Who does not want a home? A shelter to sleep and a roof to dine under. Of course no one wanted to stay home forever, but once in awhile and even when far away, they will long to return to that sacred place, the place where they grew up and the place they have left behind, home. The desire for a home (or house to be precise, though there was not much of a different for this case) was realistically reflected through a fiction work of Sandra Cisneros, a Mexican American write, a story called The House on Mango Street, where we shall discuss about its setting, plot and character. The setting was never clearly stated in the story, and the process of putting it together here will involve some spoiler for the plot. So far the only thing we known …show more content…
It all started with the narrator (who for the rest of this, I will sometimes refer to as she, because of my faint belief that the writer wrote this fiction to tell about her life in a way), saying “We didn’t always live on Mango Street” (Cisneros 551). Here is one interesting thing: she said “didn’t always live”, which mean at one point or more, they have lived there, while going deeper into the story, it sounded like they have never been there and only get to it half way near the end. The family rented houses and apartments as they were moving, but this time it is different, they bought it, they bought the house on Mango Street on the other side of town, with the money Papa won from lottery. “This was the house Papa talked about when he held a lottery ticket…” (Cisneros 552), but clearly it was not the house everyone, especially our narrator dreamed about. Back to their old place at Loomis, the water pipes broke and it will not get fixed, because “the house was too old” (Cisneros 552), and the family had to shower next door and “...carrying water over in empty milk gallons” (Cisneros 552), life was too rough and they had to leave, leave it immediately, and no second thoughts. Dream came true to the folks when Papa waved the lottery ticket in his hand, …show more content…
However, you can look at it and say the parents lied to them, about the big nice house with basement and yard with no fence, when they actually can only afford a small, broken down house on Mango Street. That is a very sad side of the story, when you wanted to cheer your children up, and ended up shattering their hope and dream for a better house. Beside the three of the six characters introduced, other members of the family has only been mentioned twice by name, and that was all we know about them, just their names (Carlos, Kiki, Nenny). Oh wait, there was one more character in the story, a mean
The push-and-pull factors in Enrique’s yearn for the U.S not only allows him to rediscover himself as an individual in a world of uncertainty, it also eliminates his constant fear of failing as a promising human being; in addition exhibits the undying hope of a desperate man found in hopeful migrants. In Sonia Nazario’s “Enrique’s Journey,” his mother’s trip streamed “emptiness” into the heart of a once comfortable child and left him to “struggle” to hold memories they shared. Enrique’s life after Lourdes’ departure triggered the traumatizing demise of his identity. He threw this broken identity away while facing many obstacles, nevertheless each endea...
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
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.
Cisneros depicts Mango Street as a rough neighborhood, but she also conveys a sense of community. She writes down that “we are safe,” (Cisneros, 28) to indicate that she can find the sense of community. Even if the author does not think she belongs to Mango Street, she does not deny that her community lives there. At the beginning of The House on Mango Street, Cisneros states that “I had to have a house. A real house,” (Cisneros, 5) illustrating that after knowing the American society’s evaluation criteria of success, she wants to follow the upward mobility and be viewed as a successful figure not only because she wants to be appreciated but also because white people will change their stereotypes of Hispanic people if they see that a Hispanic woman can be as successful as other whites. Her ambition triggers her to want to explore the meaning of being a Hispanic girl in the real world. Furthermore, in the “My name” session, the author depicts her great-grandmother’s life. “She looked out the window her whole life… but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window.” (Cisneros, 11) Cisneros wants a marriage formed because of love, like most white people do; her desire indicates that she wants to live like the whites, so that they will respect her and the Hispanic race later. In addition, Cisneros points out that she
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.
Moving from the poorest town to now living in the richest town was something Jacinto had a hard time adapting to. Jacinto missed his friends and family. The kids in the new town often laughed at him and frequently called him names. Jacinto started to hate Carlos and blamed him for everything, which included, making his mother sin and taking him from his friends and family. When Jacinto was thirteen he got into an altercation with kids from school that was again, making fun of him. This time Jacinto had enough and punched one of the kids in the face. The fight was broken up and Jacinto was seen as the trouble maker, because of his prior status of being poor. When Carlos heard of the fight he started to yell at Jacinto and began calling him names, while never letting Jacinto plead his side of the story. Jacinto became so angry that Carlos wasn’t listening to him that all the built up anger just came out, all at once. Jacinto picked up a glass a smashed it against Carlos face and then began to kick him when Carlos fell down. Jacinto kicked him so many times that Carlos began to spit up blood. After noticing the blood, Jacinto stopped kicking Carlos and fled out the house and ran away. Jacinto ran all the way to his grandparents’
The themes explored in the novel illustrate a life of a peasant in Mexico during the post-revolution, important themes in the story are: lack of a father’s role model, death and revenge. Additionally, the author Juan Rulfo became an orphan after he lost
When you watch the television and see all of these great success stories of people, especially people of color, making it out of the projects, it’s more than likely that you’ll about the struggles they faced during their upbringing. Not to mention that we love to hear stories like these, or in this case read about them. Sandra Cisneros did a great job on illustrating her fictional character Esperanza’s struggles of understanding machismo, her sexuality/gender, and living in the slums on Mango St. Also, she gives you some insight on the transitions immigrants make and how they cope in the United States. Although I had too many chapters from this novel to choose from, I decided to categorize them as much as I could.
The House on Mango Street, a fictional book written by Sandra Cisneros is a book filled with many hidden messages. The book revolves around a young girl named Esperanza who feels out of place with the life she has. She sees that the things around her don’t really add up. The story is told from Esperanza’s perspective and the events she goes through to find herself. Through the strategy of fragmenting sentences, Cisneros establishes that the sense of not belonging, creates a person’s individuality that makes them who they are.
The setting was never clearly stated in the story, and the process of putting it together here will involved some spoiler for the plot. So far the only
Living in Venezuela wasn’t always pleasant. The living conditions were poor and the poverty levels were high. Things began to get violent and Amina’s father lost his job, due to the opposition against President Chavez. Their family had the opportunity to move to America for a safe life and Amina’s mother and father chose to accept the opportunity. Amina and her family left everything and everyone behind without a goodbye. Amina wasn’t particularly happy about leaving but it was for the best. Throughout the process of moving and trying to fit in Amina faced many challenges, for instance Amina was not happy about moving, and not knowing anyone or anything about where she was going to be living. She had to start over, she had to learn to live the life of an American teenager. Amina struggled with fitting in, but she soon found friends who accepted her and helped her find her way.
Over time, the image of men has changed. This is due mostly to the relaxation of rigid stereotypical roles of the two genders. In different pieces of literature, however, men have been presented as the traditional dominate figure, the provider and rule maker or non-traditional figure that is almost useless and unimportant unless needed for sexual intercourse. This dramatic difference can either perpetuate the already existing stereotype or challenge it. Regardless of the differences, both seem to put men into a negative connotation.
“Home is where the heart is.” In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros develops this famous statement to depict what a “home” really represents. What is a home? Is it a house with four walls and a roof, the neighborhood of kids while growing up, or a unique Cleaver household where everything is perfect and no problems arise? According to Cisneros, we all have our own home with which we identify; however, we cannot always go back to the environment we once considered our dwelling place. The home, which is characterized by who we are, and determined by how we view ourselves, is what makes every individual unique. A home is a personality, a depiction of who we are inside and how we grow through our life experiences. In her personal, Cisneros depicts Esperanza Cordero’s coming-of-age through a series of vignettes about her family, neighborhood, and personalized dreams. Although the novel does not follow a traditional chronological pattern, a story emerges, nevertheless, of Esperanza’s search to discover the meaning of her life and her personal identity. The novel begins when the Cordero family moves into a new house, the first they have ever owned, on Mango Street in the Latino section of Chicago. Esperanza is disappointed by the “small and red” house “with tight steps in front and bricks crumbling in places” (5). It is not at all the dream-house her parents had always talked about, nor is it the house on a hill that Esperanza vows to one day own for herself. Despite its location in a rough neighborhood and difficult lifestyle, Mango Street is the place with which she identifies at this time in her life.
The story takes place on Prince Edward Island in Canada. It also takes place in the town of Avonlea. The home that Anne, Matthew, and Marilla is called Green Gables.
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.