In the book The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros is raising awareness of the racism and domestic abuse in society. In the text Esperanza is entering womanhood, a time of self-discovery and maturity in her life. Growing up in a poor community, she throughout the book expresses how she feels when she is discriminated because of her race. She also comments on other characters being victims of domestic abuse. A way Sandra Cisneros is raising awareness of racism in society is by dismissing the stereotypes they are addressed. In our society Latinos are portrayed as criminal like, and violent. Although in the book, Esperanza addresses how the Latinos in her community truly are the author is raising awareness of racism, “ those who don’t know …show more content…
However, Esperanza figures that her father is beating her. Sally is sugarcoating her beatings, by saying he does not hit her hard, and my mother has it worse. Sally and her mother are not standing up to this abuse; because they are treated like animals therefore they do not have a voice in what happens to them. This quote raises awareness of domestic abuse because it illustrates it can happen to anyone, and not everyone stands up. It also is telling the public if they are victims, they should stand up. Moreover, Sandra Cisneros is raising awareness of the hidden domestic abuse in families, and urging victims to stand up. Sandra Cisneros is raising awareness of domestic abuse and racism in society at large. By composing the characters in her text as victims, she is providing a realization of these issues still being current, and she is opening a door for these issues to be addressed. Students are assigned this book in schools and colleges because they need to be taught about the problems in society, so they can prevent
Have you ever been in a situation where you had to struggle with poverty? Or have been jealous over someone's life you thought was better than yours? Or have you even had to live with someone's judgement of you? In the novel The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, it introduces the reader to a teenage girl named Esperanza who had to fight vigorously through all three battles. Throughout the novel, the reader acquires knowledge on the societal problems of poverty, judgement, and jealousy.
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
The speaker is uneducated, so the writing in the first person is readable for beginners as well as educated adults. Walker addresses the audience specifically to to create deeper imagery, where the audience can add their own experiences to the story, such as “You’ve no doubt seen those TV shows” (46). The speaker directly addresses the audience, and so anyone reading the story, whether a minority, or the majority, will be connected to the story. Purpose: Walker describes the impact of oppression on the relationship between mother and daughter, and how the oppressed view themselves.
A texan woman, named Sandra Bearden was looking for a maid to complete housework and look after her son, so she traveled into a poor village in Mexico and met Maria. Maria, being only twelve years old, saw this as an opportunity to move to the U.S. and receive better education which produced a better life. Sadly, Maria’s dreams were crushed because Sandra began to take advantage of her both physically and mentally. Her punishments for not working included: pepper spray in the eyes, a bottle broken against her head, jamming garden tools up her private areas,
Sandra Cisneros, the author of the book The House on the Mango Street, conveys that girls or women do not have as much freedom as guys do, the girls or women are always ruled or controlled by someone mostly male, and they always have to be the one to follow the rules. As Esperanza grows up she observes many girls who are in the conditions that they are not supposed to be in. The girls have no freedom and they are always supposed to listen to the guy in the family. One observation Esperanza observes is that girls are controlled by men all the time and because of listening to men those girls are locked inside. For example as Esperanza says, “And then Rafaela, who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much, gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at” ( Cisneros # 79 ).
Societal expectations are a part of everyone’s life, male or female. From the day people are born, there are roles they are expected to assume-- wife, homemaker, father, provider, mother and many others. While these aren’t necessarily negative, the stigma of not fulfilling these roles can be unpleasant. While the roles we are supposed to choose aren’t always clearly defined, the judgement that comes from choosing to take certain actions in life, like settling down or becoming a mother is palpable. Throughout The House on Mango Street, Esperanza’s view of the world is largely shaped by the people around her, which are her neighbors, family, and friends.
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.
People are even afraid to come near their neighborhood, they fear that they will be attacked. The residents of Mango Street are talked about as criminals, just because of their race and their poverty. As a result of being Hispanic, Esperanza and those around her are viewed by other, higher classes, as a minority. Hispanics at that time made less money and were seen as lessers compared to people in the higher class. Higher class people believed they were superior to her.
Esperanza is often humiliated not only by where she lives, but also by her physical appearance, hence causing a restriction in her climb to a higher social class. Esperanza is frequently ashamed of her family’s broken-down house in an urban, poor
Around twenty people per minute are physically abused by a partner in the US, and around one in fifteen children are exposed to intimate violence per year. While these statistics may seem surprising, The House on Mango Street, a book full of many lessons and examples, provides great glimpses into the lives of those affected by abuse, especially in the main character Esperanza's friends Sally and Minerva. We see examples of childhood abuse with Sally and her father’s relationship, and later in the story Sally and her husband’s relationship. We see examples of domestic abuse in Minerva and her boyfriend’s relationship. The high occurrence of domestic and childhood abuse highlights the need for more awareness and protection regarding these issues.
In Mexican American society , women are deemed inferior to men, evident in traditional family roles, the male is the head of the family who provides for the family , while the woman stays at home to look after the children she is expected to provide for her husband . In the third vignette of ‘The House on Mango Street’ titled ‘Boys and Girls’ the reader is informed of the division between men and women when Esperanza refers to herself and her sister Nenny , and her brothers, “They’ve got plenty to say to me and Nenny inside the house. But outside they can’t be seen talking to girls”. The male dominance begins at a very young age.
The idea of the uncanny that is presented in Freud’s essay can be represented in many ways from the “doubling” of a character or even through “involuntary repetition” of something that happens in the story. The short story “Barbie-Q” by Sandra Cisneros includes this notion of the uncanny. Though both “doubling” of characters and “involuntary repetition” of an event could be found in this short story. In this particular story “involuntary repetition” of an event throughout the story is shown by the main character exploring all the different Barbies at the flea market, whereas the “doubling” of a character is shown by the way that the narrator envies everything that the Barbie’s have.
The male-dominated society that Esperanza grows up in forces the idea that women are weak and should stay locked in their houses while men go off to work. The men are immoral and seedy, as expressed in the chapter in which a homeless man leers and asks for a kiss from the little girls. Esperanza experiences the evil of her community when she is sexually assaulted, causing her to lose her previous desire to explore her sexuality. Before being assaulted, she wanted to be “beautiful and cruel” like her friend Sally, because Sally was what she understood to be a perfect woman. However, after her rape she decides that she needs to discover her own identity for herself.
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.
Sandra Cisneros wrote the House on Mango Street. Esperanza lives in Chicago in the 1950s; Where she lived was on Mango street which was a predominantly Mexican American community at the time. She is describing how people drive through her town scared of what those living will do to them. Cisneroś who is Mexican American takes experiences from her own life and adds them into her stories. Prejudice is like a cycle that is learned, Esperanza even though she is upset that she is being judged on her skin color, she judges others based on her skin color.