Shame In Esperanza's Identity

Culture has the ability to instill shame in children starting at a very young age. In society thousands of ads and unrealistic standards are shown that can cause shame to build up inside one's self. Cultural issues ranging from body type, to economic status, and even race can become drivers of shameful thoughts and feelings. Shame is a very prevalent concept in real life and in literature. This concept is developed in literature because it is an essential part of real life and who a person becomes as they develop their identity. Authors use the idea of shame to develop the identity of a character and to show how a character is feeling and what the social pressures are in their life. They can also use shame to illustrate aspects of culture

A very prevalent concept in Esperanza's life is shame, and throughout the novella Cisneros uses indirect characterization to show how this idea builds onto Esperanza's identity. In the vignette “My Name” Esperanza was talking about her name and what it meant. She knows that in English her “name means hope” but in her culture “it means too many letters. It means sadness, means waiting” (Cisneros 10). A name belongs to an individual, it is important in establishing identity. It is the person's heritage, and it always had a story behind it. Esperanza does not like her name, and it can be inferred that she feels humiliated for her name and what it means. This shows how Cisneros used indirect characterization to show how Esperanza felt shame. Shame can destroy a person, and her name is just one little piece of who she is that Esperanza feels embarrassment for. Additionally, in the vignette “Bums in the Attic” Esperanza

These insecurities cause her to feel shame for her name, actions, and now appearance showing how the shame inside her builds up throughout the novella by the use of indirect characterization. In the vignette “Beautiful and Cruel” she was speaking to the idea of men coming for women and giving them their future, not the women paving their own path. She think she is “an ugly daughter” and that she is “the one nobody comes for” (Cisneros 88). This further adds on to her shame because it is showing how she thinks that she is so ugly she doesn’t deserve to be loved by anyone. Cisneros is using indirect characterization to show us her feelings, and the shame inside her for her appearance. She is shameful because society puts many beauty standards on girls that are unrealistic by any means. Esperanza has fallen into the trap that many girls have fallen into, and she believes these unrealistic standards. She thinks that she is ugly because of what she sees in her life and this is causing her to feel shame for not only her name and her actions, but now her physical appearance. Furthermore, in her community there are four skinny trees in her neighborhood and she feels like “They are the only ones who understand [her]. [She is] the only one who understands them”. She also compares herself to them and said they were “Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong here but