Pesky Goat

Furthermore, the desire to explore their American identity for freedom outside the barrio is also expressed in various vignettes. In addition to Rafaela, Marin" is a vignette about a girl with the same name who is about to be sent back to Puerto Rico because of her beauty. She is not allowed outside until her aunt is home and then she is only allowed in the front yard. Marin loves makeup and dressing nicely. She would like to work where she could dress professionally, perhaps downtown. If she could work downtown, her possibilities are greater that she would meet someone, marry, and move in a big house far away (Cisneros 26-27). Thus, she would be out of the barrio.

The major themes of the short story were home, family, poverty and self-identity. Cisneros need for a home is much related to her economic situation, her dreams and frustrations towards her family. Someone to blame for this would be Mama and Papa that keep forming this image of the perfect house in the authors mind. “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.” The severity of her disappointment and the shame is demonstrated when she describes the house on Mango Street. “Where do you live? she asked. There, I said pointing up to the third floor. You live there? There… I lived there. I nodded.” The exchange of question and answer between the nun and the author created a tome of tension to the dialogue. The italicizing of text tied into the theme of home and the verbal beating tolerated by the author.

Maria Eva Duarte was born on May 7, 1919 in Los Toldos Argentina. She was the youngest illegitimate child of Juan Duarte and his mistress Juana Ibarguen. Eva had a difficult childhood, her father had his own wife and children, and he gave Juana’s Ibarguen children his last name and would visit them once in a while. When Eva was seven her father died living them in very poor conditions, all the family, her mother and the five children lived in a tiny one room and in order to pay the rent and have something to eat Eva’s mother her sisters and herself had to work as cook’s for a rich and powerful family in Los Toldos. It was then that Eva got her fist close look at the very wealthy families who controlled Argentina. Eva would recall her

She felt that her husband wasn’t taken enough care of her personally so she took care of herself in the form of her chrysanthemums. She meticulously trimmed them and transplanted them with intense care. The type of care that she felt was missing form her marriage. Later on in the story when she gives the

Carrying on the job as lighthouse keeper in St. Augustine, Florida, was very important to Maria. According to Jax Dem, after her husband, Joseph Andreu, fell sixty feet to his death when he was painting the lighthouse, Maria took over the position in 1859 and ran

And now and then in the afternoon she would burst through the door holding flowers and cookies and smelling fresh like the outdoors. She would stay for a moment or two and chat about with the children about the wonderful weather or her garden. The children would show her the pictures that they had drawn and ask her questions about their mother. Which she could never answer, but she would try.

The garden was something she built with her own hands just like her home that she cherishes and accomplished something that only men were viewed in the society as being able to complete such a feat. Her building and taking care of the garden shows her passion and determination in life, as it is something she crafted and learned on her own with no ones

Maria is a religious mother of six who throughout the book she is very close minded and unwilling to change her plans or way of life no matter the influence. Maria is a member of the Luna, a family of religious farmers and as such she wants Antonio to become the next educated priest to guide the Luna in the future. She finds comfort in the steady life of farming and finds her husband 's ideals to be idiotic and unrealistic. When arguing about their land, Gabriel sees it as a symbol of freedom but Maria says in retort “It is worthless! Look

Azaleas are known to blossom all at once. In addition, they are hardy and can grow in poor soil conditions. Miss Maudie is much like azaleas because she fits in well but is not easily controlled by those around her. As mentioned in the novel, “Miss Maudie was a “chameleon lady who worked in her flower beds in an old straw hat and

There once was a small village in Southern Mexico called “Los Lobos” meaning The Wolves. The village was named that because the hills that the village were built on, it was inhabited with wild wolves and the people had to be careful where they went. A family was going down there to visit their relatives including Bryan and his nephew Miguel. They were very excited since it was their first time visiting Mexico, but it all changed once they got closer to the small village which was filled with dirty streets and homeless families begging for food. The sad scenery looked like something you would see only on T.V, but it was worse and the saddest thing he had seen. They finally arrived in the state of Guanajuato where the village was at. They

Depending on what each person’s purpose was for having a garden, each garden would have different elements. A nurse or midwife would have medicinal herbs, a spinner or weaver would have dye plants, or a decorative garden would have brightly colored flowers. (Pleasant 2004)

"The Chrysanthemums" introduces us to Elisa Allen, a woman who knows she has a gift for growing things, but it seems to be limited to her garden. Diligently working in her garden, Elisa watches as men come and go, living their lives unconfined, wondering what it must feel like to have that freedom. That emotion is revealed as Elisa gases at her husband and acquaintances talking, "she looked down toward the men by the tractor shed now and then." As she tills the soil for her chrysanthemums Elisa tills the thoughts in her head. The garden she so desperately maintained represents her world. A world that will only flourish if nourished. Emotional nourishment and stimulation is what Elisa lacked and longed for. The garden is limited in space to grow and so is her marriage. The garden is safe, non-threatening and so is her world. The garden contains many different elements that make it what it is, although unseen, and if the proper nourishment is not given it will die, as with Elisa.

Maria was born and raised in Medellin, Colombia; a very violent place at the time. However, this violence only affected her when she went to her grandparents’ houses in a lower-class neighborhood. She spent a lot of time there and saw a lot of hitmen and drug cartels in that area. Her

​Pedro’s house was set a small distance back from the mouth of the gravel path, just across from the flagpole and the infirmary. The thatched cottage, painted in rich colors, reminded us of Snow White and her seven dwarves. The little house was surrounded by picture-perfect English flowerbeds, full of greenery and edged in bright blossoms, which Pedro tended himself.

"[Elisa's] passionate involvement with the process of planting becomes an expression of all the suppressed romance in her life" (Lewis 393). "She is a strong, childless woman of thirty-five that has subliminated her maternal instincts by producing remarkable flowers" (French, John 83). Nevertheless, "the plants and flowers cannot compensate for the lack of understanding and affection from her husband" (McCarthy 27). In the story, Elisa plays the role of a simple-minded lady who allows her husbands thoughts and actions to dominate her. "Elisa's marriage neither fills her time nor fulfills her desires" (Hughes 24). However, Beach concludes that Elisa without a doubt has a "soul" and is much less simple than she seems (Beach 32).