The House On Mango Street

In the book, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza has the perseverance to keep moving forward everyday despite many obstacles being created in her way.

This also leads her to question the way that he treats his girlfriend Lois. Esperanza describes her as “…tiny and pretty…”, however Sire has to tie her shows for her because she does not know how (73). This demonstrates how Lois never learned how to tie her shoes because she was raised to believe that a man can do that for her. Rafaela is another example of this mindset. Her husband keeps her locked up because he believes that she is too beautiful and that she will run away. This demonstrates that he took the choice to leave away from her because he views her as something to protect and keep locked away.

“(Rafaela) Gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at.” This quote shows how Rafaela is held back because She is locked indoors all day with only her imaginations to entertain her. If she wasn’t locked indoors she would be at the bar dancing like the other women. “Rafaela leans out the window and leans on her elbow and reams her hair is like Rapunzel’s.” She is more likely to run away because she stuck indoors compared to if she had freedom.

In all aspects of life, women are pressured to be someone they are not. They are put in situations that force them to chose a path of life. In “The House on Mango Street”, Esperanza is forced to think about leaving Mango Street in the future, because she is surrounded by women who are pushing her to become an adult.

In addition to Esperanza facing society's standards for women, so did many of the women on Mango Street. In this time period, countless women are stuck in gender roles. Sally says, “He never hits me hard” (Cisneros 92). Sally’s father makes her feel belittled when he abuses her because it is socially acceptable to hit your own daughter. Her father makes it seem like she is less valued than a male. Esperanza talks about Sally, “But Sally doesn’t tell about that time he hit her with his

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

Esperanza wishes to be grown so she can be free from Mango Street, but she is faced with a sense of powerlessness and no role models to show her to be powerful. Esperanza is surrounded by women who have submitted to their fate instead of standing up for themselves, except for Alicia. Esperanza, instead of following every woman who has submitted to their powerlessness, has chosen a role model who is showing her to be powerful. After Esperanza is raped, the peak of her powerlessness, she is speaking with Alicia, “No, this isn’t my house I say and shake my head as if shaking could undo the year I’ve lived here...No, Alicia says. Like it or not you are Mango Street, and one day you’ll come back too. Not me. Not until somebody makes it better. Who’s going to do it? Not the mayor” (Cisneros 106). Alicia is telling Esperanza that no matter how hard she tries, Mango Street will always be a part of her past, and she will come back someday. But at the same time, she’s hinting to Esperanza that she is strong enough to come back and change Mango Street for the better. Because who else is going to do it? Esperanza understands Alicia’s message to her and reflects upon what she wishes her future to be like, “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...They will not know I have gone away to

Esperanza believes in feminism and women independence. In the vignette Rafaela who drinks coconut and papaya juice on Tuesday, this character is confined in her house because her husband thinks she is too beautiful to look at. “And then Rafaela who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much gets locked indoors

When I grow up, I want to be a black gum tree. Black gum trees are known for their internal strength. Instead of dwelling on outward beauty, they spend more time focusing on their inner growth and developing their core. Only after they have achieved this goal can they produce beautiful fruits that draw animals near to them. Any surfaces that the berries touch are stained as to say, “I was here and made a permanent difference.” After they have utilized their outward influences, they use their internal scars and hollow places to protect the animals surrounding around it. If human lives were to reflect the concepts of the black gum tree, governments, individuals, and communities would be radically transformed. While this is a beautiful image,

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

After papa died, Mama, Esperanza, Abuelita were in shock. They lived without saying any word or talking until they ran out of money for livestock.Then soon, Hortensia, Miguel, and Alfonso decided to move to urban areas to get a job to live. Since Esperanza and Mama´s bank money was empty, they couldn't pay them for servants. They greeted them goodbye, hugged and told them that they would be back in couple of years. Then the next day, Mama thought we wouldn't obviously survive without money. So on Saturday, she went out with Abuelita to look out for a job near Él Rancho, in the late night when Esperanza was sleeping.When the sun was shining in Esperanza's eyes, she woke up with the birds chirping, chickens crying, but especially Mama

Everybody has the dream of living in a nice house with a family, nice car and just overall living the contemporary lifestyle. What does it take to do that though? How can you succeed at living a healthy lifestyle? In the story The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros the protagonist Esperanza undergoes not being able to live the American dream. Growing up in Chicago in a poor neighborhood, things were just overall hard for her and her family. The obstacles to not being able to live the American dream are poverty, language border, and education.

In Pagan’s critique, she clearly states the boldness and ingenuity of Cisneros text “The House on Mango Street”. She leads her essay expressing the fact that the story pushes the boundaries of social norms, and forces readers to face possibly uncomfortable and tough topics. These topics include things, as directly stated in the text, such as “race, class, power, and violence; the social construction of sex; female empowerment; and the feminization of poverty.(1) Pagan also mentions the countless opportunities that Cisneros’ novel gives teachers to start discussions with their students. She explains that there are many vignettes that give teachers the opportunities to bring up subjects that might be harder to talk about within the secure boundaries of a classroom.

The quote of importance from “The House on Mango Street” establishes relevance for readers since it focuses the reader’s attention on the importance of home and family to the narrator through the use of plot and point-of-view. At the start, the narrator helps the reader to experience her emotionally frustrated life in all its poverty and hardships. On the other hand, the reader may not have experiences with the girl’s life style. He may live in a nice house with two bathrooms, his own bedroom, and his own TV. Seemingly insignificant situations like making too much noise, paying rent, or sharing a yard may never have crossed the reader’s mind. Hence, living life in someone else’s shoes proves difficult, but the narrator helps the reader to experience