Life: a particular type or aspect of people's existence. All of our problems help us identify who we are in relation to our life. In the few novels, short stories, and independent reading books that I read, I picked out three characters: Esperanza from The House on Mango Street, Madame Loisel from “The Necklace”, and Jamie Sullivan from A Walk to Remember. These three stories have a common theme in which a character struggles to figure who they are with the pressures of society. This is a struggle I feel like I go through everyday.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, is a book about a teenager named Esperanza, a hispanic female who struggles with figuring out who she wants to become when she’s older. Esperanza has moved multiple times, each with the thought that something better is coming. Throughout her journey of disappointment she gets a glimpse at the women's lives around her and pushes herself to be better than them. These experiences help drive her to break the cycle of women with lost hopes and poverty, and through this realizes her dreams and goals. Esperanza tells the readers about the home she wants when she gets older. “I want a house on a hill like the ones with the gardens
…show more content…
The character I relate to is Jamie Sullivan. Jamie Sullivan is portrayed as a good, southern christian girl who is kind and caring to everyone. Jamie doesn't understand why she is so nice and yet people don’t seem to really like her. She seeks advice from her friend Landon. His response is, “You're a wonderful person, Jamie. You're beautiful, you're kind, you're gentle...you're everything that I'd like to be. If people don't like you, or they think you're strange, then that's their problem” (Sparks 188). This is a quote that we should all live our lives by because even if people don’t like you, life will go
In Sandra Cisneros’ novel, The House on Mango Street, two sisters, Esperanza and Nenny, each own a different identity that separates one from the other highlighting similarities that makes them sisters. Inside the house of the Corderos, Esperanza believes that: “Magdalena who at least can come home and become Nenny. But I am always Esperanza”(11). In the text, Esperanza desires a new name that describes herself within her home; however, obtaining a new name is hopeless for her. As a result, Esperanza wishes for a name she can appreciate and represents her true self similar to the how nickname Nenny represents the true self of Magdalena.
The House on Mango Street is a novel about a Latina girl becoming of age in the streets of Chicago. Her family is very poor, and throughout the entire book she transforms from a little girl to a young lady. In the book, the main characters are Esperanza, Nenny, Mama, Papa. Sally, Lucy, and Rachel. Esperanza and her family moves a lot, but the little red house on Mango Street helped her become the person she is.
She however is very reactive to this situation, she doesn’t tell anybody what happened, she steals late passes, hides in an abandoned janitor closet, and eventually ditches school. That example shows how irresponsible she is. House On Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, is about a young girl who moves into a new house with her family in Chicago Illinois in the early 1980’s. Esperanza is not a very happy person, especially after the year she had at the house on Mango Street.
Esperanza is a young girl who lives on mango street and
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, explores the story of a 12 year old Mexican-American girl, who strives to be different from the women in her poverty-stricken community. The novel covers a year of her life, thus helping readers see the growth that happened within the year. Lucy, a novel by Jamaica Kincaid features a bold, outrageous
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 novella The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is about how a young hispanic girl discovers her identity. Esperanza’s family moves to a poor, predominantly hispanic town in Chicago. As she adjusts to her new neighborhood, she learns from her neighbors and from her own experiences in this new town. In particular, her traumatizing experiences with sexual assault have impacted her. Esperanza’s identity as an independent hispanic girl is shaped by her experiences in sexual assault because it presents her with the dangers many minorities face.
In the House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza suffers with insecurities within herself and her race. Racism has always been an issue in all different types of races no matter the location and no matter the circumstances. Anyone who would come into Esperanza’s community would be frightened because of their
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. To conclude, Sally, Mom, and Marin are the three most influential characters in the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros for opening abusive relationships, staying in school for the better, and leaving poverty by marrying a rich man to the main character
Many girls desire a female role model from a young age. The way these women are treated, and deal with this treatment can heavily impact the way young girls view themselves, and their future as well. Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street brings attention to issues of sexism and gender roles. This is done through a series of vignettes about the main character Esperanza navigating life by the example of her many role models. Each role model impacts Esperanza in a special way, Sally who is married at 13, Marin who is waiting to be rescued by a man, and Alicia who is balancing school and home responsibilities.
The House on Mango Street is a good representative of how many young hispanic girls feel in America. Meaning that although something in one place may seem like nothing embarrassment come easy to them. Just like her house, and Mamacita, both scenarios don’t seem as bad as there are small fixes, but because of their culture it means something completely different. Everyone can learn from this book to be nice to everyone as you don’t know what their background
The 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.
In the mid-1990’s, Sandra Cisneros bought a house in the historic King William neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas. She made improvements to her home and painted it purple to reflect her Tejano heritage. However, her neighbors felt that the purple did not abide by the housing regulations of the neighborhood and petitioned the local commission to force Cisneros to change the color. I believe Sandra Cisneros should be able to keep her house purple.
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.
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.