Family : Boys And Girls, Chanclas And A Smart Cookie

Self-exploration is hindered in this book and my life. I can very much identify with Esperanza perspectives on societal issues that Latin women face. A society dominated by men and women relying on them, whether it is a father, spouse or friend. Men are considered the strong reasonable as where women are weak and emotional, in turn women need men for protection. A young girl may have two story paths, one where she relies on the protection of her father while she watches her mother cater to him or two, witnesses the struggles of a single young woman and absence for a father. This book describes marriage as priority for every girl or else how could she survive; appearances and physical features are highly valued traits. This attitude is not one that Esperanza agrees with, nor do I. For example, Marin she is the girl standing on the street just “waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life.” This character implies that she does not dream of actively setting life goals for herself and working to earn them, instead she will wait until a man makes it happen for her. The ideology behind this thought being that as a woman she must thrive to be as attractive as possible to heighten her chances of marriage and acquire

Esperanza’s maturity and growth, physically and mentally is very evident in the vignette “Hips”. There are two distinct focuses in this vignette. One focus is about the body and the other topic is about sisterly love. • When Esperanza and her friends discuss the topic of hips, the thought is a mature one and not a mocking one, especially when the statement of “what I’m saying is who here is ready? You got to be ready to know what to do with hips when you get them” (50).

“I am an ugly daughter,” she says. “I am the one nobody comes for” (109). She feels she can relate to the four skinny trees outside her window. “Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine” (93). Just as the trees survive under a harsh environment, Esperanza finds difficulty in accepting the neighborhood in which she lives. She is very self-conscious about her name, whose mispronunciation by teachers and peers at school sounds ugly to her ears. She struggles with jealousy of her younger sister Nenny and cynically says that she “has pretty eyes and it’s easy to talk…if you are pretty” (109). Ashamed of most everything she identifies with, Esperanza is maturing with a very low perception of herself. She is not content with her home and surroundings, and cannot be until she is happy with her own character.

Esperanza has a variety of female role models in her life. Many are trapped in abusive relationships, waiting for others to change their live. A female role model or friends seems to be important to Esperanza. Some of the women that are her role models are, Esperanza's great-grandmother, Marin, and Rafaela. Even though she may not have known these women very well they still impacted her life immensely , some showed the way that Esperanza did not want to live in her life to information about boys she found interesting.

Esperanza is new to the neighborhood, and was never proud of her previous houses, but the negative intonation that the nun uses on her makes her feel like she is being judged, not on who she is, but what her family can afford. There is the place Esperanza now has to call home and the degrading presumption that the neighborhood already has causes her to accept that she can’t change her image without money and let her personality shine through. She seems to accept her label as poor in the story, “A Rice Sandwich”, where she believes the special, also known as rich, kids get to eat in the canteen and she wants to be part of that narrative, so she begs her mother for three days, to write her a note to allow her eat in the canteen. When she couldn’t endure her daughter’s nagging anymore, she complied. Thinking this would be enough affirmation, Esperanza went to school the next with the note and stood in the line with the other kids. She wasn’t recognized by the nun who checks the list, and has to face Sister Superior, who claims that she doesn’t live far enough to stay at school and asks Esperanza to show where her house is. “That one? She said, pointing to a row of ugly three -flats, the ones even the raggedy men are ashamed to go into. Yes, I nodded even though I knew that wasn’t my house,”(45). Esperanza was compared to the most raggedy men, and had to accept

The family we grow up around influences the personality traits we take on, because their actions have the ability to manipulate our identities. This piece of evidence is from the vignette Hips. It comes after Nenny, Esperanza's younger sister, says that if you don’t get hips than you are a man. “That’s right, I add before Lucy or Rachel can make fun of her. She is stupid alright, but she is my sister.” From living with her younger siblings, she has learned to be protective of her family. She does not want her sister to be teased, so she decides to justify her actions. Esperanza would prefer her sisters and brothers not be mocked, because

Esperanza is faced with several major events that forces her to mature at a young age. In these events readers can see how she grows as her emotions change. In the beginning of the book, Esperanza’s father passes away (p. 22) and their family home on the ranch, El Rancho de las Rosas, catches on fire (p.40). This is the beginning of Esperanza's quickly changed young life. As a young girl she realizes life will never be the same. She once was wealthy and lived life with the help of housekeepers. Papa also had field workers to help with his needs on the farm. Raised with a positive perspective on life, her hopes and dreams are soon challenged. Esperanza is forced to leave everything she has ever known to move to the United States. The fire is symbolic because the family is forced start all over, in life, along with her social

The vignette “Beautiful and Cruel,” conveys the impact it has on Esperanza. In this vignette, Esperanza feels that she is “an ugly daughter” and “the one nobody cares about” (Cisneros 88). She does not need, or want, a man to lead her life, unlike the women she knows. She does not need, or want, a man to make decisions for her. Unfortunately, she still feels the pressure to look gorgeous and stunning: “Nenny has pretty eyes and it’s easier to talk that way

With all the troubles in the adult’s world, the children seek a refuge from adult supervision and harassment. Monkey Garden is that refuge; it is a place where the neighborhood kids can misbehave, play and still be kids. In one instance Esperanza is pressured into changing herself because of the different situations that Sally, Esperanza’s sexually bold friend. Sally puts her in these situations by lying or abandoning Esperanza. After feeling ashamed of not understanding why Sally flirts with the boys in The Monkey Garden, Esperanza comes to a realization with the following quote, “And the garden that had been such a good place to play didn’t seem mine either” (Cisneros 98). Sally puts Esperanza in a situation where she feels ashamed and uncomfortable being in her own skin and not understanding how Sally acts with the boys. Whereas Esperanza initially pays close attention when her and Sally discuss things, including boys and sex, when Sally abandons Esperanza at the fair, she discovers that how Sally describes sex is not how Esperanza first encounters it, because she is raped and, clearly it is a horrible experience. She says, “Sally, you lied. It wasn’t what you said at all. What he did. Where he touched me. I didn’t want it Sally.” (Cisneros 99) Sally is not a loyal friend to Esperanza. She has been left on her own to deal with this horrible experience that is forcing her to shed all childhood innocence.

Esperanza is forever marked by the house and neighborhood she lives in. She wants to be like other kids who are allowed to eat their lunch at school instead of having to go home everyday. These students live father from the school than she does. Esperanza assumes these children live in better houses and neighborhoods. She is embarrassed by her house and angry that she must be identified by it. As said by Sister Superior, “I bet I can see your house from my window. Which one? Come here. Which one is your house?” The sister points to an ugly row of houses in the general direction of Esperanzas address.

This relates to the theme of the struggle for self definition, because at first Esperanza was under the impression she could change a man, but as she’s exposed to these horrible encounters she comes to the conclusion that boys and girls live in different worlds.

Esperanza is able to look at her great grandmother and realize what she does not want to become, but also she realizes what she does want: to become a strong, independent woman.

In “Red Clowns”, she idealizes Sally, a girl her in her neighborhood her age who she befriended, because she was more sexually mature than her and she was affiliated (flirted, danced, etc) with boys. In the novella, Esperanza goes with Sally to the fair and Sally abandons here for a boy. Esperanza, alone with no help or protection, was sexually assaulted by a group of boys that remained after Sally and the boy left. Esperanza expresses her frustration with Sally and blames her sexual assault on Sally “... you lied, you lied. He wouldn’t let me go. He said I love you, I love you, I love you Spanish girl” (Red Clowns). She learns that sex and love do not go hand-in-hand, which is what pop culture advertises, and realizes that media will never change, so women like Sally and others who have more experience with men should debunk the myth. She knows that women have to help each other in the world they live in. This causes her to never completely leave Mango Street; she doesn’t want to abandon women who are in a dangerous place that Sally left her in (metaphorically and physically). “The Family of Little Feet” focuses on Esperanza’s journey in puberty. Esperanza, Nenny, Lucy, and Rachel receive used high heels, a staple of

With this in mind the internal conflict is important, because it shows Esperanza’s sensitivity about everything what concerns herself and her being insecure. One of the vignette that tells about is called “ Chanclas.” It recounts about her being non confident, because of her old shoes that she gets every year. For example, the quote says, “ Then Uncle Nacho is pulling and pulling my arm and it does not matter how the new dress Mama bought me is because my feet are ugly.” (Cisneros 46). This quote shows that she cares so much about one detail and even the prettiest dress cannot divert her attention. She does not pay attention to the dress, because she just thinks about her shoes and she assumes everyone will look at her feet. Another quote which supports her insecure, is “ Meanwhile that boy who is my cousin by first communion or something asks me to dance and I can’t. Just stuff my feet under the metal folding chair stamped Precious Blood and pick on a wad of brown gum that’s stuck beneath the seat. I shake my head no. My feet growing bigger and bigger.” (Cisneros 47) According to this quote Esperanza does not want people to notice her imperfection so she stays out of society contact. It is not because she does not want to she explains it as a cannot thing. She does not want to embarrass herself. The quote which stays for her having low self esteem is “Until my uncle who is a liar says, You are the prettiest girl here, will you dance, but I believe him, and yes, we are dancing. And Uncle spins me, and my skinny arms bend the way he taught me, and my mom watches, and my little cousins watch, and the boy who is my cousin by first communion watches, and everyone says, wow, who are those two who dance like in the movies, until I forget that I am wearing only ordinary shoes, brown and white.” (Cisneros 47) There is a clear statement that supports, that she thinks about

She gets excited when boys look at her on the streets. But her illusion of true love is destroyed by sexual violence. Her friend Sally’s behaviour towards boys contributes to Esperanza’s caution and distance by dealing with the opposite sex, too. Nevertheless, Esperanza does not stop dreaming of leaning against a car with her boyfriend in a place where that does not bother anyone. But she has set her standards higher than most of the women around her. She do not search for a man to escape from this place, she has seen too many unhappy marriages. Ruthie exemplifies such an one. She has run away from her husband and seems to be mentally disturbed. The young Rafaela is locked up by her husband because of her beauty. Nevertheless the tragic event is Sally’s which ends in abuse. Sally, Esperanza’s friend, only wanted to dream and share her love like Esperanza. Hurt and beaten by her father who just wanted to prevent the familiy’s ruin by Sally. To escape, despite of her minority, she marries a salesman. But unlike her wish, the abuse continues.