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“...what woman would not want to be a governor's wife?” Inquired Tio Luis.
“Yes!” Mama exclaimed. “This proposal would bring fame and power to the Ortega family.”
“Of course; to give Esperanza the best education possible; it would be best to send her away to a private school. Preferably a religious one.”
“Like the convent I teach at!” Interjected Abuelita.
This is how Esperanza came to be wearing a starched, rough outfit walking through the halls of The Lady of Our Sorrows School and Chapel. The day had started out badly anyway. Thin oatmeal for breakfast after trying to sleep on a hard, musty bed in a dormitory bedroom with seventeen other girls. Before that she rode economy class, ECONOMY CLASS, on a large jarring bus between two crying
babies. She checked her schedule. Latin. Darn. “Now Miss Orgeta, can you please define the Latin Prefix vinum…. Miss Orgeta? ...Miss Orgeta!” “Oh. Sorry Mrs. Hierra. My mistake.” “Sorry is not good enough. Detention for the next week!” “Yes Ma’am.” Esperanza replied sullenly; wishing that all history of the Latin Language was wiped of the face of the Earth. While she was at it she wished for unlimited flan de almendra and Tio Lis to drop dead.
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.
When Esperanza’s mother has to go to the hospital I wonder if her depression will get worse if she is away from her family. It is so sad that Esperanza feels like she failed her mother. That must be the worst feeling. I think that the mother is going to die and I don’t know how Esperanza is going to take care of herself. It is impressive that she starts to work.
The author of The House on Mango Street and the producer of The Color Purple are able to integrate numerous important thematic ideas. Many of these ideas still apply to our current world, teaching various important lessons to many adolescents and adults. The House on Mango Street is a collection of vignettes written by Sandra Cisneros, a Mexican-American writer. The novel depicts many aspects of Sandra Cisneros’ life including racism, and sexism that she and the main character face. The novel revolves around Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl, who is growing up in Chicago as she faces the various struggles of living in America. The various vignettes reveal many experiences Esperanza has with reality and her navie responses to such harsh
“I was so scared to eat alone in the company lunchroom with all those men and women looking.”(Pg. 54) She is worried about being judged by others that she can’t eat alone. She doesn’t think she belongs. “Most likely I will go to hell and most likely I deserve to be there.”(Pg. 58) She doesn’t believe in herself and doesn’t think anyone believes in her. Later in the story, Esperanza and Sally were hanging out with a few boys. Esperanza wasn’t comfortable and told Sally to come hang out with the younger kids. Sally ignored Esperanza and got into some trouble. The boys took Sally’s keys and said she could only have them back if she kissed all of them. Sally, being her daring self decided to kiss all the boys. Esperanza did not want Sally to kiss all the boys and went to one of the boy’s mother’s. The mother didn’t do anything and left Esperanza. When Esperanza came back they all told her to go home. Esperanza having no confidence to stand up to them, ran away. “I wanted to will my blood to stop, my heart to quit it’s pumping; I wanted to be dead, to turn into the rain, my eyes melt into the ground like two black snails.” Esperanza’s self esteem was so low that just one person can make her burst into
Esperanza, the most liberated of the sisters, devoted her life to make other people’s lives better. She became a reporter and later on died while covering the Gulf Crisis. She returned home, to her family as a spirit. At first, she spoke through La Llorona, a messenger who informed La Loca that her sister has died. All her family members saw her. She appeared to her mother as a little girl who had a nightmare and went near to her mother for comfort. Caridad had conversations with her about politics and La Loca talked to her by the river behind their home.
Esperanza is relying on her childhood to help her through life she feels like “a red balloon tied to an anchor” (9,1,3) This passage describes that Esperanza singles herself out for her differences instead of her similarities and she knows it. She also sees her differences as a source of her isolating herself. She floats in the sky for all of the rest of us to see, dangling from a string. Esperanza is longing on for an escape like a balloon similar to her experiences with our society. However against the face that Cisneroz gives her a light voice, doesn't mean that it's not just as strong and
At the novel's end, Esperanza declares that she is too strong for Mango Street to keep her forever. What is the nature of her strength? How does Cisneros establish this characteristic elsewhere in the book?
Who does not want a home? A shelter to sleep and a roof to dine under. Of course no one wanted to stay home forever, but once in awhile and even when far away, they will long to return to that sacred place, the place where they grew up and the place they have left behind, home. The desire for a home (or house to be precise, though there was not much of a different for this case) was realistically reflected through a fiction work of Sandra Cisneros, a Mexican American write, a story called The House on Mango Street, where we shall discuss about its setting, plot and character.
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.
In the society that Esperanza and her friends live in, love takes a back seat
Imagine being born into a rich, wealthy family, where your last name is respected and well-known by many. To say, living in a big, beautiful house and able to wear fancy silk dresses, so fortunate, that you have servants to cook and clean for you, and every year when it’s your birthday, it’s celebrated big, just as Esperanza Ortega did. Throughout the story of Esperanza Rising the author Pam Munoz Ryan ( 2013) illustrates an image to the reader of a young, rich, Mexican girl who is forced to mature and grow up much faster than expected. Correspondly, at the beginning of the book, Esperanza lives a rich life, to say, she had it “all,” but a sudden tragedy quickly changed her and her family’s life, whereas by the end of the story, Esperanza
Over time, the image of men has changed. This is due mostly to the relaxation of rigid stereotypical roles of the two genders. In different pieces of literature, however, men have been presented as the traditional dominate figure, the provider and rule maker or non-traditional figure that is almost useless and unimportant unless needed for sexual intercourse. This dramatic difference can either perpetuate the already existing stereotype or challenge it. Regardless of the differences, both seem to put men into a negative connotation.
“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.
At first, Esperanza is young, insecure, and immature. Her immaturity is apparent when she talks about her mom holding her, saying it is, “sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you and you feel safe” (Cisneros 6-7). This shows Esperanza’s insecurity because her mom is still a big comfort source to her. She feels a false sense of comfort because her mom is there and will protect her. In addition, Esperanza’s immaturity is shown through her dislike for outsiders of the neighborhood when she says, “They are stupid people who are lost and got here by mistake” (Cisneros 28). This indicates how defensive and protective Esperanza is towards her barrio by calling outsiders stupid for reacting the way they do, even though she dislikes Mango Street....
Sandra Cisneros' strong cultural values greatly influence The House on Mango Street. Esperanza's life is the medium that Cisneros uses to bring the Latin community to her audience. The novel deals with the Catholic Church and its position in the Latin community. The deep family connection within the barrio also plays an important role in the novel. Esperanza's struggle to become a part of the world outside of Mango Street represents the desire many Chicanos have to grow beyond their neighborhoods.