progress towards racial equality during this time period was on page four when Troy says, “They gonna fire me cause I asked a question? That's all I did. I went to Mr, Rand and asked him, ‘Why? Why you got the white men's driving and the colored lifting.” This clearly shows that Troy is very upset because the colored are not getting treated as fairly as the white, and furthermore, Troy is afraid they might fire him for asking a question. In other words, a colored man should not question his white boss. We also see racial inequality when we find out that Troy didn't get play baseball professionally just because he was colored. In addition, Wilson uses a lot of figurative language, especially baseball imagery, to emphasize racial inequality. One example, in Act I
Esperanza, a Chicano with three sisters and one brother, has had a dream of having her own things since she was ten years old. She lived in a one story flat that Esperanza thought was finally a "real house". Esperanza’s family was poor. Her father barely made enough money to make ends meet. Her mother, a homemaker, had no formal education because she had lacked the courage to rise above the shame of her poverty, and her escape was to quit school. Esperanza felt that she had the desire and courage to invent what she would become.
As a result of Troy being unable to find a place to live or a job he started stealing to get by. Eventually the situation escalated and he murdered someone in a robbery gone wrong; this led to him being sentenced to 15 years in prison. Prison is where he found his love for baseball. He became quite good with a bat and hoped that when he got out he could play professionally. Unfortunately due to the segregation of the MLB Troy was never able to pursue that career and he is resentful of the situation his whole life.This caused him to be a very bitter person for the remainder of his life and this also caused him to shoot down the hopes and dreams of his son Corey by telling him things like “...The white man ain’t gonna let you go nowhere with that football
Troy has a lower-middle/working class occupation - a garbage man. In Troy's mind, this job is something that enables him to survive thus far. Growing up, Troy experiences many hardships. Escaping an abusive father, Troy corrupts his life with a passion for thievery and irresponsible actions. For example, Troy impregnates a woman; the woman gave birth to Lyons. Because of Troy's irresponsible lifestyle, he is sent to jail; Lyons grows up without a father. Upon obtaining this job, Troy thinks it is one of the most stable aspects of his life. Stability, security, and success - this occupation brings many enhancements into Troy's life. Having a steady income changes his personal ideology of what character traits an African-American male should possess; in particular, what character traits his sons should possess. Troy's son Lyons now lives as a musician. To Troy, musicianship as a career does not provide that level of stability his job as a garbage man provides. Telling Lyons his point of view, Troy says the following:
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.
All of the characters are "fenced in," by various barriers. Troy is working in a job where African Americans can get the lowest and most difficult tasks. On the home front, he has responsibilities to his family. Rose has chosen life with Troy as an alternative to "a succession of abusive men and their babies, a life of partying, or the Church." Troy’s son, Lyons, is supposedly a musician but is going nowhere. Cory has potential but has his dream of playing college football extinguished by both protective and jealous Troy. The characters must deal with hardships of daily life, racial discrimination, straining relationships with each other, and the feeling that this is all their lives are: somewhat of a confined space with no escape; fenced in.
Pride has made itself a huge part of Troy’s life in Fences. He can’t talk to one other person without bragging about his accomplishments in baseball. This pride that Troy suffers was built up by the way he was raised. He had a terrible father who forced him to work and even beat him. In one scene while talking to Bono, Troy starts talking about
Troy is the type of person that only cares about himself and will only do things that benefit him. He does not care about who hurts while doing it as long as he benefits he is satisfied. When Troy was telling Rose about getting Alberta pregnant his excuse was that he, “just might be able to steal second”(2.1.118). Troy was unsatisfied with still being on “first”. He was tired of Rose and the way his life was he just wanted something different. Troy just wanted to steal second. He did not care about how his actions may affect Rose and his family he just did what would make him happy. Troy has no sympathy for anyone in his life. He knows his actions affect everyone around him negativity but he does not care because it is beneficial to him. Being unsympathetic to the people he supposedly loves also proves why Troy is the villain of this
Troy is a very self-centered individual. He is only concerned with issues regarding him. For instance, he wants to be able to drive the trash trucks at his job like the white men do. In Act One, scene one, Troy tells Bono that he talked to his boss, Mr. Rand, about driving the trucks. “How come you got all the whites driving and the colored lifting?” (1332). If things in Troy’s life aren’t going the way he wants them to, he makes himself into the victim and searches for sympathy from others. In addition, if he ever does something erroneous, he never accepts responsibility, never admits his wrongdoing and no matter how much anguish he causes someone, he never apologizes for it.
Troy has a right to be angry, but to whom he takes his anger on is questionable. He regularly gets fed up with his sons, Lyons and Cory, for no good reason. Troy disapproves of Lyons’ musical goals and Cory’s football ambitions to the point where the reader can notice Troy’s illogical way of releasing his displeasure. Frank Rich’s 1985 review of Fences in the New York Times argues that Troy’s constant anger is not irrational, but expected. Although Troy’s antagonism is misdirected, Rich is correct when he observes that Troy’s endless anger is warranted because Troy experiences an extremely difficult life, facing racism, jail, and poverty.
“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.
The idea of the alienated artist is very common in feminist works. Esperanza, the protagonist, is alienated from the rest of society in many ways. Her Latino neighborhood seems to be excluded from the rest of the world, while Esperanza is also separated from the other members of her community. Members of other cultures are afraid to enter the neighborhood because they believe it is dangerous. Esperanza seems to be the only one who refuses to just accept Mango Street, and she dreams of someday leaving it behind. She is considered an artist because she has an extremely creative imagination which creates a conflict with the type of liberal individuality she seeks. This creative "genius survives even under the most adverse conditions..." (Gagnier 137). To escape the pain of this division, Esperanza turns to writing. She says, "I put it down on paper and then the ghost does not ache so much" (Cisneros 110). Gagnier sees a "distinction of the writer who nonetheless sees herself as somehow different, separate..." (137).
This makes Troy the antagonist in the story because he is not only hitting up against everyone in the play, but he is also hitting up against himself and ultimately making his life more complicated. The discrimination that Troy faced while playing baseball and the torment he endures as a child shaped him into one of the most dynamic characters in literary history. The central conflict is the relationship between Troy and Cory. The two of them have conflicting views about Cory’s future and, as the play goes on, this rocky relationship crumbles because Troy will not let Cory play collegiate football. The relationship becomes even more destructive when Troy admits to his relationship with Alberta and he admits Gabriel to a mental institution by accident.
Troy was met with many hardships in his life that left him feeling like he needed to protect himself from the things that have hurt him and could hurt him. The fence that Rose told Troy to build symbolized the barrier that he puts up to protect himself from the things that have hurt him and could hurt him in the future. Troy uses the fence to symbolize the emotional separation and neglect he has towards his family; Rose and Cory in particular. The main reason why the fence took the whole play to complete is because Troy neglected it and spent his time with his mistress which symbolized his neglect towards his family. Cory brings this to attention when he tells Troy that he "don't never do nothing, but go down to Taylors'", which is obviously his mistress’s home (Henderson). This was Troy’s f...
Troy also says “You think only white fellows got sense enough to drive a truck. That ain't no paper job!” Troy continues to fight with his boss about how blacks con not drive the trucks Troy is fighting for himself and other black guys because they all want higher positions in the sanitation department. Troy makes it seem like black people would be able to drive the trash trucks but they would not be good enough to handle the paper or office jobs and this is also saying how black people are a little bit racist
In the play “all the characters are African American, and they must deal with racism everyday” (Fences Themes). Wilson makes his characters lifestyles harsh as though it was for African Americans growning up. The theme racism is also expressed in the play by having the main character Troy experience unfairness because of his race. Troy is appearntley “not fit to play professional sports [because] his skin is too dark”(Kiffer). Wilson also uses the theme dreams, hopes and plans in the play Fences.