Ana Garcia
Dr. Baker
ENG 102 – 2006
14 April 2017
Esperanza’s Mango Street The House on Mango Street is a short novel that packs a strong and deliberate message. At first, when reading the first few chapters, one assumes that this book is going to be a simple story about some young girl’s life, but as the reader continues to read on, that perspective about the story changes because of the story’s complexity. The House on Mango Street has received many praises amongst critics for its well-defined societal message and its understanding of the Latinx culture in the United States. I chose to write my review on this book due to the fact that as being a Latina in the United States, this book is something that I can relate to
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However, they finally move into their own house, even though it is not the one she had dreamed of, but it sufficed (Cisneros 4). As Esperanza grows up in the neighborhood, there are many factors that influence her upbringing, and some of those experiences are good, but most of the ones told in this story are bad. The House on Mango Street is the collection of those direct and indirect experiences told through Esperanza in a series of chapters that belong to each different experience.
Esperanza is the main character and narrator of this story. Esperanza is a young lady growing up in a poor neighborhood in Chicago. She and her family are new to this country, which can be assumed because she has memories of the houses back in Mexico (Cisneros 17). The book focuses on Esperanza, her family, her friends, and even her neighbors which all live in the same street. From childhood, to adolescence, Esperanza tells the reader her story and what she lived through as well as those who associated with her. This book is an insight to a Chicano (Mexican-American) family, and the struggles that as such they go through. Esperanza starts the story as a little girl and goes all the way to adulthood throughout her narration. There are other characters involved in the story, such as Esperanza’s family, which are Papa, Mama, Nenny, Carlos, and Kiki. Other relatives and friends are involved in the story as well.
Have you ever felt like the place you belonged to didn’t belong to you? In The House on Mango Street, this is how the main character, Esperanza, felt. The author, Sandra Cisneros, did a good job in portraying a girl who couldn’t find her place. She had a problem accepting where she was from, The House on Mango Street is heartfelt novel and is great to pass the time. In this story, you will be shown the lives of Esperanza, her sister Nenny, their two best friends Rachel and Lucy, and the many people who lived on Mango Street. This book is about a girl who went from denying her place to accepting it.
The House on Mango Street is a story about a teenage latina girl in a Chicago ghetto. Esperanza´s society is dominated by men, who only like women for the way they look, not what’s inside. The House on Mango Street describes how latina women face problems in their society not abling them to fit in, treating them as second class citizens.
In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros creates the theme that when a young girl is growing up without role models and a community that doesn’t support her development, she will have uncertainty in her identity and will search for her way out of the endless cycle. Cisneros does this through the main character, Esperanza. Cisneros creatively weaves the uncertain identity though many of the vignettes, but the vignettes that have the strongest meaning are number one and four. In vignette one, “The House on Mango Street,” Esperanza describes the places that she’s lived before
The House on Mango Street is a novel that seeks to bring awareness of Mexican-American culture and how it affects women in particular. Accordingly, Esperanza is used to portray what it is like to be a Mexican-American female in this world. Throughout the novel she learns what is expected of her and what is supposedly out of her reach. She finds her own identity to be influenced by her culture and socioeconomic status, which creates her to be independent and caring.
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
The House on Mango Street, written by Sandra Cisneros, is a novel about a young girl growing up in the Latino area of Chicago. It is highly admired and is taught in a plethora of grade schools and universities. The House on Mango Street expresses the story of Esperanza Cordero, whose neighborhood is full of harsh realities and jarring beauty. Esperanza doesn’t want to belong- not to her run-down neighborhood, and not to the low expectations the world has for her. Esperanza’s story is of a young girl coming into her power, and inventing what she will become for herself. While Esperanza and the other women have many differences, as in the way she is fortunate to avoid the pitfalls of her environment and others are not, there are just as many
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros tells the poignant and heartwarming story of Esperanza Cordero, a Latina girl maturing in Chicago. As Esperanza grows, she is faced with new hardships and expectations associated with being a woman, and becomes ashamed of her life. Esperanza learns to accept her life because she is exposed to different perspectives of women who feel trapped on Mango Street.
Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street tells the story of a young, teenage, Latina girl named Esperanza, living in the late twentieth century. Esperanza takes her readers through her life and adventures through each chapter of the novella where each time she learns something. She faces the troubles of racism, friendship, and strange neighborhoods and most importantly, figuring out how she wants to spend her life. Through her race and wealth, Esperanza has created her identity as a shy, poor, and ambitious person.
In that community women must give up everything for their men. These women are trapped in their homes and sexually assaulted by the dominant man. Although, Esperanza knows that she won’t suffer the same way. “I have begun my own quiet war. Simple. Sure. I am the one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate” (89). She refuses to be treated in such a way, and shows her feelings by doing what she believes in. Esperanza focuses on herself, knowing if she wants to be different from the other women in her society she’s going to have to completely understand what she wants. At first, she was self-conscious and worried about how others viewed her. However by the end, she was no longer willing to follow the standing gender roles in her society. Esperanza still had a regard for how the people she cared about viewed her but knew she had to focus on what she thought was right. Focusing on her identity gave Esperanza the chance to unleash her true self against the outside forces holding her back.
When society faces obstacles that are deemed a burden it is often forgotten that those same Experiences and tragedies often shape an individual's outlook on life and inspires personal growth from within. The Novel, The House on Mango Street reminds its readers that even in the worst of times there is still a lesson to be learned as seen through the eyes of a girl named, Esperanza. The coming of age story deals with dark underlying struggles blanketed in the innocent viewpoint of a child forced to grow up frighteningly quick. The main protagonist, a young Chicano girl, reminds the audience of the importance of learning from past experience in order to form an identity entirely based on the individuals own volition. Sandra Cisneros, The author of House on Mango Street, uses Esperanza's struggles caused by her race,gender, and economic status to instill the theme of identity.
Growing up and chasing your goals can be tough for some people because of their financial status or surroundings and more for a child that has to go through it at a young age. But what actually takes people far to succeed in life is to work diligently and to never capitulate. Esperanza Cordero, a girl who dreams are significant, is the main character on The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, who represents the females of her needy neighborhood who desire to enhance and change themselves despite their surroundings and restrictions while she struggles to confront her neighborhood’s poverty. Because of her Mexican heritage, Esperanza hopes to change the typical role of women in her family and neighborhood. Throughout the book, Esperanza goes through several changes to seek her identity, maturity and independence. Throughout the novel Esperanza evolves from an immature, innocent girl to a mature young lady because of the experiences of having to deal with abuse, poverty and the fact that she wanted to be distinct.
In The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, a little girl from a Latino heritage is given birth to. Not literally, but in the sense of characterization. Esperanza is a fictional character made up by Cisneros to bring about sensitive, alert, and rich literature. She is the protagonist in the novel and is used to depict a female’s life growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Cisneros creates the illusion that Esperanza is a real human being to communicate the struggles of growing up as a Latina immigrant in a modern world, by giving her a name, elaborating her thoughts and feelings, and illustrating her growth as a person through major events.
The House on Mango Street is a novel on the growth of a young girl named Esperanza going through the challenges of puberty in a Latino neighborhood in Chicago. She wishes to be different from all the other women who have lived on Mango Street, because they have lived unfortunate lives. She wishes to have “a house all my own … a space for myself to go” (“A House of My Own” 108), to be an independent person, unlike most of the women, who have tied themselves down or have been tied down by their boyfriends, husbands, or parents. Sally is beaten by her father, so she defies him and goes to hang out with boys.
Everyone has challenges in their life, their feelings behind their actions make them who they are. In the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros there are many conflicts which explore the characters, to get to know them closer. The internal conflict is used to discover the identity of the main character, Esperanza.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a novella following the experiences of a growing young latino girl, dealing with poverty and the harsh realities of life as a girl in a bad neighborhood. Esperanza has been exposed to many traumatic experiences in a gradience. It began with an non consensual kiss, soon after followed by rape and sexual abuse. She grew up with other bad influences in her neighborhood, such as Joe the baby grabber and abusive husbands and fathers. Throughout Esperanzas childhood, many terrible experiences have shaped her identity into a determined and independent woman, but the single most dominant influence is poverty.