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Immigrants in america today
Now and then character analysis
Immigrants in america
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The novel’s heroine and narrator, Esperanza, is a Mexican girl. She has a big family of six members: her parents, two brothers whose names are Carlos and Kiki, and her sister, Nenny. They lived in America, in different houses that required them to move around each year. When the pipes in their previous apartment broke and the landlord refused to fix them, Esperanza and her family moved to the house on Mango Street, which is owned by them so that they do not have any subject related to landlords or other people sharing the place. However, the house was not as good as they expected, and despite the fact that her parents said they would move out soon, she doubted that it would not be only temporary. The house on Mango Street was an improvement from the previous one, but it was still not the house that Esperanza wanted to claim as hers. She …show more content…
In the next three chapters, Esperanza mentioned about her neighbors: the black old man owning a junk store who she had always been afraid to talk to; the Spanish guy- Meme- with a two-named sheepdog who moved into Cathy’s house after her family left the neighborhood; Louie’s Puerto Rican family living in the rented Meme’s basement apartment and his two cousins. The first four chapters demonstrated the heroine’s background with the desciptions about her family while from chapter 5 to 9, a geographical and cultural picture is shown, from both the past and and the present of Mango Street and the neighborhood. As the story flows on the descriptons of Esperanza’s neighbors, I expect to know more about them as well as others. And since the chapters are short and relies on fragments being connected loosly based on the narrator’s observation, I think the following chapters will still be written in the same way with gradual revolution of linking stories in a more logical
In the book, Esperanza doesn’t want to follow the norms of the life around her; she wants to be independent. Esperanza states her independence by stating, “Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s. A house all my own,” (Cisneros 108.) The syntax of these sentences stick out and are not complete thoughts, yet they convey much meaning and establish Esperanza’s feeling of not belonging. Esperanza’s feeling of not belonging is also emphasized when her sisters tell her that the events of her life have made her who she is and that is something she can not get rid of. Her sisters explain that the things she has experienced made her who she is by saying, “You will always be esperanza. You will always be mango street. You can’t erase what you know” (105.) What her sisters are trying to tell her is that the past has changed her but it doesn’t have to be a negative thing; it can be used to make her a better person who is stronger and more independent. Esperanza realizes that the things around her don’t really add up to what she believes is right, which also conveys the sense of not
but in the end she knew that if it weren’t for those small gifts she
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).
Throughout The House on Mango Street Esperanza learns to resist the gender norms that are deeply imbedded in her community. The majority of the other female characters in the novel have internalized the male viewpoint and they believe that it is their husbands or fathers responsibility to care for them and make any crucial decisions for them. However, despite the influence of other female characters that are “immasculated”, according to Judith Fetterley, Esperanza’s experiences lead her to become a “resisting reader” in Fettereley’s terminology because she does not want to become like the women that she observes, stuck under a man’s authority. She desires to leave Mango Street and have a “home of her own” so that she will never be forced to depend on a man (Cisneros 108). During the course of the novel Esperanza eventually realizes that it is also her duty to go back to Mango Street “For the ones that cannot out”, or the women who do not challenge the norms (110). Esperanza eventually turns to her writing as a way to escape from her situation without having to marry a man that she would be forced to rely on like some of her friends do.
“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.
Esperanza's family has been moving a lot throughout her whole life. Her family consists of six; which is her Mama, Papa, Carlos, KiKi, Nenny and herself. The house on Mango Street is their new home, which is the first house they owned and didn't have to pay rent. The house had a yard they did not have to share, no landlord and no worries of the being too loud. It was a big improvement from the apartment they just moved out of, but it wasn't the dream house they had always talked about getting one day. Esperanza's parents always talked about a house they would have one day that would be all their own. The house on Mango Street was not that, it was small and rundown. Esperanza dreams of a day when she will leave this house to live in her own.
Although Esperanza is constantly reaffirming that she wants to move away from Mango Street, we know by the end novel that she will one day return to help those who will not have the opportunities Esperanza has had in her life. Indeed, in the closing pages Esperanza admits that she cannot escape Mango Street. She can never again call it home, but it has influenced her dreams, formed her personality, and she has learned valuable life lessons from its inhabitants. That is why, explains Esperanza, she tells stories about the house on Mango Street, revealing the beauty amidst dirty streets and unveiling her true inner self, the peace of knowing that her “home is where her heart is.”
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....
Esperanza is the type of person who easily trusts others which makes her susceptible to betrayal. Her naïveté and inexperience is a common recurrence throughout the book as she begins to mature. Esperanza finds a friend in Sally, whose promiscuity often make Esperanza uncomfortable and what ultimately puts her in danger. It is presumed that she gets raped by a group of boys while waiting for Sally at a carnival. Esperanza encounter was not what she had thought it would be. She feels betrayed by how the storybooks and movies depict it (sex) but most importantly she feels betrayed by Sally whom she trusted the most in to come and save her.
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.
The House on Mango Street begins with Esperanza’s large family moving from a rented apartment to their own home. She is unsatisfied with the one bedroom home and thinks it is overcrowded. Living there is not as shameful as the apartment they had come from, but the house is not something Esperanza wants to declare her...
The House on Mango Street recounts the story of a young Latina girl named Esperanza Cordero. The book is written in a series of vignettes, each one telling the story of an event or a person throughout a year in Esperanza’s life. Throughout the novel, Esperanza becomes a representation of a woman that rejects what was once considered a “True Woman,” while Sally embodies it. Esperanza’s descriptions of her outer-self remain negative, and she rejects the idea of staying in one place. She values her freedom, and longs for the day that she finally leaves her home on Mango Street. But Esperanza’s descriptions of Sally are different. Sally is beautiful to Esperanza, but she becomes stuck, her freedoms taken from her in every way. By analyzing Esperanza’s
After reading “The Three Sister”, one realizes that Cisneros is cleverly using metaphors, similes, and short sentence structures to create an allusion to the Greek mythological characters known as the Fates. The purpose of this allusion is to convince the readers that Esperanza will do great things in life because there are greater forces at work. House on Mango Street, written by Sandra Cisneros is a coming of age tale told through a series of vignettes about a Chicana named Esperanza living in the house on Mango Street. Through these vignettes, the reader is able to experience the situations and obstacles she faces as not only a Latin American, but as a woman living in an oppressing society. In “The Three Sisters”, Esperanza is introduced to the three sisters known as las Comadres at her baby cousins’ funeral. There, the three
Back in Esperanza's time and community, women were treated as if they were objects, having attracting boys, marrying young, giving herself away to a husband as the goal of a girl's life. As years slip by, most women just sit next to a window and stare at the outside with eyes full of sadness, imagining a life with freedom and independent will. Nevertheless, they can only dreams of those fantasies, while staring into the nothingness of the walls at home. In the novel The House on Mango Street, we viewed this man-dominate society from the eyes of a young girl, Esperanza, who was expected to be the same housewives that most other Mexican women in her community are. Using simple words and vignettes, Esperanza showed us her keen observations of the struggles of the woman on Mango Street due to their culture
When Esperanza moves in, her neighbor tells her that their family is going to move away because “the neighborhood is getting bad” (13). This implies that Esperanza’s family moving in is part of what is making the neighborhood bad. As more and more people make underhanded comments about where Esperanza lives, she becomes determined to distance herself from Mango Street. When her teacher asks her where she lives, the teacher assumes that Esperanza comes from the most rundown apartment in the area and thus furthers Esperanza’s hatred of the way that she is perceived.