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What are the effects of poverty on children
What are the effects of poverty on children
What are the effects of poverty on children
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In “The House on Mango Street” the author Sandra Cisneros explores the ins and outs of a girl living in a neighborhood of poverty. The main character of the book experiences may things that ultimately shape her into the person she wants to become. Through the book Cisneros explains the experiences out of a person’s control creates a foundation for what they value in life by having Esperanza move houses, go through a traumatic event, and have social normalities forced upon her. Esperanza is first influenced by an experience out of her control when she is forced to uproot from her previous home and move to a new house on Mango Street. Her initial idea of the house was that it was just another house; falling apart like the ones before with, …show more content…
She is influenced by her society to grow up and be a wife to a husband, while her mother tells her how she has to look saying that her, “dusty hair will settle” and that her “blouse will learn to stay clean”(88). However that’s not what she wants. From all of the times of people telling her what to do she realizes she doesn’t want to be like how the world wants her to act. Esperanza states, “I have begun my own quiet war. Simple. Sure. I am the one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate.”(89) She acts this way to prove she’s her own person, that she doesn’t want to be like everyone else, and that she has her own values. She values being independent and that she can make her own decisions. Esperanza has built up a defiance towards all that she’s been told to do. Overall, Esperanza experienced multiple events that shaped her into the person she is. The experiences she had built the foundation for what she values by exposing her to the world around her. By moving to the house on Mango Street and experiencing the traumatic events along with the social norms Esperanza became the person she wanted to be even when the circumstances weren’t in her
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.
This novel is a story of a Chicano family. Sofi, her husband Domingo together with their four daughters – Esperanza, Fe, Caridad, and Loca live in the little town of Tome, New Mexico. The story focuses on the struggles of Sofi, the death of her daughters and the problems of their town. Sofi endures all the hardships and problems that come her way. Her marriage is deteriorating; her daughters are dying one by one. But, she endures it all and comes out stronger and more enlightened than ever. Sofi is a woman that never gives up no matter how poorly life treats her. The author- Ana Castillo mixes religion, super natural occurrences, sex, laughter and heartbreak in this novel. The novel is tragic, with no happy ending but at the same time funny and inspiring. It is full of the victory of the human spirit. The names of Sofi’s first three daughters denote the three major Christian ideals (Hope, Faith and Charity).
“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.
The plot of The House on Mango Street symbolizes an immigrant family moving to the United States in hope of a future with more opportunities. It is a story about a girl by the name of Esperanza and the retelling of the events in her childhood. Esperanza faces many challenges growing up in an underdeveloped neighborhood of inner city Chicago. Through her experiences at home, school, and with people she starts to blossom into the young woman she always wanted to be. Esperanza encounters many unjust acts as a result of living in an urban neighborhood. These encounters make her want to move to a different neighborhood because she feels like she does not belong on Mango Street. She feels trapped because she has a dream to attend college and become a writer. Her hope is that she will be able to live a prosperous American life and be able to come back to Mango Street to help those who cannot escape on their own. It is, most importantly, the story of a girl maturing into a woman an...
Sandra Cisneros born on December 20, 1954 grew up in Chicago settling with a neighborhood known with Hispanic immigrants. Until then her migrating with her six brothers, from different communities in Chicago, and visiting her grandmother in Mexico, she has never really make ones home in. Being the only girl with no sisters, Cisneros only way that would deprive her from loneliness, is by reading books where she found her talents in writing. Fast forwarding to college Sandra Cisneros worked on her master’s degree at University of Iowa Writers Workshop where found her interest as Mexican-American woman with a self-reliant passion and how being a Hispanic were different in the American culture.
The House on Mango Street is a very interesting book about a young Latino girl and her daily life. It is a look through a child’s eyes of the world around her. The story is written in short chapters, explaining different aspects of life from a child’s point of view. The story confronts poverty, physical abuse, discrimination and other issues that we’d never want our children to deal with.
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.
When Esperanza’s family lived on the third floor of a building that looked terribly unlivable prior to the house on Mango Street, a nun asked Esperanza if that’s where she lived while pointing at the building. Esperanza felt worthless as she confirmed the answer. Therefore she wrote, “I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it. The house on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go.” Through this quote, Esperanza revealed her determination to have her own house of which she will not be ashamed to show, but there is also a hint of detachment. Esperanza described the house on Mango Street as, “It’s small and red with tight steps in front and the windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath. Bricks crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in…And the house has only one washroom. Everybody has to share a bedroom…” Giving the house humane physical features, Esperanza painted her dislike for this house clearly in the appearance and comfort aspects. Hence, she detached herself emotionally from this structure because in her world, her house will be beautiful. It will be her retreat and her space, where it will be filled with her belongings along with tranquility. “One day I’ll own
The House on Mango Street are a collection of vignettes written by Sandra Cisneros of her childhood. Cisneros vignettes shows the readers her childhood experiences of a young, inquisitive girl who then blossoms into a independent woman in Mango Street. They range from friendship and family values to scary experiences, but all of her vignettes convey a theme that she tries to express to her audience. One constant moral, Cisneros exhibits to her audience, is the entrapment of females in Mango Street. The author portrays many of the women in either abusive and submissive relationships, waiting for men to change their lives, and some very few wanting to change their life by themselves. The women in The House on Mango Street perceive beauty as
Speaking through her memories as a child growing up in poverty, she tells stories of Esperanza and her friend’s problems at home, discrimination of Latinos and other colored people, along with the mistreatment of women. The book is so meaningful that after reading it, one should not expect to attain the same idealism as the next person. Cisneros does such a good job of making it a book for everyone that it appeals to each individual in its own special way. “The House on Mango Street” is not only the story of Esperanza Cordero, but anyone, who grew up without all the opportunities that one should be so fortunate to have, yet never stop fighting for what they believe in and continue to strive towards their
When Esperanza first introduces herself, she uses words like “lazy” (8) to describe her hair, and says her name sounds as if it were “made of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth” (11). Esperanza views herself in a negative light that is influenced by the opinions of the world around her. She is not confident in herself and her own unique abilities because she does not fit into the mold of a woman conforming to the expectations of society. Esperanza feels she does not belong in the traditional stereotypes of society, and consequently she finds and develops her own abilities,
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.
The story of Esperanza in The House On Mango Street is similar to that of the evolution of a caterpillar to a butterfly. She goes from being a vain, proud, selfish, immature, arrogant yet still sympathetical, child to a selfless, kind, magnanimous young lady. The people, places and experiences that revolutionized her into that is clearly articulated throughout the novel, sometimes obviously, other times inconspicuously.
“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 is a very strong woman in herself. Her goals are not to forget her "reason for being" and "to grow despite the concrete" so as to achieve a freedom that's not separate from togetherness.