In the collection of vignettes, The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros develops the theme that people should not be devalued because of their financial circumstances through metaphors of classism, the motif of shame, and the contrast between minor characters Alicia and Esperanza’s mother. Esperanza, the protagonist, is a Mexican-American adolescent living in the rural Chicago region. She occupies a house on Mango Street with her father, mother, two brothers, Carlos and Kiki, and little sister, Nenny. Mango Street is filled with low-income families, like Esperanza’s, trying to adapt to their difficult circumstances. Esperanza realizes it is difficult, but she dreams of leaving her house and Mango Street altogether. To begin, Cisneros uses metaphors of classism to express Espernaza’s views of classism and how it causes those of a lower class to be devalued. Throughout the novel, Esperanza dreams of moving into a new house, a house on the hill because “people who live on hills sleep so close to the stars that they forget about [those] who live on earth” (86). The house on the hill is a metaphor for those who are higher up in the social class. Those who live on the hills live their live their entire lives so easily and “[do not] look down at all except to be content to live on the hills” (86). Esperanza critiques that the higher class are happy with their own lives and ignorant to their privilege, therefore, they do not care about the less fortunate. This metaphor of
Imagine feeling like you don’t belong and never will, or that the odds of your success is a slim chance to none. The House on Mango Street written by Sandra Cisneros, leads us into a world of poverty, broken dreams, and slithers of hope. The House on Mango Street follows the life of a young girl by the name of Esperanza Cordero, who occupies her childhood in an indigent Latino neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. The books expresses her dire need to have a place where she can call home, and escape the harsh reality of her expected life. Though, her life on Mango Street is bearable with help of her little sister Nenny, her two best friends Rachel and Lucy, and her other friend Sally. On her journey to adulthood, Sandra Cisneros will show how Esperanza assimilates into a mature young lady, who truly find her identity, and develops emotionally as well as physically.
Have you ever heard of a poor child who has lived in a very uncomfortable home and didn’t have great wealth? In The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, this is the problem. In The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros Esperanza Cordero is the main character. Esperanza lived in the house on mango street during her developmental years, from the ages six to her becoming a young adult. The three biggest problems Esperanza's faces are poverty, confidence, and relationships.
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.
In a series of vignettes, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, covers a year in the life of Esperanza, who is about twelve years old. During the year, she moves into a house on Mango Street. It is the first home her parents actually own, however she has had a plethora apartments in her life. However, the house is not what Esperanza has dreamed of, for the reason that it is run-down and cramped. For the duration of the vignettes, the readers watch Esperanza struggle but overall mature. In the rest of the vignettes, the readers receive a glimpse of the lives of the women on Mango Street. When reading the readers get to learn and understand these women. They are extremely important because they act as character foils to help the readers better understand Esperanza. During the novel, the women on Mango Street are confined and go through many struggles. The reader also learns about Esperanza's identity.
In Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street, Cisneros uses metaphors to characterize the people and conditions on Mango Street. In Mango Street, poverty and gender inequality frequently hinder women from escaping Mango Street and the abusiveness of their households. Furthermore, Mango Street’s women often find themselves trapped in the expectations of marriage and subservience because society reduces their value to the basis of their beauty. Esperanza realizes the corruption of gender expectations unlike the other women of Mango Street however. Therefore, she refuses to subject herself to social standards and she decides to remain independent instead. Through metaphors, Cisneros characterizes the social standards of marriage that burden the women on Mango Street and she characterizes Esperanza’s determination to escape her circumstances.
She was born in Chicago, Illinois. Cisneros grew up in a Latino family around the 1950s and 1960s. She had a Mexican father and Chicano mother. Cisneros was encouraged by her mother to read and was not insisted with spending all of her time performing classic “women’s work”. Cisneros welcomes her culture with open arms, but acknowledges the unjustness between the genders within. Having experience growing up in a poor neighborhood in a working class family while facing the difficulties created by racism, sexism, and her status, Esperanza longed to leave the barrio. Later, she finds her capability to succeed individually and find a “home with herself”; she worked to recreate some Chicano stereotypes for her community. Cisneros didn’t want to
As Beyoncé Knowles says, ‘girls run the world’. But without the revolution of women’s rights over the past 50 years, all women would still be expected to marry, have children, and become a housewife. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros perfectly projects the struggles of a young minority woman in the late 1900s. The struggles are portrayed through Esperanza, the main character, as well as her female role models in her community. Esperanza’s family lives in poverty and Esperanza strives to rise above. As Esperanza matures through her teenage years, she is exposed to how women are perceived and treated in her culture and community. Esperanza’s encounters with reality while growing up as a female demonstrates that gender expectations were meant to be broken. She matures to be a young woman in power
Communities are meant to be a space of security in where community members help each other. In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza, a growing child feels the absence of the community’s help. Through a series of vignettes, Esperanza’s child-like voice reveals the dysfunctionality of the community. Esperanza doesn’t find anyone who she can rely on to help her through her coming of age. The situation is made especially difficult because of her Mexican-American heritage label. The ambiguity of her name presents a bi-cultural identity dilemma. Esperanza’s character represents what many female minorities experience, the lack of agency and solidarity their communities offer to them. The constant similes, through a child’s
In the novel The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, the protagonist Esperanza struggles growing up in the lower class of Chicago. Esperanza is in a critical period of her life where she transitions to becoming more of an adult, but she does not want to accept the world of the lower class she lives in. She feels she does not fit in or belong in her community and isn't sure why. Esperanza imagines about how one day she will be independent and not be reliant on any one for her needs. The character Esperanza in Sandra Cisneros’s novel The House On Mango Street reflects the theme of desire for a better life outside the lower class through her thoughts of not belonging and her fantasies of independence and wealth.
The world is not always fair, but don’t let that hold you down. Make the best of the cards you are dealt. In the Sandra Cisneros novel, The House on Mango Street, Esperanza, the main character, struggles to find happiness on Mango Street. In her youth, Esperanza moved from place to place quite frequently. Before she lived on Mango Street, she lived on Loomis, Keeler, Paulina, and in several other homes on several other streets. The story is about Esperanza’s experience on Mango Street and her self-discovery. She tries to figure out who she is in the light of the stereotypes of the Latina women she is surrounded by. Growing up in the barrio, Esperanza learns that Latina women are treated poorly by men and marry at an extremely young age.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over a half million people are homeless in the United States. Although Sandra Cisneros, the author of The House on Mango Street, had a house, she felt like she was still homeless and contributed this feeling to the main character. In The House on Mango Street, a Latina girl named Esperanza talks about experiences and people that appear in her life while living in a worn down house in Chicago on Mango Street. Cisneros uses a variety of literary devices to highlight Esperanza’s perspective on herself and others around her. The literary devices being focused on are character comparisons, allusions, figurative language, and sensory detail.
The House on Mango Street is the tale about a young girl named Esperanza who is maturing throughout the text. In it Esperanza documents the events and people who make up Mango Street. It is through this community that Esperanza’s ideas and concepts of the relationships between men and women are shaped. She provides detailed accounts about the oppression of women at not only the hands of men who make up Mango Street but also how the community contributes to this oppression. As the young girls and women of Mango Street try to navigate the world they must deal with a patriarchal society that seeks to keep them confined. Sandra Cisneros’s vignettes demonstrate through Esperanza’s experience of growing up on Mango Street and witnessing the oppression
In the novel, The House on Mango Street, the author, Sandra Cisneros, writes powerful vignettes inspired by her own life experiences. Like Cisneros, Esperanza, the main character and narrator, is born into poverty and struggles to fit into, and accept, her environment. This allows the author to convey the message that people can succeed no matter what obstacles they may face. For Esperanza, poor circumstances in her life empower her to strive for more than what she was born into. Cisneros productively illustrates Esperanza’s motivation as an outcome of her previous, and current, obstacles in life .
In today’s world there are countless social problems. People are often treated as an inferior or as if they are less important for many different reasons. In The House on Mango Street, the author Sandra Cisneros addresses these problems. Throughout the story Cisneros does a thorough job explaining and showing how these issues affect the public. This novel is written through the eyes of a young girl, Esperanza, growing up in a poor neighborhood where the lifestyles of the lower class are revealed. Cisneros points out that, in today’s society, the expectation of women and their treatment, discrimination based on poverty, and discrimination because of a person’s ethnicity are the major
Exploring a concept so huge through the perspective of a little girl gives a powerful message to the readers about what girls have to go through. Each vignette tells a story the concept of sexism develops throughout. In the vignette “Boys and Girls” Cisneros begins to develop the idea of sexism by explaining that boys and girls are different and live in separate worlds. On the surface this story seems like Esperanza simply expressing her opinions on her siblings and how they're different from one another, however taking a closer look, Esperanza uses a powerful metaphor