The Bite of the Mango and A Long Way Gone

1. The Bite of a Mango by Mariatu Kamara and Susan McClelland, is a powerful story about the experiences of young Mariatu Kamara, a Canadian refugee from Sierra Leone. The culture of Sierra Leone during the 90’s and 2000’s impacted Mariatu’s life and how she ends up in Canada. One aspect of the Sierra Leonean culture is that young girls get married and have children at a very young age. When Mariatu was only 12 years old, an older man named Salieu wanted to marry her, but she rejected him. After that, while Mariatu was all alone at her house, Salieu came in and raped her, making her pregnant. She later gave birth to a baby, Abdul, who died due to malnutrition. Mariatu getting raped by an older man shows how the Sierra Leonean culture impacted her life because, in the West, this would not be acceptable, and Salieu would have been punished, although in the book, he is later shot by rebel soldiers. Next, another culture aspect of Sierra Leone is that a civil war is going on during Mariatu’s time there. Rebels and soldiers alike were attacking and destroying the country. One day, Mariatu had to go to a nearby village to get food, where rebels captured her

In the researcher’s opinion, “this could be as much about the long-term effects of having an unreliable world view as it is about a lack of self-control” (Kidd 871). So it is obviously extremely important for children to be raised in a trustworthy, dependable environment in order to learn self-control and to be able to use their willpower to self-regulate.

While reading The Bite of the Mango, there are many traumatic events Mariatu experiences. Even these events are extremely devastating, heartbreaking, and life changing, Mariatu learns to seek the positives in her situations to make her life more joyful. The first traumatic event that Mariatu experienced was her little brother Santigie dying when Mariatu was 6 years old. Over the past years, Mariatu has formed a strong bond with him through playing and talking. When he died, in order to cope with her loss, she imagined that Santigie could be a spirit watching over her. “I was walking one day, I thought I could hear his voice calling me. I turned to look, but there was no one there. This happened several times over the next year.” (Kamara 19), mariatu proclaims. These occurrences made Mariatu think that Santigie was truly a spirit looking over her. Mariatu contemplating this assumably helped her cope with her issues by thinking that Santigie is in a better place now, looking over her shoulder.

“The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros is a unique piece of literature that brings an interesting style of writing to life. Cisneros writes in vignettes that are as powerful as they are short and to the point. These snapshot stories illustrate the life of a young adolescent girl named Esperanza, who is trying to understand the ways of life, and fit in her culture. She learns that some of her expectations don’t quite match with the reality of her world and every action has a consequence. This is a prevalent topic throughout the book as Esperanza is growing up and facing life’s challenges as a female teenager in 1984.

Because some believe females have limited means of power and control, many women in poverty stricken communities choose to marry a man provide for them, believing they cannot provide for themselves. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza spends the period of the book finding out that the traditional role for a woman — little education, early marriage and children — is all too often a trap lined with unhappiness. Because it was expected to not finish high school as a female, most women rely on marrying a man to provide and help escape the struggle of life in poverty, as most are unable to due so without ever receiving a full education. Esperanza’s younger sister, Nenny, possesses the traits of independence and separate ideas that are different from most people in her community; “Nenny says she won’t wait her whole life for a husband to come and get her….she wants things all on her own, to pick and choose,” (Cisneros 88). Esperanza explains that most think marriage is the way to get out, whereas Nenny doesn't believe a man is the key to living a happy and successful life. However, other women in more desperate situations choose to take marriage as the alternative route, such as Sally, Esperanza’s friend from school. Regardless of still being a girl, Esperanza observes that Sally wants to be taken away by a man, escaping her current home situation where her father beats her, and mother covers her bruises and scrapes. Her guardians parenting contributed to Sally’s desperate need to be loved, resulting in her eagerness to find a husband. “Sally got married like we knew she would, young and not ready but married just the same…she married him in another state where it’s legal to get married before eighth grade...she says she is in love, but I think she did it to escape,” (Cisneros 101). Esperanza explains

Both narrator’s in the story may be going through different scenarios in their own corresponding stories, however, they relate on the mood of their story-telling. The narrator’s appear to be pessimistic about the present situation, with their new living conditions, as well as what these events foreshadow their or others futures. In “Everyday Use” the narrator is a African American mother of two, Maggie and Dee, and in “The House on Mango Street” the narrator is the child of a family of two. The series of events that have occurred leading up to the story have shaped their feelings of pessimism,with low expectations for their surrounding family.

The novel “Monique and The Mango Rains” recounts the journey of both a young midwife named Monique Dembele- who worked in the village of Nampossela in the country of Mali- and a young Peace Corps volunteer named Kris Holloway. In the novel, Monique is described as “…not only the village’s midwife and sole health care worker” (Holloway, 5), but she was also Kris’ assigned host. Although twenty-four years old, Monique still bore the features of early youth. Holloway describes Monique’s face as “youthful, sweet really-a brown symmetrical disk with arching eyebrows, widely spaced eyes, and a slightly upturned nose, making her look like a kid” (Holloway, 6). Kris-an American- was a college senior eager to escape the Midwest and even more ready to

When a child is in its early years, it is considered an evil entity for humanity. Wherever they go, catastrophe is bound to happen, whether it would be throw food in the floor at lunch, or drawing all over the drywall in the basement, children are difficult to deal with. However, as they progress through their daily lives, they start becoming more behaved and start to conduct themselves properly. This process does not occur naturally though, kids must learn right from wrong not just in the classroom, but from their own personal experiences. The cycle of learning from peers and from oneself continues throughout one's entire lifetime, because as far as humanity is concerned, our brain has no limit to what we can learn. Teens and other readers

Which can be corrected with a role model who can be there for them. This is something that I had become when I was volunteering at the Boys and Girls Clubs. There was a boy named Jojo who always had a smile in his face and I chatted with him each day I came to the facility for he brought up some fun topic like who is your favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. At one time he told issues that he had faced like being bullied in his school for having a chubby appearance and now he is being homeschool because of that incident. Knowing that you're a positive influence in their life becoming someone who they can be open with, talking about their problems they have faced or is dealing with right

When they are not around peers of their age, they could feel isolated and depressed. Some, of them might run away or even attempt suicide. This is a why the general education teacher, the SPED teacher the para, and the parents need to watch for any signs that a child is feeling down and out. This is why praise is beneficial to these children, but it cannot be over excessive and done every time a child does something right.

Kids can make other kids feel insecure about themselves, like if they are called fat,ugly,or that they have problems then sometimes they will start to believe

  The two novels Baby of the Family, and House on Mango Street expose the minority experience through the perspective of a child, struggling to find an identity in their own unique views of the cultures they are growing up in. The life of Lena's family, one of an upper class African American family in the southern part of the United States, appeals to the ideal of the New American as her family blends the dominant culture with their minority background in their everyday life experiences. Esperanza is a Hispanic youth, growing up in a barrio, where there is not much to offer the Hispanic locals. She ultimately feels the profile the of the New American in her

The child in the dysfunctional family that becomes like another parent is the eldest child. This child is referred to as the Hero Child or the Responsible Child. This child takes over the parent role at a very young age, becoming very responsible and self-sufficient.  They give the family self-worth because the child looks good on the outside.  This child becomes the good student, the sports star, the prom queen.  The parents look to this child to prove that they are good parents and good people. As an adult, the Family Hero is rigid, controlling, and extremely judgmental of others and secretly of themselves.  They achieve "success" on the outside and get lots of positive attention, but are cut off from their inner emotional life.  They are compulsive and driven as adults because deep inside they feel inadequate and insecure. The family hero is often the child in the family who as an adult has the hardest time even admitting that there is anything within them that needs to be healed (Burney 2008.)

As children grow up they come face to face with a lot of responsibilities and expectations. That can both lead to success or failure. Sadly, it is the last one that makes the biggest imprint on your brain and eventually makes you snap. Children do in fact have a hard time living under the pressure from adults and their problems get seemingly dismissed most of the time. And when they do get acknowledged by adults they are not taken serious. Either that or the adults scold their children for being so reckless and irresponsible.

A Long Way Gone and The Bite of the Mango are two stories written about the same war - and its effects - from the two different perspectives of a young boy, Ishmael and a young girl, Mariatu. Although both novels have their differences, when compared, they come together to create a wider understanding of how the civil war in Sierra Leone affected all kinds of people in ways both comparable and dissimilar. In both The Bite of the Mango and A Long Way Gone, main characters Mariatu and Ishmael are forced to mature at an extreme pace by going through several, very different experiences caused by the same war.