The effects of belonging to certain areas in Cisneros stories Belonging: “(of a person) fit in a specified place or environment” (www.Dictionary.com 1). Generally, every person goes through a phase of figuring out who they are and where they belong. Cisneros illustrated what it’s like to question your sense of belonging through Esperanza in the House on Mango Street and through the main speaker in the Woman Hollering Creek. Both of the characters crave to fit in and find their place in life. The vignette “Those who don’t” relates to the short story, “Bread” in the Woman Hollering Creek because they both emphasize the effects of belonging to certain places. “Those who don’t” discusses the outcome of living in the house on Mango Street. Esperanza’s neighborhood mainly consists of Mexican/American residents. Many of the people in her community, including Esperanza’s father, moved from Mexico to America and left everything behind. Since these people left all of their valuables behind, they weren’t as financially well off. “All brown all around, we are safe” (Cisneros 28) This quote describes the races of people who live in Esperanza’s community; Chicanna. Basically everyone in her community is …show more content…
The main speaker and an Italian man, who are presumably in a relationship together, are driving together while eating bread. They pass through familiar roads and have divergent thoughts. “Driving down streets with buildings that remind him he says, how charming the city is” (Cisneros 84). The Italian man has never seen anything like this area before and only judges the city by what he sees; its best front. Unlike the Italian man, the main speaker sees through the completion of the city due to her past experiences. “And me remembering when I was little, a cousin's baby who dies from swallowing rat poisoning in a building like these” (Cisneros
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a semi-autobiography shown through the eyes of the story’s narrator, Esperanza Cordero, an adolescent Mexican-American girl who is about thirteen and growing up in an impoverished, mostly Latino neighborhood in Chicago. The novel is a coming of age story, told over the course of about a year in a series of standalone vignettes, written in a non chronological order, that use poetic and figurative language, such as metaphors and similes, to convey its themes.
Believe it or not, people are not entirely unique. It is certain that no one is truly the same as another person, but it would not be ridiculous to think that everyone does in fact share many similarities. After all, the majority of the population grows and develops opinions or values based on what they see or hear. For Esperanza, the protagonist of Sandra Cisneros’s, The House on Mango Street, the perspective she has is built upon her childhood on Mango Street. This coming-of-age novel illustrates how Esperanza’s experiences on Mango Street play an important role during her period of growth.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a story of a young Mexican girl growing up in the United States. Her name is Esperanza, and the novel takes the reader into her mind and heart as she reminisces about her childhood and what she hoped for in her future. Throughout the novel, Cisneros uses various symbols to highlight the inner conflicts within Esperanza. One of those symbols is shoes. Cisneros uses shoes symbolically throughout the novel to represent parts of Esperanza’s thoughts, emotions, and dreams as she undergoes a transformation from childhood innocence to the realities of adulthood.
Culture identity is something many young people struggle with, especially teens as they go through discovering themselves. Esperanza is the kind of girl who struggles with her cultural background. She envies everyone else she sees as they fit in with the place they are at. Even if the life of others isn’t necessarily amazing she is still jealous for what they do get. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros a very touching story about how a young girl tries to fit in an American society being a Latino.
The nun's immediate reaction disturbed her because in her mind poverty is an embarrassment. The house on mango street represents everything she does not have, which is privilege. She is angry that she must be identified by it. 7. The narrator, Esperanza is telling the reader, her childhood innocence has disappeared and she knows the hard times her family is going through.
However, Esperanza’s negative view of herself slowly changes as she begins to focus on her larger community and her place within it. Through this, Cisneros shows that knowing and accepting where we have come from is an important part of growing up and determining who we are. In the beginning of
The main protagonist Esperanza, matures from a childish girl to a young confident woman through many critical and life changing events in the story. Ultimately, the author, Sandra Cisneros implements the symbols of confidence, the house on mango street and the metaphor of shoes to show how Esperanza develops into a more mature state. Sandra Cisneros
“In the meantime they’ll just have to move a little farther north from Mango Street, a little farther away every time people like us keep moving in (Cisneros 13).” This quote is a significant part of the story because it shows how Esperanza truly feels about herself and her family. She thinks that because she is poor and lives and a bad neighborhood people move away from her family. Esperanza doesn’t think very much of her or her family at all. She thinks that it is because of their race that people do not want to be near them.
Through these women and Esperanza’s reactions to them, Cisneros’ shows not only the hardships women face, but also explores their lack of power to overcome them. Very early on in The House on Mango Street Esperanza encounters multiple women who are living in abusive relationships or are stuck raising and providing for children on their own. One example of these women is Rosa Vargas. She is a mother to one too many children, who often misbehave: “…how can they help it with only one mother who is tired all the time from buttoning and bottling and babying, and who cries every day
Narrator and Sara’s Tone In Anzia Yezierska 's Bread Givers of 1952, a family of immigrant parents living in poverty in the ghetto of New York City struggle to survive. Sara and the narrator both had an awestruck tone towards Max. No matter who was talking, they speak so kind and fondly about Max. Besides their similarities, there were many differences in speed and purpose. When Sara was speaking, she had a very hasty tone where her words were repetitive and scattered.
Many 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.
Esperanza and her family are always moving because they do not have much money, but they finally moved into a house on Mango Street where they “Don’t have to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with the people downstairs, or be careful not to make too much noise” (703). Although it sounded like a nice place, when a nun from her school saw where Esperanza lived, she said, “You live there?” (703). That made Esperanza feel like nothing and made her realize she needs a real house, one that is really nice. Esperanza wants to change her life and make the best of what she has.
“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.
The 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.
Stereotypes are simple images or beliefs over the attributes assigned to a particular social group, are models of behavior that become schemes deeply rooted in our mentalities to the point that we adopt them as part of human naturalness. Stereotypes can be racial, religious, sexual and social. These could be the caused of a known incident or attitude years earlier, or simply the result of frequent rumors. Stereotypes can affect different spheres of society. These assumptions can filter into many aspects of life.