First Paper: “The House on Mango Street” In The House of Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros depicts the character of Esperanza as a coming-of-age female who dreams about having a house of her own. The house will bring for her the personal and family stability that she needs; as evidenced by the way the author uses the house to represent Esperanza’s search for what she wants to be as an artist and as a woman. This is significant because it speaks about how people may use their imagination as a means to reinvent themselves. Socially speaking, the concept of property is related to the possession of tangible and intangible things by an individual or a particular group. This idea of property brings benefits for some people: it gives the feeling of having accomplished something in their lives, along with the stability that allow individuals to develop new ideas and projects as a result of having more confidence. More important, this idea of property brings for people a sense of belonging that is a fundamental part of their success in any community. In The House of Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros starts the story with a main character who describes her family journey to a new house, the House on Mango Street. Despite describing a history of constant moving from different places that has ultimately constituted the girl’s family, the author implies in this description a sense of family unity that is based on the premise of acquiring property: “…we were six—Mama, Papa, Carlos, Kiki, my sister Nenny and me (…) The house on Mango Street is ours, and we don’t have to pay rent to anybody…” (p. 3). However, when what people accomplish in their lives do not meet their expectations, frustration and disappointment may come alone. This is Esperanza... ... middle of paper ... ...that defines her personality in terms of who she is away from her family heritage. Rather than assuming a name simply because it was given at birth, Esperanza is looking to create her own history away from her parents and her sister; consequently, changing her name will be for Esperanza a very important part of her process toward finding an identity. “In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting.” For the first time, Esperanza mentions her name, but she implies a negative connotation in it. Her complaint about having a name with so many letters might express her discomfort when trying to be part of a community, because her name has a longer, harder and foreign pronunciation in comparison to the names of her siblings: Carlos, Kiki and Nenny, which are more suitable into the sounds of the English language.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is about a girl who struggles finding her true self. Esperanza sees the typical figures like Sally and Rafaela. There is also her neighbor Marin shows the “true” identity for women on Mango Street. She also sees her mother is and is not like that at the same time. The main struggle that Esperanza has is with beauty. This explains why most of the negative people that Esperanza meets on Mango Street, and her gender, helped her see the mold she needed to fill in order to give herself an identity.
Esperanza is a young girl who struggles with feelings of loneliness and feeling that she doesn’t fit in because she is poor. She always wanted to fit in with the other kids and feel like she was one of them. She loves to write because it helps her feel better about herself writing about her life and her community. Writing helps her with
“The House on Mango Street” emphasizes on this issue, even broadens to explain other controversial matters such as abuse, misogynistic views, and stereotypes. The protagonist, Esperanza Cordero moves to Mango Street where she must witness the abuse affecting her friends, neighbors, and family. Either Sally a close friend, Mamacita a neighbor, or her own mother handling 4 children. Over the course of the novel Esperanza changes physically and mentally. Through the use of imagery as well as complex, descriptive vignettes Cisneros epitomizes the misogynistic views within Esperanza’s
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
Characteristics are what define us as human beings. When comparing and contrasting one person to another, characteristics is used to do so. Characteristics such as physical appearance or emotional perceptions help define how a person is perceived, and how we do, or do not compare in such ways. Authors use descriptions of physical characteristics to help us paint a picture in our mind of characters’ appearance from their books while, characteristics of a character’s mentality help develop a personality for us to relate to. It is important for authors to develop personality so readers can relate or understand the differences from themselves and the characters of their stories. The house on mango street is a book written by Sandra Cisneros which, is about main character Esperanza coming to age. Esperanza speaks frequently about having a house she can be proud to call her own. The house in this story represents both physical and intangible wants and needs of the main character. I cannot compare myself physically due to the difference in sex but, Esperanza and I do have similarities
Esperanza, the main character of The House on Mango Street, a novella written by Sandra Cisneros in 1984, has always felt like she didn’t belong. Esperanza sought a different life than the ones that people around her were living. She wanted to be in control of her life, and not be taken away by men as so many others around her had. Esperanza wanted to move away from Mango Street and find the house, and life she had always looked for. Through the use of repetition, Sandra Cisneros conveys a sense of not belonging, that can make a person strong enough to aspire to a better life.
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.
Sandra Cisneros uses personification and symbolism to affect the theme of the struggle self-consciousness and loss of innocence in a book full of short stories, The House on Mango Street. A young Hispanic preteen named Esperanza, uses a fortune of five dollars to buy a flimsy bicycle. Along with these two other young girls named Lucy and Rachel. The sense of owning a bike is a luxurious dream to them since they live near the poverty line. So, when they receive their bike, Esperanza loves riding it until she rides past her house, which is “sad and red and crumbly in places” (Cisneros 16). The author uses personification to bring down Esperanza to the reality of her situation by portraying her house negatively, which is a reflection of her
This can be seen in the chapter “A Rice Sandwich” when she quotes “Okay, Okay my mother says after three days of this.” We see how Esperanza is ambitious because she has this strong desire to eat and school and is clever at achieving by nonstop giving her mother excuses to go. This is important because it affects her. Since she has this strong desire to eat in school because she taught it was best thing and amazing thing ever. When in reality it wasn’t. In this same chapter she quotes “In the Canteen, Which was nothing special, lots of boys and girls watched while I cried and ate my sandwich” Esperanza thought that eating in school was going to be great, when it wasen't. Cisneros trys to show her readers that things arent always what they seem to be, and cineros shows this Through Esperanza.
Esperanza, a strong- willed girl who dreams big despite her surroundings and restrictions, is the main character in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Esperanza represents the females of her poor and impoverished neighborhood who wish to change and better themselves. She desires both sexuality and autonomy of marriage, hoping to break the typical life cycle of woman in her family and neighborhood. Throughout the novel, she goes through many different changes in search of identity and maturity, seeking self-reliance and interdependence, through insecure ideas such as owning her own house, instead of seeking comfort and in one’s self. Esperanza matures as she begins to see the difference. She evolves from an insecure girl to a mature young lady through her difficult life experiences and the people she comes across. It is through personal encounters and experiences that Esperanza begins to become sexually aware and acceptance her place and self-definition in her community.
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.
In the short story “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, make Esperanza the main character. Esperanza expresses herself in traditional words, her own feelings about life. The image of the The House on Mango Street is located in a poor neighborhood, where this young girl and her family present emotions becoming into a hope of a better life. These feelings led Esperanza convert the idea to own a beautiful house into an obsession. The image of Esperanza and her House becomes a symbol of different ideas such as shame, fantasy, independence, confidence and hope.
Esperanza is a determined character by working hard and dreaming a lot to make it a better situation. (When Esperanza points out that she needs money
Esperanza is a very strong woman in herself. Her goals are not to forget her "reason for being" and "to grow despite the concrete" so as to achieve a freedom that's not separate from togetherness.
From the beginning, Esperanza dislikes herself because of her name. She describes her name as “…sadness, it means