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Symbolism in the things they carried literary criticism
The use of symbolism in the novel
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Symbolism in the things they carried literary criticism
The use of symbolism in the novel
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Both Okita's and Cisneros's stories talk about the American identity and how it is much more complex than just your physical appearance or your family's heritage. Okita's poem talks about how she identifies much more with the American culture than her Japanese heritage, and it focuses on a conflict with an American girl that she has grown up with in school. Okita's classroom friend, Denise, becomes hostile and rude towards her after the passing of the executive order that targets Japanese American people. Okita writes her letter to clarify that she may be Japanese-American, but she is not the enemy and she is just like Denise. Cisneros's story focuses on how different she feels from her Mexican culture, comparing and contrasting her
These problems coming to light through the many women Esperanza looks up to, drive her to rise above her obstacles, and become more than just another poorly treated woman. Despite the variety of girls in the neighborhood, one of Esperanza’s closest friends ends up being Sally, who has moved from one abusive home to the next. Sally’s father was a very strict man and she constantly disobeyed him once out of his sight. Whenever Sally is caught dressing “provocative” or acting “too old” her father decides to teach her a lesson.
Esperanza the protagonist of the novel. In the neighborhood where she lives, many people that does not know the place are afraid to get there. The fact that they would think it is a neighborhood full of criminals. "They think we are dangerous. They think they will attack them with shiny knives.
Writing sets Esperanza apart from her neighborhood and those in it because she uses it to escape her current situation: a life she would have been trapped in had she not pursued her dreams. By pursuing her dreams and becoming a writer, Esperanza was able to leave Mango Street a place she desired to leave. Through writing, Esperanza has also come to better understand herself. She has to come to terms with the events that have occurred in her life while living on Mango Street, and is now able to reflect on them from a different prospect. Through writing, Esperanza has learned to become a part of the neighborhood she so strongly wanted to get away
In “A Rice Sandwich”, Esperanza continues to struggle adapting to her new surroundings. She faces another experience when she hears about a new dining hall for kids who live
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.
Esperanza’s interest is writing poem, appears in many of the chapters where it explains a way of bonding with her community by sharing poems with one another. Because Esperanza has become a writer her observations strengthen throughout the novel. One example of how she matures through writing is in the beginning of the book she told stories that were obviously meant for a younger audiences but through the middle of the book she started to use more observation based upon what she saw which helped develop the story more for the reader. This change shows that she is becoming an artist, and also that she is starting to distance herself from her community, since she focuses more on capturing experiences than living through them, she starts to further her self from interaction and focuses more on observation of the people around her. By the end of The House on Mango Street, she knows that she underwent a huge transformation and her relationship with mango st is starting to weaken.
When she was thrown into a situation in where she was told to make corn tortillas by her Latino hosts in France, Cisneros does not even know where to get started. Being put into a situation out of her comfort zone and feeling the pressure to succeed regardless, she felt like “the woman in the fairy tale who was locked in a room and ordered to spin straw into gold” (Cisneros 160). Feeling the pressure to do well, she managed to somehow make the tortillas, and despite their “crooked and burnt” nature, the hosts thought they were delicious (Cisneros 160). Despite the outcome of her work not being perfect, she later emphasizes on how she still felt success, as she “didn’t think [she] could do it. But [she] did” (Cisneros 160).
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
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
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. Esperanza is also physically weak and malnourished.
“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.
But immediately she feels intimidated because she doesn’t understand the rules of the workplace, and is too afraid to ask. “… and I didn’t know if I could sit down or not, and then I started sitting down when the two ladies next to me did.” (54). Yet again Esperanza proves that she is still a child because she feels too timid to ask a basic question. The lunch room turns out to be a scary place for Esperanza as well.
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
Maggard 1 Cole Maggard Johnson English 1 6 November 2014 Character compare and contrast Esperanza from House on Mango Street, Melinda from Speak, and Jean Louise from To Kill a Mockingbird, are very interesting characters that seem to not share many characteristics in each of these novels. These three girls were the main characters of their own books, and in each of these books we learned that they don’t have a lot in common. The personality that these three have just shows how different they are. Here are just a few examples that make these three girls different.