“Only Daughter” by Sandra Cisneros is a reading that everyone can relate to. Even if them - themselves are not going through what the main character, Sandra is going through they may think of someone that is experiencing something similar or have gone through a time that they have not been accepted by someone and constantly trying to seek their approval. Sandra is telling her story of trying to define stereotypes against her own father in a family of six boys and one girl. Sandra Cisneros's “Only Daughter” is a story that breaks a stereotypical theory along with sharing the message that even if you are a minority at the end of the day you will be appreciated, accepted, and respected for by your true colors shining through the surface. In “Only Daughter” Sandra’s tone throughout her writing is centered around her father than any other family member throughout the narration because she has never gotten his love and acceptance as she was growing up in a Mexican family of six sons. Even in the seventh paragraph Sandra admits “everything I have written has been for him, to win his approval -”. Throughout the novel you can start to notice as though she feels her father is trying to erase her. She would notice how her father would go around telling anyone who would listen, “I have seven sons.” Sandra expressed that this was …show more content…
The Mexican culture that her father was pushing onto her believed that the women’s place was at home with a husband. Which is the reason why her father encouraged her to go to college only because it would mean to him that she would find a husband. Cisneros's went through college without finding a husband as she writes “After four years in college and two more in graduate school, and still no husband, my father shakes his head even now and says I wasted all that education. In Sandra’s eyes her education is not going to waste as she is pursuing her dream of becoming a professional
Women are not only assumed to only take care of their family, but to not have the education that they do rightfully deserve. Women can contribute to the world as plentiful and gloriously as men can, but the chances are not given to them. For example, when Minerva tells Trujillo that she dreams of attending the University to study law, he replies "'The University is no place for a woman these days'" (99). Trujillo implies that by going to school to heighten her education, it would be ...
Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago and grew up in Illinois. She was the only girl in a family of seven. Cisneros is noted for her collection of poems and books that concentrate on the Chicano experience in the United States. In her writings, Cisneros explores and transcends borders of location, ethnicity, gender and language. Cisneros writes in lyrical yet deceptively simple language. She makes the invisible visible by centering on the lives of Chicanos--their relationships with their families, their religion, their art, and their politics.
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.
...m. Without the “struggle” which didn’t come easy she wouldn’t have any passion for the person she wanted to be, she would have built the identity she did. She was able to characterize herself through trial and error, the assaults, the poverty, and the abusive men. Without these experiences she couldn’t have defined herself any better than she has. Sandra Cisneros didn’t only write The House on Mango Street for fun or because it was about her life but because many people that come from the same Mexican-American society can relate, even people from other cultures. She states "You, the reader, are Esperanza.... You cannot forget who you are." And Cisneros is right, no matter what the struggle is that you’ve gone through you can’t hide it, you can’t just put make up over it and forget, it’s not possible. The only thing to do is accept it and move towards a better life.
She felt that breaking the standards placed on her by her cultural norms it would displease her tradition loving father. He felt that Cisneros should find a husband and not focus on her education so much. Cisneros writes “I am the only daughter in the Mexican family of six sons” (Cisneros 366). This not only exemplifies the internal family issues of being the only female, but also the external problems of the norms placed on women in a Hispanic culture to be an ideal wife. Tan’s essay emphasized the fact that her race, gender, education and up-bringing played a role in people knowing her writing, even though she does not want it to.
Cleofilas grew up in a male dominant household of six brother and father, and without a mother, she no woman figure to guide her, give advice on life, or how to love a man. Cleofilas turned to telenovelas for a woman’s guidance on love and appearance, and she began to imagine her ideal life through the television series. Once Cleofilas was married she moved away into a home with her husband, were she pictured everything to be like the couples on the telenovelas, but she soon starts to realize life isn 't exactly like how they view it in the telenovelas. In the story Sandra make the statement ‘From what see can tell, from the times during her first year when still a newlywed she is invited and accompanies her husband, sits mute besides their conversations, waits and sips a beer until it grows warm, twists a paper napkin into a knot, then another into a fan, one into a rose, nods her head, smiles, yawns, politely grins, laughs at the appropriate moments, leans against her husband’s sleeve, tugs at his elbow, and finally becomes good at predicting where the talk will lead, from this Cleofilas
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
Sandra Cisneros portraits Clemencia in various ways in “Never Marry a Mexican”. Clemencia is stuck in an interracial world, she wants to fit in, not only fit in but become better, become more powerful and loved. Clemencia is a very resentful woman, she is full of hatred, not only for others but also within her own self. Clemencia is a mistress of several men, but one in particular who she happens to find herself in love with, Drew. Clemencia becomes extremely obsessed with her relationship with Drew. “You think I went hobbling along with my life, whimpering and whining like some twangy country-and-western when you went back to her. But I’ve been waiting. Making the world look at you from my eyes.” (pg. 59) Clemencia’s resentment against Megan, Drew’s white wife, goes beyond the necessity of having Drew, but also involves the belief that she will never be like that “ redheaded Barbie Doll in fur coat” (pg. 64) referring to Megan due to the racial inequality she has grown to experience throughout her life.
The author, Sandra Cisneros, grew up as a Mexican-American woman in Chicago, Illinois. Her mother was Mexican -American and her father was from Mexico; she makes a clear point the difference between the two cultures. She graduated from Loyola University in Chicago and from there enrolled in a Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. Bad Boys, a book of poetry, was published by a small press company that specialized in Latino literature in 1980. It received little notice. But her first fiction collection, House on Mango Street, was published in 1984 and gained the noticed of the New York publishing establishment. “The work is organized, like Mango Street, around the central female protagonist, whose views of her extended family help to clarify her own character” (Perkins, 390). The story “Woman Hollering Creek” came from her 1991 book of stories entitled Woman Hollering Creek and Othe...
... middle of paper ... ... Sandra Cisneros took a risk and got remarkably far with her passion for mixing the cultures and the identities of women. Her voice is what emphasizes the article to show how the goal is to redistribute the language and culture, not criticizing the “New World”.
Intertwined in allusions to women of Mexican history and folklore, making it clear that women across the centuries have suffered the same alienation and victimization, Cisneros presents a woman who struggles to prevail over romantic notions of domestic bliss by leaving her husband. In the story Woman Hollering Creek, Sandra Cisneros discusses the issues of living life as a married woman through a character named Cleófilas; a character who is married to a man who abuses her physically and mentally. Cisneros reveals the way the culture puts a difference between a male and a female, men above women. In Woman Hollering Creek, we see a young Mexican woman, who suddenly moves across the border and gets married. The protagonist, Cleófilas’ character is based on a family of a six brothers and a dad and without a mom, and the story reveals around her inner feelings and secrets.
Disturbing Themes of House on Mango Street, and The Bluest Eye. Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago and grew up in Illinois, the only girl in a family of seven. Cisneros is noted for her collection of poems and books that concentrate on the Chicana experience in the United States. In her writing, Cisneros explores and transcends borders of location, ethnicity, gender and language. Cisneros writes in lyrical yet deceptively simple language, she makes the invisible visible by centering on the lives of Chicanas, their relationships with their families, their religion, their art, and their politics.
In the Book women are looked upon as objects by men whether they are boyfriends, friends fathers or husbands. The girls in the novel grow up with the mentality that looks and appearance are the most important things to a woman. Cisneros also shows how Latino women are expected to be loyal to their husbands, and that a husband should have complete control of the relationship. Yet on the other hand, Cisneros describes the character Esperanza as being different. Even though she is born and raised in the same culture as the women around her, she is not happy with it, and knows that someday she will break free from its ties, because she is mentally strong and has a talent for telling stories. She comes back through her stories by showing the women that they can be independent and live their own lives. In a way this is Cinceros' way of coming back and giving back to the women in her community.
I chose to write about Only Daughter by Sandra Cisneros because I am the only daughter of three children. Therefore, I can relate to this essay because I constantly strive to make my father proud in everything that I do, along with feeling as though I am alone and not understood by my family. My father is constantly in the back of my mind so whatever I do revolves around how I know he would feel about it. Due to this I am more studious when it comes to my education because I know that he will be more supportive the better that I do. Without my dad I would not have come this far in what I have accomplished because I would not have had to prove myself to anyone. Being the first born and the only girl, my parents and family many times do not know how to handle how I feel or what I enjoy because I am more studious out of my entire family. Because of this I
The rifts between mothers and daughters continue to separate them, but as the daughters get older they become more tolerant of their mothers. They learn they do not know everything about their mothers, and the courage their mothers showed during their lives is astounding. As they get older they learn they do not know everything, and that their mothers can still teach them much about life. They grow closer to their mothers and learn to be proud of their heritage and their culture. They acquire the wisdom of understanding, and that is the finest feeling to have in the world.