House on Mango Street
Chapter 1-The House on Mango Street
"The way she said it made me feel like nothing."
It is hard for me to understand that some people have to live in poverty, and small run down houses without running water and such. When I read this quote I could just imagine a little girl sitting up looking at the nun in her tattered clothes and saying..yes this is where I live. I can just imagine her feeling like she is nothing compared to others.
Chapter 2-Hairs
"But my mothers hair, my mothers hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe, is the warm smell of bread before you bake it, is the smell when she makes room for you on her side of the bed still warm with her skin, and you sleep near her, the rain outside falling and Papa snoring."
When she mentioned her mothers hair it flashed to a time when I was braiding my mothers hair. It seems that all women have a special scent in their hair, and it really is a warm scent one that makes you feel safe. The qote reminds me of a time in my childhood coming home from school and my mother making cookies for us.
Chapter 3-Boys & Girls
"And since she comes right after me, she is my responsibility."
I always thought I would never want a little sister, because of such a huge burden. But tables turned and I now have a god-sister. Ever since then me and her have gotten really close. I really enjoy her company, and she is just like my real sister. She is usually over at our house more then any of my friends come over. In a way I do take responsibility for her. She is around me a lot, and I know that I can't set a bad example. I think she might look up to me, and for that I feel responsible for her care.
Chapter 4-My Name
"I would've liked to have known her, a wild horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn't marry."
My aunt reminds me of Esperanza's great grandmother. She has married once, but then soon divorced. She is very creative and very talented, but she never seems to settle down.
In the poor slums of Chicago, a family living in poverty struggles to get by. In the book, House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza is a twelve year old girl who lives with her family in the Windy City. She lives with her three siblings and both parents on Mango Street. Esperanza has no control over her life and family’s poverty. People who have no control over their life desperately seek change. Esperanza seeks to change her name, her home, and her destiny as a way to control her life.
Women’s Escape into Misery Women’s need for male support and their husband’s constant degradation of them was a recurring theme in the book House on Mango Street. Many of Esperanza’s stories were about women’s dreams of marrying, the perfect husband and having the perfect family and home. Sally, Rafaela, and Minerva are women who gave me the impression of [damsel’s in distress].CLICHÉ, it’s ok though. It’s relevant They wished for a man to sweep them of their feet and rescue them from their present misery. These characters are inspiring and strong but they are unable to escape the repression of the surrounding environment. *Cisneros presents a rigid world in which they lived in, and left them no other hope but to get married. Esperanza, however, is a very tough girl who knows what she wants. She will keep dreaming and striving until she gets it. She says, "I am too strong for her [Mango Street] to keep me here" (110). Esperanza learned from all of these women that she was not going to be tied down. She said, "I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain" (88). **Especially after seeing that Sally was suffering so much. Sally’s father is making her want to leave home by beating her. Sally "said her mother rubs lard on the places were it hurts" (93). There is not enough lard in the world to be able to cure the pain within Sally’s heart. Sally, "met a marshmallow salesman at a school bazaar" (101). Pretty soon " sally got married, she has her house now, her pillowcases and her plates" (101). Her marriage seems to free her from her father, but in reality she has now stepped into a world of misery. This was supposed to help her heal; " she says she is in love, but I think she did it to escape." (101). Unlike the other women Sally has no escape, no poetry, not even papaya coconut juice, not to mention, " he does not let her look out the window" (102). That is why "she sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without his permission."(102). Rafaela’s situation also involves imprisonment in her own home. Cisneros introduced us to Rafaela, a young beautiful girl whose expectations from marriage were to obtain a sweet home to live in. Instead...
She stands a staggering 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighs a massive 95 pounds, and has short, brown hair and brown eyes. I see my older sister Leslie. Others see a model of perfection. Don't get me wrong, my sister and I are close and have been inseparable since birth. My mother has kept pictures of us ranging from the time we shared a playpen as babies to just recently at Leslie's graduation. For seventeen years, we've shared every life experience imaginable, and we've dealt with the trials and tribulations that come with growing up. But in September, she left home to attend the University of California at Irvine, leaving me to face life alone. However, it gave me the opportunity to live life by myself as Ryan, instead of Leslie's little brother.
Everyone has specific characteristics and qualities that make them the way they present themselves. Young, middle-aged, and old people are constantly forming the essentials that affect their self-awareness through their daily activities. Forming one’s identity is an ongoing process, because every person in the world can change people one way or another. In The House on Mango Street, the experiences young Esperanza faced day to day develop her true individuality.
a maiden all my life; I never want to be either a beloved or a wife." This is so
...s to be more than a stay at home mother and wife but feels trapped by the role that she if forced to play.
The narrator spends her young childhood drunk with love for her mother. She happily sleeps late on school holidays, follows her mother ar...
In class we read the book House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the main character Esperanza lives in a lower working class neighborhood and street called Mango Street dealing with poverty. Her house is an important symbol in House on Mango Street. It represents Eperanza’s process of maturing as a person and the change in her perspective of poverty and struggle being shameful, to it being something to embrace and use as motivation. This is a very important part of the story because it is in many aspects where we are from that make us who we become. This is interesting to see in the book as her opinions and perspective of things inside and outside of her neighborhood are shaped by her experiences.
Sandra Cisneros's writing style in the novel The House on Mango Street transcends two genres, poetry and the short story. The novel is written in a series of poetic vignettes that make it easy to read. These distinguishing attributes are combined to create the backbone of Cisneros's unique style and structure.
I am grateful of being who I am as a big sister. As the middle child, I feel that my point of view is the best. I get the whole picture. Becoming a big sister again is something amazing. It is something that some people never get to experience. I feel lucky to have little siblings because I know that with my examples, they can become someone great. The opportunity to be older than someone else helped me become someone better. Some things are to never be forgotten and the memories that I have with and of my little brother and sister are examples of that. Although I am a lot older than my youngest sibling, it will never stop me from being a sister. I feel that it is my job to give the little ones advice and help lead them in the right direction in life. My feelings over this experience are indescribable. If there was anything that I could ever change, I wouldn’t change anything. Not even the dirty diapers I helped change or the staying up late nights with Mom. Thanks to them I always tell myself that I will never have kids until I know for sure what I am doing. I understand that there is a lot to it and I think that I will stick with just little siblings for now. Annoying yet sweet little sister and
The smell of her hair. I remembered that, I remembered the morning after finding my face softly nestled in a pillow of blonde, breathing her in. She had yet to wake, and the sun rising through her barred apartment windows painted crisscrossing patterns on her exposed back.
In the novel, The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros describes the problems that Latino women face in a society that treats them as second class citizens. A society that is dominated by men, and a society that values women for what they look like, and not for what is on inside. In her Novel Cisneros wants us to envision the obstacles that Latino women must face everyday in order to be treated equally.
Ever since I can remember, my big sister Barbara has been my heroine, my role model and, when needed, my substitute mother. She's beautiful, sweet, intelligent, funny and loving. Whatever she did I wanted to do, and consciously or not I emulated her: from choices in men (she favored creative types: photographers, filmmakers and writers for her; writers and musicians for me), personal style (though my Afro was never a big as hers), taste in music and even career choices.
My sister is important to me in a numerous amount of ways. She has taught me to be truthful, kind and to never loose faith. Through her I’ve learned to have self-confidence in all that I do or I won’t limit to half of the things I am capable of. I am very thankful that she is a part of me because I know without her I wouldn’t be who I am today. She has helped mold me into the person I have become. I learn from her that making good choices is one of the most important things in life, no matter the situation. Every moment I have with ...
She was sitting down on a suitcase full of memories with her knees bent together trying not to fall. Wearing a brown flowered shirt that enhanced the color of her skin and a pair of blue jeans, she had a vague resemblance of my mother’s youth. Her head rested on her hands and her elbows on her knees. As two little birds, her eyes soared through the airport looking at nothing in specific. Her nose inhaled the sweet scent of the Nicaraguan people, while her lips quietly ...