The House on Mango Street and the Style of Sandra Cisneros

The House on Mango Street and the Style of Sandra Cisneros

Clearly, Sandra Cisneros' writing style is one representative of a minority voice. Her amazing style allows her readers to take an active part in the minority experience. For this reason, I believe Cisneros has had a lot of influence and success in the status of minority writers, especially in the canon of what is read and taught in schools today. But, more than anything, Cisneros has shown that liberation can come through creativity and literature, and not just through geographical excursion.

Cisneros' The House on Mango Street is a novel about the importance of not forgetting where you come from. Esperanza, a young Latino girl and the story's main character, wants to adopt a different name and to move far away from Mango Street. Esperanza wants to get away from the neighborhood surrounding Mango Street and play a greater role in a new society. But, at the same time, she is knows that "You can't forget who you are" (Cisneros 105). Because of this statement, and others like it, The House on Mango Street is very much about maintaining a sense of self-identity. These themes are also present in some of Cisneros' short stories, like "Never Marry a Mexican," "Barbie-Q," and "Only Daughter." It is because of the success of stories like these that have helped Cisneros' audience share the minority experience.

The House on Mango Street illustrates how Esperanza wants to leave Mango Street, but at the same time she knows that at the present moment she cannot. The young girl understands that even though she will one day "say goodbye to Mango," it is a place that was and will always be part of her and who she is. (Cisneros 110). As critic Julian Olivares has noted, "o...

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...ollering Creek and Other Stories. New York: Random House, 1991: 68-83.

Cisneros, Sandra. "Only Daughter," Mascaras. Ed. Lucha Corpi. Berkeley, Ca.: Third Woman, 1997: 120-23.

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.

McKracken, Ellen. "Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street: Community-Oriented Introspection and the Demystification of Patriarchal Violence," Breaking Boundaries: Latina Writing and Critical Readings. Eds. Delgado Horne et al. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989: 62-71.

Olivares, Julian. "Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street, and the Poetics of Space," Chicana Creativity and Criticism: New Frontiers in American Literature. Ed. Helena Viramontes. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996: 233-44.

Sagel, Jim. "Sandra Cisneros." Publishers Weekly March 29, 1991: 74-75.