ipl-logo

Conflict In A House On Mango Street

743 Words3 Pages

The conflicts that individuals face within a community’s cultural beliefs shape the people they become. The cultural beliefs of the 1960’s were strong, especially for Esperanza, the protagonist in Sandra Cisneros’s story, A House on Mango Street. The series of vignettes follows Esperanza, a Mexican American growing up in Chicago in the 1960’s, and the conflicts she faces with society. Esperanza’s experience with her society produce a strong, persistant young woman who is determined to live an independent life free of what is expected of her.
As Esperanza continues to meet new people in her community, an apparent pattern recurs for the placement of girls and women in the society. Alicia, one of Esperanza’s neighbors, “whose mama died” (31) …show more content…

Esperanza’s grandmother was born in “the Chinese year of the horse” (10), which was unlucky because “the Chinese, like the Mexicans, didn’t like their women strong” (10). Her grandmother wanted to be an independant woman, so she didn’t marry. In the end, her father “threw a sack over her head and carried her off”(11), just so that she could be like all the other women and have to “look out the window her whole life”(11). The more scenarios that Esperanza experiences with women feeling overpowered by the men, the more Esperanza feels she needs to be independent. Although she inherited her grandmother’s name, she didn’t want “to inherit her place by the window” (11). Sally’s representation of society only added to Esperanza’s suspicions that many girls grow up to be under the control of somebody else. Sally was just like any other girl in the community, and Esperanza tried to understand the logic behind her actions. “When the others [boys] ran, [she] wanted to to run too...not like Sally who screamed if she got her stockings muddy.” (96). When Sally was trading kisses with some boys in order to get her keys back, Esperanza thought that “Sally needed to be saved” (97), howeever, didn’t realize that Sally wanted to be with the boys. Esperanza “felt stupid with [her] brick” and “[felt] ashamed”

Show More
Related
257 Words | 2 Pages

Loss of Innocence In the book The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros demonstrates in her writing how a child can be forced to mature too rapidly. Esperanza encounters sexism, racism, and discrimination towards the poor that impacted her paradigm of the world around her. The motif occurring throughout the novel is how a young girl must become a woman before they are ready. In the chapter “The Monkey Garden”, Esperanza makes one of her final transitions into the woman, her environment forces her to be, this is shown by the change of her opinion of her shoes, the realization of woman accepting manipulation by men, and her loss of childlike interest in the Monkey Garden.

Read More
919 Words | 4 Pages

Esperanza Rising Research Essay Though many who have read Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan believe that Esperanza and her mother should have stayed in Aguascalientes, Mexico, on the contrary, I believe that they were right to leave for California. If they stayed, they would have had to face several consequences, one being having to live with Esperanza’s uncle, despicable Tio Luis. At the same time, when they went to California, they did not have to leave everything behind, it was a choice they made. After all, as Esperanza herself said in the book, “Do not ever be afraid to start over.” (p. 253)

Read More
732 Words | 3 Pages

Although there are a variety of characters throughout literature that have made sacrifices that expose their values, none of them come close in comparison to the sacrifices of Esperanza in Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street. The consistent sacrifices displayed through Esperanza’s self-image, innocence, and cynicism express the struggles and desire for feminine individuality and respect that begin for many in childhood and dissolve into adulthood. Not only does Esperanza display these sacrifices constantly throughout the novel, the author’s use of her character as a beacon of catharsis to the reader symbolically represents the majority of women. Much like other women, Esperanza constantly tries to find herself throughout her own sacrifices,

Read More
1002 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1204 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
876 Words | 4 Pages

Everyone is affected by life’s circumstances. The responses to those experiences can have a positive or negative outcome in one’s future. In Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, the protagonist, Esperanza, gives us her views on life, how she views herself, and she views her future. Not only does she give her perspective throughout the story, she tells us of the numerous experiences that she grows through. These experiences have an impact on her, creating new emotions and new adult like perspectives she has never faced before.

Read More
437 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
575 Words | 3 Pages

Alicia, one of Esperanza’s many neighbors, is trying to do that very same thing. “Alicia, who inherited her mama’s rolling pin and sleepiness, is young and smart and studies for the first time at the university.” (Cisneros, 31) Alicia is forced to assume her mother’s role after she passes away, however, she is also trying to graduate from college. However, it is also implied that Alicia’s father is abusive, or possibly unsupportive, because Esperanza notes that “[Alicia] Is afraid of nothing except four-legged fur. And fathers.”

Read More
1134 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
764 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1117 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1348 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
1476 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
1095 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
540 Words | 3 Pages

In the series of vignettes The House on Mango Street, the author Sandra Cisneros details the life of main character Esperanza, a young girl living in a barrio of Chicago. As Esperanza tells the reader about her experiences in her day to day life, the reader hears about her struggles and dreams, her hopes and expectations in life and how these affect her. Being a young girl, Esperanza holds naivety and hope for the world, not having experienced many mature situations or society yet, and since she is going through the time in her life when she begins experiencing these issues, we see her heartbreak and the world she knew shatter. For example, when Esperanza and her family move to Mango Street, as our story kicks off, her parents would often talk about the life that they would get when they win the lottery, like having “A real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn't have to move each year. And our house would have running water and pipes that worked.

Read More

More about Conflict In A House On Mango Street

Related Topics

Open Document