What does a house represent? For most people a house is a shelter from the weather, a safe environment, a place where one finds stability and strength, and where family gets together. In the novel written by Sandra Cisneros, “The House on Mango Street”, the author tries to explain that every person owns a home with which an individual identifies, it describes who one is, and determined by how a individual view itself, and so it is what makes every person unique. However, for Esperanza, the House on Mango Streets symbolizes the struggles they went through and the poverty they live in. In the first short story The House on Mango Street, Esperanza Cordero, describes the place where she and her family were living in as a deteriorated building …show more content…
She wanted to be a successful woman one day, and to be one she needed to go to the Catholic school, as her father had told her. The Catholic school was expensive and her parents did not have the means to cover with all the tuition that is why she was in need to start working. Esperanza says that in order to get hired at the Peter Pan Phone Finishers, she had to say the she was a year older (Cisneros 54). This demonstrates how deprived the Cordero family were. That in order for Esperanza to attend a good school, she had to work as such a young age and even lied about her age so she can get the job. In conclusion, the House on Mango Street to Esperanza symbolizes the battles they experienced and the neediness they went through in order to succeed. Moving from one home to another, hoping that the next one was going to be a better home or the one they always dream about. The neighborhood Esperanza lived in where everyone struggles to survive. Also the motivation that Esperanza had to one day leave The House on Mango Street, to a better place, a better home with a beautiful front and back yard, and lots of tress surrounding her
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.
As a young girl, Esperanza is a young girl who looks at life from experience of living in poverty, where many do not question their experience. She is a shy, but very bright girl. She dreams of the perfect home, with beautiful flowers and a room for everyone. When she moves to the house of Mango Street, reality is so different than the dream. In this story, hope (Esperanza) sustains tragedy. The house she dreamed of was another on. It was one of her own. One where she did not have to share a bedroom with everyone. That included her mother, father and two siblings. The run down tiny house has "bricks crumbling in places". The one she dreamed of had a great big yard, trees and 'grass growing without a fence'. She did not want to abandon
Lots of things can change when era changes except gender roles but after read this story, gender roles are changing distinctly than others. Even though it has changed a lot now, woman still has difficulty with when they get a job so we must strive until the equality of man and woman is evenly distributed. Esperanza make effort to improve her life and cultivate own self but not make effort to gender equality. She has interest in gender role but not that much so she think about it but not to act. From this essay, I have gave examples of how people might react to the idea about gender roles. However, we need to realize that women should take action for themselves instead of following
With all of the bad things going on around Esperanza, she was very optimistic and made the best of everything she could. For example, in chapter one, Esperanza explain how she and her family had always grown up poor and that they always had dreams of one day owning a big beautiful house like the ones that they saw on television. One with a back yard and a basement. When Esperanza's family was forced to move her parents had purchased the first house that they could afford so they wouldn't have to continue paying rent. The house was nothing like what they had spoke of or dreamt about. But Esperanza states, "I then knew I had to have a house. One I could point to. But this isn't it. The house on Mango Street isn't it. For the time being, Mama said. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go.." Within this paragraph it shows that Esperanza isn't exactly happy about where she is living but she is going to make the best of it and do what she has to do to get out of there and have a house of her own. One that she can point to.
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
For example as stated on page 4, “ Our house would be white with trees around it, a great big yard and grass growing without a fence. This was the house Papa talked about when he held a lottery ticket and this was the house Mama dreamed up in the stories she told us before we went to bed. But the house on Mango street is not the way they told at all.”.When the reality of her parents expectations didn’t go the way hoped it created the initial reason for Esperanza’s dream about leaving Mango Street . If their house wasn’t that much of a downgrade to what they have wanted ,Esperanza may not have felt the need to dream about a whole new house of her own. As her character continues to grow, her reason of wanting her own house becomes much more meaningful . Essentially, Esperanza's house will not only show her taste in real estate, but her true self . In other words , her house will act as a safe haven , the place she can escape to express herself and show her true nature. Illustrated on page 87 ,” One day I’ll own my own house, but I won’t forget who I am or where I came from. Passing bums will ask,Can I come in? I’ll offer them the attic, ask them to stay, because I
When first coming to this country as a Hispanic American you may face a lot of difficulties and find more problems than the average white American. Hispanic people go through different adversities and have trouble overcoming them. In The House on Mango Street the main character Esperanza is the one that narrates the story, she explains what it is like to live on Mango Street. She shows the readers that living on Mango Street is perceived as a terrible area, if one were looking from the outside in. But those that live there feel that they live in fair living conditions. The fact is most of the people who live on Mango Street don 't know what it 's like to live outside of mango street. In the story, they show a lifestyle that most Hispanic people deal with especially the ones that come to America and have to figure out how to make ends meet. In The House on Mango Street, the novel has many themes and problems, such as gender inequality, stereotypes, and language barriers. With short stories like "Aria" and "the myth of Latin Woman," a solution is always found. Sometimes there is a simple solution and other times, it is not so easy to find, or there 's just no solution to solving the characters problems and they are still trying to look for results.
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
In The House On Mango Street, Esperanza and the other female characters are helpless and have no control over the terrible situations they are placed in. The women are forced by society to become tame, obedient wives and mothers while they had dreams they were forced to give up. A recurring image in The House On Mango Street is the window. Many women sit by the window as they watch their own lives pass them by. They are trapped and the only access they have to the world is the window they sit for hours by, watching the world they could be a part of. The women of Mango Street are imprisoned by marriage and family ties.
In the chapter “My Name” Esperanza wants to change her name so that she can define herself on her own terms and not by her family’s heritage. Her goal is to separate herself from her parents and sister Nenny in order to shape her own life, and changing her name seems an important first step to Esperanza. Later, in the chapters “Hips” and “The First Job”, Esperanza becomes more sexually aware, and because of this she wants to be “beautiful and cruel” so men will like her but not hurt her. She pursues this goal by becoming friends with Sally, who serves almost as a foil for Esperanza by the end of the novel. After Esperanza is assaulted by some of Sally’s boy companions, Esperanza decides she doesn’t want to define herself as “beautiful but cruel” anymore and she is, once again, unsure of who she is. Eventually, Esperanza concludes that she does not need to separate herself from the people on Mango Street or her family heritage by changing her name or becoming something she’s not. She decides that the best way to define herself is to become a writer. It is as a writer that she finally finds her genuine
Today we have so many rules, rules on how we are supposed to act, rules on how we are supposed to dress and look. We can't be ourselves, we are shamed into being unique. In the house on mango street, Esperanza goes through the difficulties of life and self-definitions. Esperanza struggles with self-definition, she lives in a small neighborhood, and she is mexican. Throughout the book she talks about her everyday problems, such as her problem with her race.
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.
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.
“...and to show up tomorrow saying I was one year older and that was that.” (Cisneros 54) The author uses this quote to show that Esperanza is not quite old enough to work, but she is almost there. Also, the author used this to say that Esperanza acts and looks older than she is, especially to be able to say that she is a year older than she really is. Maintaining a first job and being paid is a big deal with all of the responsibilities that come with it. Making sure one arrives to work on time, making customers happy, completing tasks like they are supposed to be done, and following instructions are all important responsibilities to remember when having a
The novel “The House on Mango Street” is written by Sandra Cineros. It deals with family, neighbourhood and dreams of a young Mexican girl, Esperanza Cordero growing up in Chicago. The novel begins when the Corderos move into a new house on Mango Street in the Latino section of Chicago. The fact that it is the first house they have ever owned, make them proud. But when Esperanza sees it, she is disappointed by the red, dilapidated house. It is not the one their