Esperanza Vs. Marin In The House On Mango Street

In Sandra Cisneros’ “The House on Mango Street,” the chapter, The Monkey Garden, describes Esperanza playing in the garden with Sally and a few of the boys when things take a turn Esperanza is uncomfortable with. At times, Esperanza is naïve and inexperienced, but other times, she exudes an awareness of someone much older. This awareness comes to light multiple times throughout the novel and Sally is often a catalyst of this awareness – this chapter is no exception. The Monkey Garden showcases the dichotomy that lies within Esperanza; the dichotomy of being both innocent and intuitive, both aware and naïve.

Though the archetypes Cisneros used in The House on Mango Street, specifically in the female characters, Esperanza learns valuable lessons that construct a newly liberated woman. As Steinem said in her 1999 interview, liberation and power is most impactful when it is taken for oneself. Esperanza took inspiration and lessons from Sally, Mamacita, and Alicia to become empowered. From Sally, the Temptress, she realized that beauty does not transfer to power and the dangers of defining oneself by the male figure in your life. Mamacita’s complacency as the Damsel in Distress showed Esperanza that she must take her life into her own hands and not sit by and wait for someone else to do so. And finally, through her Platonic Ideal, Alicia, she was given an example of liberation, and strong, independent, female

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan is told in 3rd person limited. The narrator tells the reader what the main character, Esperanza is thinking and feeling. “Esperanza felt that sinking feeling again.”(p.74) Esperanza Ortega is rich, elegant, and not used to hard labor and being a poor peasant. Esperanza is 12 years old and always thought her life would be wonderful with many fancy dresses and servants. "Esperanza looked at her Mama in surprise. Why was she apologizing to these people? She and Mama shouldn't even be sitting in this car." (p.69)

As a child, Esperanza wants only escape from mango Street. Her dream of independents and "self-definition" also means leaving her family behind without any responsibilities to her family. Throughout the book, her has also faced some situation where is feels ashamed to be part of the Mango Street community and in some instances refuses to admit she has anything to do with mango street. At the beginning of the book near the earlier chapters, Esperanza feels very insecure about herself in general along with the house that she lives in. As mentioned before, she doesn’t want to discuss her name nor where she lives. In the chapter of "The House on Mango Street", "a nun from my school passed by and saw me playing out front. The downstairs door had been boarded up because it had been robbed two days before the owner had painted on the wood YES WE ' RE OPEN so as not to lose business. Where do you live? She asked. There, I said pointing up to the third floor. You live there? She responded. You live there? The way she said it, made me feel like nothing". This quote reinforces the fact of how apprehensive and shameful Esperanza is during the beginning of the story, where one can clearly see the state of insecurity of Esperanza. This is ultimately contrasted through the progression of the book when Esperanza maturity is shown in the quote," Passing bums will ask, can I come in? I 'll offer them the attic, ask them to stay, because I know how it is to be without a house" through this quote you could clearly see the juristic growth from the beginning of the book. Esperanza grows out of her childish and arrogant state to a more confident becomes to feel more empathy towards others, showing her transformation into a confident mature women. Esperanza will even a homeless a place to stay regardless the state or how the house looks like, but

The House on Mango Street follows Esperanza Cordero 's transitioning through a progression of pieces about her family, neighborhood, and mystery dreams. In spite of the fact that the novel does not take after a customary sequential example, a story develops by Esperanza’s fortifying toward oneself and will overcomebarriers of poverty, sex, and race. The novel starts when the Cordero family moves into another house, the first they have ever claimed, on Mango Street in the Latino segment of Chicago. The red, unstable house frustrates Esperanza. It is not in the least the fantasy house her guardians had constantly discussed, nor is it the house high on a slope that Esperanza promises to one day own.

“I could’ve been somebody, you know? My mother says and sighs. She has lived in this city her whole life. She can speak two languages. She can sing an opera. She knows how to fix a T.V.” (Cisneros). In the vignette, “A Smart Cookie” by Sandra Cisneros, it states how the mother of a girl named Esperanza regrets not going to school and not becoming the person she wanted to be. Esperanza’s mother complains about not having done something with her life. The mother seemed disgusted with her younger self and told Esperanza not to be like her.

The claim/thesis that I have picked is that Esperanza has a variety of female role models in her life. Many of those role models in her life are in a trapped abusive life. They come from a poor family and are not the cleanest people in the town. But they have something all in common and that is that they all want a change. Some want their change in a different way than the others, some want someone else to change their life, and the others want to change their lives themselves. For Esperanza she comes from a poor family and lives in a house that in her opinion is old and ugly and worn down. She is unsure what she wants someone else to change her life or if she wants to change her life by herself. My opinion of how someone should change their life is by the person who wants the change it. If you need someone to change something that you are capable of doing. It is better to change what you want immediately so that people can progress onward from where you ended, even if it is a marriage.

It states, “I got up to join Lucy and Rachel who were already outside waiting by the door, wondering what I was doing talking to three old ladies who smelled like cinnamon. I didn't understand everything they had told me. I turned around. They smiled and waved in their smoky way. Then I didn't see them. Not once, or twice, or ever again.” (Cisneros 105). One of the reasons for this is her meeting the three old ladies who came for Rachel’s sister’s funeral. There prophesy that Esperanza will leave Mango Street boosts her self-confidence. The narrator also says, “Before Keeler it was Paulina, but what I remember most is Mango Street, sad red house, the house I belong but do not belong to.” (Cisneros 109). This is a radical change from the first vignette, in which she says that the house on Mango Street is not a real house. Esperanza says it isn’t a house you can belong to. It also states, “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.” (Cisneros 110). At the end of the book, Esperanza has fully accepted who she is. She accepts that fact that she grew up on Mango Street, but that will not hold her back from moving away and growing as a person. Esperanza says that she will come back, she will come back for “the ones I left behind... the ones who cannot out”. (Cisneros 110). Esperanza is able to go through a change and accept who she is through her community and her family. She is able to use her situation to empower herself, and to be hopeful in her own

Imagine losing everything you had, your house, your dad, and all your possessions all of that at the age of 12. Ghastly isn’t it? Well in the story, Esperanza Rising by: Pam Munoz Ryan, Esperanza had to go through all that and shift to America during the Great Depression, and even if you don’t know what that is, you probably know by the looks of it that it is not the most marvelous thing. And you would be right, it’s not. When Esperanza goes to work in America to earn money, there are strikes going on about how people don’t get paid enough for working. Esperanza takes the job because she needs the money to help her mom who is sick and in the hospital and to earn money, so that her grandma can come to America. Esperanza is a brave 12 year-old

The last of the three most influential characters is Marin. She is a Puerto Rican girl that wants “someone to change her life” and spends her days babysitting at her house (27). Esperanza gets the idea of marrying a rich man to get out of Mango Street. Marin also tells her about boys “is for the boys to see us and for us to see them” (27). These two ideas Marin shared with Esperanza shows how she can leave Mango Street and live a better life.

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. She 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. Just by having a positive attitude and trying so hard, already makes Esperanza overcome the obstacle of being out of place in her

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 is a very timid little girl. After pestering her mother to give her a note to eat in the canteen, she is seemingly unable to answer the nun who asks what she is doing there, instead meekly holding up the note and scurrying upstairs to Sister Superior. When upstairs, she starts crying while having a conversation with the nun, saying “I always cry when the nuns yell at me, even if they’re not yelling.” This is yet another example of Esperanza’s shyness and social awkwardness. Lastly, after being told that she can eat at canteen for the day, she cries and eats her rice sandwich alone.

In the novellas; A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and The House on Mango Street both of the main characters have a difficult time fitting into their society. Esperanza, from The House on Mango Street, is ashamed of where she lives. Stephen, from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, does not even fit in with his family. Both novellas show that it is possible to find yourself and not fit it, and that it is okay to be different. Esperanza and Stephen have overcome the difficulty of not fitting in, finding themselves and a future, and the courage to be different.

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. As she transitions into womanhood, Esperanza gains a new understanding of weighty concepts such as gender roles. On Mango Street, she is exposed to a variety of females who fill the role model and non-role model categories. Specifically, Esperanza’s observations of the characters, Marin, Sally, and Alicia, reveal the oppressive or often dangerous roles placed on women and how they ultimately influence the development of her identity.