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The House on Mango Street critical analysis paper
Literary analysis essay about the house on mango street
The House on Mango Street critical analysis paper
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In Sandra Cisneros’ novel, “The House on Mango Street,” Ezperanza Cordero relates her day-to-day experiences as she enters adolescence in a poor urban neighborhood. She introduces her family and friends, presenting their stories and giving a full picture of the community by doing so. The reader sees her grow significantly during the year – from a child content in the many adventures offered by the small Latino neighborhood
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.
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.
“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.
She was not a master of style, plot development or characterization, but the intensity of feeling and aspiration are evident in her narratives that overrides her imperfections. Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, written in 1984, and Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers, published in 1925, are both aimed at adolescent and adult audiences that deal with deeply disturbing themes about serious social conditions and their effects on children as adults. Both books are told in the first person; both narrators are young girls living in destitute neighborhoods; and both young girls witness the harsh realities of life for those who are poor, abused, and hopeless. Although the narrators face these overwhelming obstacles, they manage to survive their tough environments with their wits and strength remaining intact. Esperanza, a Chicano with three sisters and one brother, has had a dream of having her own things since she was ten years old.
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.
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.
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
“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.
“Ages 12-34 are the high risk years for rape and sexual assault.” https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence In Sandra Cisnero’s novel, The House On Mango Street was about a little girl named Esperanza, how she viewed the neighborhood she moved into, and how she just wanted to fit in and have a normal life. Yet she got the complete opposite, she ended up getting violated and assaulted. The main characters in the novel Esperanza, Nenny, her parents, and other people that lived into the neighborhood that she now calls “home”. Throughout the novel it portrays her maturity, innocence, the way she views everything completely different from other girls her age, and assault.
The importance of one’s education is often stressed throughout one’s early childhood and teenage years. The main point sometimes misses with many students, however. In The House on Mango Street, a novella by Sandra Cisneros, the main point- the beauty of education- sticks with young Esperanza all her life. The story follows this girl, a small and confused child, who lives in a very poor neighborhood. As the story progresses, Esperanza ages with the pages and is taught valuable life lessons. Both Alicia and Esperanza view education and writing as a way to a better life. Through these and other characters, Cisneros suggests that education offers a path of freedom.
The identity of these characters comes from all the factors and their experiences, but also reference back to Sandra Cisneros who is the author of “The House on Mango Street”. In an interview based on identity theory by Robert Birnbaum, Sandra Cisneros is asked about the disclaimer at the beginning of her book and her responsibility for what is in the story. She states, “I wanted to admit that characters were based on real people. But I wanted to also say and be truthful that it’s based on real people but it isn’t autobiography. Many books that you read, they have those disclaimers that say that, ‘None of the events and none of the people are based on real life’ and so on… Well, I don’t believe that. I think that as human beings many people
Cisneros’ “The House on Mango Street” beautifully illustrates a young girl’s journey to discovering who she really is. To figure out identity one must go through difficulties to discover themselves that shape a person into a better version of themselves such as Esperanza had to do. She faces many struggles to figure out who she is such as finding her place in a society where men are seen as stronger, living in a place her heart does not connect to, and responsibilities she has towards her family.
Introduction: The House On Mango Street is a series of short vignettes, written by Sandra Cisneros. In the book, Cisneros beings by telling us how she lived in a house, but not “her house”. One day she will have a house of her own. She lived in a poor hispanic neighborhood, in Chicago. She introduces us to her friends and family, and the impact they have in her life. The author was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 20, 1954. She was one of seven children and the only daughter. Caramelo is another of Cisneros’s popular books. Sandra Cisneros’ novels are inspired by her Mexican heritage and her Latina experience in the United States. Sandra Cisneros has received numerous awards for her work, including the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1995 and the Texas Medal of the Arts Award in 2003.