Beauty In The House On Mango Street
Beauty is a very powerful and prominent thing. It’s what makes you get out of bed in the mornings and makes the world go round. Despite all that, there are some negatives of it as well. “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros gives a window back in time to a point where a little girl named Esperanza grows up on the streets of Chicago. Through the numerous rapes, abusive relationships, and the absence of respect for women, Cisneros portrays a theme that beauty is a double edged sword through the characters Esperanza and Sally. Beauty is a double-edged sword for Esperanza because she’s optimistic, lacks self-confidence, and innocent. To begin with, Esperanza is a very optimistic person due to her goal of not ending up like other women …show more content…
She represented the theme of beauty is a double edged sword by being “fabulous”, beaten, and abused. To start off, Sally is “fabulous” through her pulchritude. This is how Esperanza describes her, “The boys at school think she’s beautiful…when she laughs, she flicks her hair back like a satin shawl”(Cisneros 81)Sally’s beauty makes her happy and content. She’s pretty, elegant, and graceful, which causes everybody to rave her looks. This is a major plus point for beauty. Another much darker thing that represents Sally is how she gets beaten. In the following excerpt, Esperanza describes how Sally’s father beats her. “He hit her with his hands just like a dog, she said, like if I was an animal” (Cisneros 92). The thing about this quote is Sally’s beauty can be a plus and a negative. On the plus side, she’s “fabulous”, as I described earlier. On the negative side, boys are more willing to rape her. To prevent this from happening, Sally’s father forbids her from talking to boys. At this point, it becomes extremely ironic. Her father tries to protect her from abuse by other boys, only to beat and abuse her himself. The father’s love turns out not to be so loving after all. In this case, her beauty is a ticket to get violated either at home or outside. Last but not least, Sally gets abused by boys because of her beauty. In “The Monkey Garden”, a group of boys steal her keys. This next excerpt is the most shocking,
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House On Mango Street Compare And Contrast Essay
1042 Words | 5 PagesThe reaction to this small house affects her to dream of living in a house of her own (Cisneros 4). Esperanza isn’t all that wealthy; this is evident when they can’t afford lunch meats so she makes a rice Maggard 3 sandwich (Cisneros 44). Overall Esperanza learns to cope with her living situation just talking to people and she also works really hard in school and at home and eventually moves away. These three characters have proved to all be very unique and different.
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The House On Mango Street
1224 Words | 5 PagesSexuality in adolescence Sexuality is the most notorious and common sign of development in adolescence. “The House on Mango street”, by Sandra Cisneros is a coming of age novel, where Esperanza transitions from a girl into a young teen. In her journey, Esperanza comes across many challenges, she is forced to grow up by life’s adversities. In the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, a mother advises her daughter and scolds her into becoming a decent woman. In her guidance, the mother is worried about her daughter’s sexual activity and warns her about the consequences of improper behavior.
Female Role Models In Mango Street
910 Words | 4 PagesGrowing up as a young female teen came be hard due to the stress and peer pressure of appearance. For teenage girls from immigrant families, it came be very challenging to fit in with the “American way”. Esperanza struggles throughout the book with finding her place in society. She looks to other female role models in her community for guidance, where she finds different results. Most of Esperanza’s female role models on Mango Street have unique stories to tell of their experiences with men on Mango Street.
I Want To Be Miss America Summary
575 Words | 3 Pages“Tell that to my daughters’ My mother would address the screen as if none of us were there to hear. ”[Pg.41 ] She uses her mother's sarcasm to get her point across to try to teach adolescent girls that beauty is not everything and that beauty will fade with time but your inner beauty just keeps getting better with time. Another example of her use of verbal irony is shown through the passage of, “My mother would inevitably shake her head & say ‘Truth is Americans believe in democracy-even in looks” Through this she tries to explain that there is never a cookie cutter in beauty, that they are fine they way they are, whether it be short with frizzy hair or tall with slick hair, they are beautiful the way
The House On Mango Street Cultural Identity Essay
504 Words | 3 PagesBut still feels lonely. Also, throughout the story Esperanza gets negative attention from boys because of her culture. For some men she comes across in the story they see her as a toy for her ethnicity and not being from America. This also embarrasses her as she is still trying to find out what love is but can’t because if the negative attention. Therefore, even though she struggles pushing through with her ethnicity, others have it just as hard as well, showing how different ethnicities can clash.
Change In Esperanza's The House On Mango Street
1095 Words | 5 PagesThe House on Mango Street is a touching and timeless tale told in short vignettes. It tells the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago. Her life, and the lives of the people around her, are laid bare to the readers in this touching novella. In the beginning, Esperanza is not accepting of herself. Her family’s poor financial situation, the sadness of the people around her, and the problems she faces in her daily life make her very cynical.
Poverty In The House On Mango Street
1117 Words | 5 PagesMany people are undermined by the drawbacks of belonging to a low socioeconomic status. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is raised in a poor, Latino community, causing her to be introduced to poverty at an early age. This introduction of poverty affects Esperanza in many ways, one including that she is unable to find success. Esperanza struggles to achieve success in life because the cycle of poverty restricts her in a position in which she cannot break free from her socioeconomic status.
Liberty As A Role Model In Ayn Rand's Anthem
842 Words | 4 PagesPhysical beauty is desired by most; many people wear makeup, lift weights, or undergo surgery to change their appearance. These people attempt to cover up imperfections and insecurities by altering their appearance to one that is more aesthetically pleasing and acceptable to society. Therefore, beautiful people are admired by most. Liberty fits the description of a beautiful woman solely by her external appearance. She is so captivating that Equality breaks one of his society’s rules and thinks of her above others.
Essay On Obstacles In The House On Mango Street
1002 Words | 5 PagesShe dreams “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” (707). Esperanza believes that she can change the way she is living and live a better life. She is trying to get a good education to become a more improved and intelligent person so one day she does not have to be poor.
Inequality In The House On Mango Street Analysis
1173 Words | 5 Pages“No, this isn’t my house I say and shake my head as if shaking could undo the year I’ve lived here (Cisneros 106).” This quote shows Esperanza’s unwillingness of accepting her poor neighbourhood because of the violence and inequality that has happened in it. In the House on Mango Street, the author, Sandra Cisneros, shows that there is a direct link between inequality, violence and poverty. The House on Mango Street shows women are held back by the inequalities that they face. Cisneros shows that racism prevents individuals from receiving job opportunities which leads to poverty and violence.
Sweetheart Of The Song Tra Bong Analysis
1048 Words | 5 Pages“… she was seventeen years old, fresh out of Cleveland High Senior High. She had long white legs and blue eyes and complexion like strawberry ice cream. Very friendly, too”(O’Brien 93). Her beauty is both inside and out which can even make the most loyal of men jealous. It can even be compared to Lucifer’s beauty in the bible, “…You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty”(New International Version, Ezekiel 28.12).
House On Mango Street Culture
437 Words | 2 PagesThe House on Mango Street is set in a poor, primarily Hispanic neighborhood. Author Sandra Cisneros creates an atypical, yet easily digestible world for the reader to experience while learning about Esperanza’s childhood. The culture of her environment influences Esperanza’s development as she becomes a young woman, and contributes to the book’s driving theme of self-empowerment. Mango Street is the source of Esperanza’s growth through her childhood, and it hides sadness and longing underneath stereotypes of Hispanic people. The characters that live in the broken-down neighborhood all seem to represent pigeonholed views of Latino individuals.
Roger Scruton Why Beauty Matters Summary
700 Words | 3 PagesThe narrator claims, that beauty is essential to give us a purpose of life. It has the ability to transform our surroundings, and get us to a higher spiritual level. He explores
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