Life’s Shepherds A role model an influential person whom one imitates. Role models contribute key life lessons to anyone looking up to them. Role models provide basic structure both to achieve greatness and to learn from the mistakes that they have made in their lifetimes. Role models provide many benefits to those who look up to them, making life decisions easier because of the examples they have set. The book The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros reveals many role models for the young, female Latina protagonist, Esperanza. As expected, the women in the Mango Street neighborhood significantly influence Esperanza. She has a variety of female role models. Many are trapped in abusive relationships, waiting for others to change their lives. Some are actively trying to create change on their own. Through these women and Esperanza’s reactions to them, Cisneros not only shows the hardships women face, but also explores their power to …show more content…
Many are confined in a marriage in which they are unhappy with, and are reductant to make a change. Some are committed to make a change for themselves. Esperanza ponders each one of these women's lives. Through each role model Esperanza gains crucial life lessons on how to overcome different life hardships. Through some women like her great-grandmother and Ruthie, Esperanza learns she must take control her fate, to avoid marrying young, and not let a male figure dictate her future. Other women like Alicia, Esperanza learns to keep pursuing goals in life and to take control of her destiny no matter what obstruction may lay ahead. From Esperanza’s role models, the moral lesson that can be taken away is to be proactive about your life and to shape your own future. Everyone is a role model to somebody in their life. Strive to leave a positive message behind for the ones shadowing in your
The House on Mango Street is a novel by Sandra Cisneros. It is set in a poor, Latino neighborhood around 1960. The main character, Esperanza, is expected to get married in order to support herself. However, Esperanza strives for independence, and seeks to end the cycle of abusive patriarchy that holds Mango Street in thrall. Through the use of syntax and figurative language, Cisneros establishes that a sense of not belonging can fuel an individual’s desire for a better future.
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.
“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
Symbolism is the key to understanding Sandra Cisneros’ novel, “The House on Mango Street”. By unraveling the symbolism, the reader truly exposes the role of not only Latina women but women of any background. Esperanza, a girl from a Mexican background living in Chicago, writes down what she witnesses while growing up. As a result of her sheltered upbringing, Esperanza hardly comprehends the actions that take place around her, but what she did understand she wrote in her journal. Cisneros used this technique of the point of view of a child, to her advantage by giving the readers enough information of what is taking place on Mango Street so that they can gather the pieces of the puzzle a get the big picture.
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 are seen as failure and can’t strive without men in the Mexican-American community. In this novel you can see a cultural approach which examines a particular aspect of a culture and a gender studies approach which examines how literature either perpetuates or challenges gender stereotypes. Over and over, Esperanza battled with how people perceived her and how she wished to be perceived. In the beginning of the book, Esperanza speaks of all the times her family has moved from one place to another. “Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler.
Esperanza slowly understands Sally’s life at home and feels sorrow for her. Whenever they walk home from school, she changes so her dad doesn’t see her in short, tight clothing. Esperanza asks why her father is like that and finally figured out the truth. Her father’s sisters left town with older men and brought disgrace to the family; so he would lock Sally up, abuse her in hopes she would not end up like them. Suddenly, Sally met a marshmallow man and ran off with him, however, she did not get the happy ending of running away like she had hoped. Esperanza understood that her friend was like the women on Mango Street, even after she left; she does not want to be like them. As Esperanza experienced events with others, she needed to understand her needs and
In the novel, The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros describes the obstacles 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 their physical description and not for their noetic proficiencies. In her Novel Cisneros opens the reader to the obstacles that Latino women must face everyday in order to be treated fairly.
As expected the old women read her palm and confirm Esperanza’s goals, this provided her with a spiritual guidance or reassurance for her to complete her long term goal. Eventually Esperanza and Alicia have made up their mind, in order to improve their home town they will have to leave Mango Street and return when they are well suited to make changes. It is up to them to help change their neighborhood. Although one year has passed she has not left home yet, but she has escaped spiritually through her writing. The narrator has evolved from being tired of who she was to realizing the challenges that she faces to finally accepting them in hopes of changing them. These challenges are in different formats, the idea of women not being treated equally, cultural differences, social classes, spiritual beliefs and most importantly power. She has accepted what she has to face and now she is more determined to help people like her succeed. This change in attitude is remarkable for the simple reason that she is standing up for what she believes in and not allowing outside forces influence her. She has rejected all of the negative factors that stand against differences; she now accepts herself and does not want to change that. It will be quite a while before she is off of Mango Street but the idea behind this is that she will hopefully impact other people’s lives. Hopefully she will teach other young adults to embrace their differences and use them in order to benefit the people around them. This is relatable to the idea of people who were colonizers and the ones who were subject to this practice. In a way Esperanza is the answer to help stop assimilation among cultures, and embrace the diverse cultures we do have. It can also resemble the idea of treating others equally and with respect, this is something colonizers lacked when meeting other
In The House on Mango Street, Cisneroz agitates the theme of diversity through her use of characters and setting. Cisneroz paints a multitude of events that follow a young girl named Esperanza growing up in the diverse section of Chicago. She is dealing with searching for a release from the low expectations that the Latino communities often put women whether young or old are put against. Cisneroz often draws from her life growing up that she was able to base Esperanza's life experiences on and portray an accurate view on Latino societies today. Cisneroz used the chapter “Boys and Girls” and “Beautiful and cruel” to portray Esperanzas growth from a young curious girl to a wise woman. She came into her own personal awareness and her actions that she has to now be held accountable for.
She cannot change her past and where she is from, but she can change her future and who she is capable of becoming. Circumstances do not have to limit how much success someone can get. All the problems, the mistakes, and the poverty around her, motivates Esperanza to want to change and have a house of her own. She wants to forget her past, but she will always remember the people that lived by her and the events that happened there that started shaping her into a woman and who she is becoming. “You live right here, 4006 Mango, Alicia says and points to the house I am ashamed of. No, this is not my house I say and shake my head as if shaking could undo the year I’ve lived here, I don’t belong. I don’t belong. I don’t ever want to come from here. You have a home, Alicia, and one day you’ll go there, to a town you remember, but me I never had a house, not even a photograph . . . only one I dream of. No Alicia says. Like it or not you are Mango Street, and one day you’ll come back too. Not me. Not until somebody makes it better. Who’s going to do it? The mayor? And the thought of the mayor coming to Mango Street make me laugh out loud. Who’s going to do it? Not the mayor.” This vignette talks about how no one will make a change so Esperanza needs to if she wants to see change. Esperanza is ashamed about where she lives, and knows that no one will do anything about it not even the mayor. Esperanza wants to belong to something that she feels proud of and something that she doesn’t want to be ashamed and looked down
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros tells the stories of a neighborhood of chicago in poverty and it’s residents through the eyes of Esperanza, a young latina girl living on Mango Street. Even though Cisneros tells the stories through a young narrator, adult themes like identity are not lost. Throughout the novella many things are seen to play roles in shaping people’s identities such as; poverty, name, home, culture, and childhood experiences. Through the stories of Esperanza and her friends it is clear that the most prominent factor in shaping someone’s identity is their gender.
For decades, women have been viewed as inferior to men, especially women in poverty. Women in poverty are trapped in relationships with abusive husbands because they do not have anywhere else to go. It wasn’t until 1994 that the Violence Against Women Act was established as a United States federal law. It took large amounts of dominant women who were not afraid to stand up to the male supremacy to make this change. The House on Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros addresses the issue of male supremacy through the protagonist, Esperanza. Like these women, Esperanza is determined to contradict the societal norm of submissive, inferior women. Her lower-class neighborhood is full of a variety of female role models ready to impact young, impressionable
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.
Sally is a common occurrence in Esperanza’s community; she lacks self-confidence and determination. In “Linoleum Roses,” Esperanza describes Sally’s post-marriage life. She says, “Sally says she likes being married because now she gets to buy her own things when her husband gives her money… Except he won’t let her talk on the telephone. And he doesn’t let her look out the window. And he doesn’t like her friends, so nobody gets to visit her unless he is working. She sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without his permission.” Sally lacks the qualities of self-confidence and determination; due to this, she lets herself fall into a trap disguised as marriage. Now, she has no control over her life. Her husband decides everything for her, and she is afraid to say no to him. Sally’s lack of two important qualities lets her give herself away to her husband. Now, her fate lies solely in his