Sandra Cisneros My Name

The American Minority Authors opens the reader eyes of the struggles of acceptance within the society, and how their heritage and their American culture can coexist. Minority writers, Cisneros, Eastman, and McKay, through their stories, give us insight of their cultural heritage and the struggles they have with society embracing diversity. In Sandra Cisneros, story “Geraldo No Last Name”, speaks of a Latino immigrant who does not speaks English living in America. The narrator of the story even put a label on him calling him a ”brazer”(Cisneros,1989, para 4), is a slang word for a migrant worker(Garling, 2007).

A time in the story where Esperanza feels ashamed of her home is when a nun points “...to a row of ugly three-flats, the ones even the raggedy men are ashamed to go into" (94), and asks if one of the homes belongs to Esperanza. Even though the house did not really belong to Esperanza, she knew her real house wasn't much nicer than the houses the nun pointed to. Esperanza also shows negativity when she complains about her name. Esperanza didn't always like the name she was given, because she doesn't want to end up like her great grandmother, who was forced into marriage, and is basically trapped inside. Esperanza inherited her name, but "[doesn't] want to inherit her place by the window" (51). Esperanza also shows a negative attitude is when she explains that her name “...means sadness, it means

In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza’s name causes her to feels trapped and hopeful for a new identity. When Esperanza says “I have inherited her name, but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window” (Page 11) in My Name. The quote is talking about how even though Esperanza shares a name with her great-grandma she does not want to share her sadness in life. This quote is important because Esperanza feels trapped because of many different things including her name and her social economic status. However, her name is something she can never really get away from unless she goes through the difficult process of changing.

In the beginning of the book, Esperanza talks about the meaning of her name and how she feels about it. She tells how her name sounds like when you say it; it sounds like “...the Mexican records my [Esperanza’s] father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing," (Cisneros 10). Here, Esperanza uses the sense of sound to describe her name like the sound of sad songs and dreary long sobs. The sensory detail of describing the name like music or a sound helps the reader "hear" the sounds and understand the way that Esperanza feels about her name. This detail illustrates how Esperanza thinks of her name as something sad and dreary as opposed to a beautiful or bright and happy name.

In the poem “’If I had been called Sabrina or Ann,’ she said.” Piercy compares her name to not nice, plain, everyday objects using similes. She says: “Name like an oilcan, like a bedroom slipper, like a box of baking soda…” (8-10). Similarly, Esperanza says; “It means sadness, it means waiting.

In "My Name, "She looked out the window her whole life, they way so many women sit, with their sadness on an elbow". Abuse to Rafaela, again subtle because she does not go out, in fear of husband. Poverty on Loomis, Keeler and Paulina; poverty is a way of life. The impact is for all generations, the parents who cannot get out, the children that see it and the little ones who cannot know any better. The opportunities are limited in the barrio. Esperanza was embarrassed when she pointed to her house "there". "There?", as if there was no place for a girl to live. But survival is instinctive and there is a certain amount of barrio pride "Those who don't know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we are dangerous. They think we will attack them with shiny knives. They are stupid people who are lost and got here by mistake." The victim of being called a "rice sandwich". Hurt by the sister superior as she points to a row of ugly houses reminding Esperanza of the sin of being poor.

In Firoozeh Dumas’s story, “The F Word” from Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America (2003), Dumas recalls her struggle of growing up in America with an Immigrant name. She begins her story by telling us the similar struggle her brother, cousin, and friends went through right along side of her. The kids at their school took their Iranian names, which had a special meaning in their country, and turned them into a cruel joke. She goes on to tell us that all the immigrants knew that moving to America would come with its own set of new challenges, but nobody expected to be the joke of the school because of their names. Her name, Firoozeh, which means “turquoise” in Persian, translated to “Unpronounceable” in America. At the age of twelve, Dumas was fed up of the laughing and name calling. She tried to simplify her life by adding an American middle name to her impossibly hard to pronounce Iranian name. Her decision for an American middle name grew intenser after kids began calling her “Ferocious” in fifth grade. That summer when she moved to Newport Beach, she declared to her family that she wanted to add an American middle name to her name. Immune from mockery, she asked for suggestions from her family members and she finally settled with the name “Julie” as her new American middle name. That afternoon, she introduced herself for the first time as Julie to a neighbor girl her age, who coincidentally was also named Julie. Her life in sixth grade became much simpler because people were actually remembering her name for a change. There were only two problems: people spoke poorly about immigrants in front of her because they didn’t see her as an immigrant with her American name and she no longer felt like herself.

“I want to be like the waves on the sea, like the clouds in the wind, but I’m me. One day I’ll jump out of my skin. I’ll shake the sky like a hundred violins” (60). In the story “The House on Mango Street”, the author Sandra Cisneros uses sentences full of imagery, metaphors, and word games, to show how self definition is a result of the people and places surrounding you. This is represented throughout the book when Esperanza wants to change her name, living in a male dominated society, and when she wishes for a new home.

A poignant figure in Esperanza’s life is her own grandmother. In fact, Esperanza was given her birth name after her grandmother. A touching gesture that came from good faith. A name may have some value, but for Esperanza there was a high intrinsic quality to such a simple component. Despite, never encountering her own grandmother in person, Esperanza was grateful to have fond memories by carrying her legacy through her name. Life’s motto concerns dealing with adversity and carrying the legacy of one’s family eternally. Being confident and smart was the only way to live by. No man was needed to help raise and nurture herself. Her grandmother instilled in Esperanza a sense of fortitude and independence. It is sad that a regret of Esperanza is linked to her grandmother, further illustrating the physical and mental hardships one can endure in

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

In the novel,The House on Mango Street, Cisneros uses a powerful collection of imagery however, one of the strongest examples would be in the chapter My Name, which displays Esperanza’s insecurities in a land who struggles to accept her. “In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting,” (Cisneros pg.10). Esperanza explains the meaning of hope for Hispanic people in a few simple words: sadness and waiting. For millions, it represents the wait of a new life, a better life for them. It’s sadness, knowing many reject them in a land they were promised opportunity. This motif of repudiation and racial discrimination appears frequently throughout the novel which greatly affects Esperanza’s life.

There comes a point in time in an individual’s life in which their name truly becomes a part of their identity. A name is more than just a title to differentiate people; it is a part of the person. In Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood by Richard E. Kim, names play a major role on the character’s identities. The absence and importance of the names in the story make the story rich with detail and identity through something as simple as the name of a character. Names are a significant factor affecting the story and the characters throughout the novel Lost Names.

It means sadness, it means waiting” (10). Not only is Esperanza’s name a way to trace her origin but it is also symbolic to the book as a whole. Her name illustrates how the Spanish inside her is sad and it is putting her in a position that is weighing her down and keeping her from becoming someone. The English counterpart is what is keeping her going and motivated to find a way to escape Mango Street and all it encompasses. Just like a genuine immigrants dream when they come to America, Esperanza’s name means “hope” and she uses this hope for a better life to “One day I will pack my bags of books and paper. One day I will say goodbye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever. One day I will go away” (110). Cisneros uses the name of her character to give her a place in a Latino setting and start expounding on her thoughts and feelings that come with that life.

The meaning of names is a central focus of the novel, because names define people. Their worth and functions are summarized by the names. To some extent, the names also discourage originality. This occurs especially to

Juliet from the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare says about Romeo, “‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy.” She claims that it is Romeo’s name, Montague, that is her enemy, and not Romeo himself, although Romeo’s name influenced who he was. Most of the time, names are given to people by their family members after they are born. However, there are also people who choose their own names. Most names have a meaning behind them. That meaning doesn’t always represent who we are. In my case, my name has a story behind it. Everyone’s names were chosen for a reason, even if that reason is insignificant.