Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
Gender in literature
Essays about immigrant stories
Immigrant story essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Gender in literature
Essays about immigrant stories
Immigrant story essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Characters Comparison/Contrast Essay Intro: Include one or more sentences summarizing each story and describing each character. Esperanza and house on mango street: Esperanza is a young girl who lives for a year on mango street and gradually grows into a mature young woman by a series of encounters and situations on her quest to learn more about female sexuality and later conclusion on rejecting sex as a form of escaping reality but rather focus on the importance of community and family. At the end of the book, Esperanza becomes a important figure for women’s help in her community and proves herself as an artist and writer through her analysis and observations through her writings.
In the vignette “The Monkey Garden”, Cisneros continues the theme of losing one’s innocence through imagery. Being one of the last vignettes, the reader knows the struggles like losing one’s innocence and feeling shameful that Esperanza continues to experience throughout the novel. Cisneros continues these themes when Sally is quite willingly tricked into kissing a couple of friends. Esperanza attempts to come to her rescue; however, Sally doesn’t want to be saved. Since Sally has completely thrown away her innocence by this point, Esperanza in turn feels shameful because of her still abundant innocence.
Amid a male dominant environment, Esperanza’s influences pressure her in ways not acceptable for a developing girl. Her female role models have been corrupted and controlled by the males in her society. This aspect of her life factors hugely of her developing identity and because of what happens around her, she feels her worth plummeting. She does not want to be like the other females in this story and desires a life not controlled by males, but often Esperanza feels as if she doesn’t a
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’s childhood has been one with loneliness and sexual exploitation. The constant struggle of trying to find her identity and it is evident within the first few chapters of the book. When the reader opens up the book the very first thing that she wants to change about herself is her name. “In English my name means hope.
Esperanza’s environment shifts her identity from being an insecure child to a confident, mature young adult who realizes the decisions that adults must make. Esperanza’s response to her environment reveals an insecurity about herself early in the story. In one of Esperanza’s experiences, she finds herself ashamed
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 acquires a sense of who she is as a young woman. These characters aid in her decided stance on gender roles and how she wants to evade them as she starts to build her own life. Through Esperanza’s narration, the darkness that correlates with the roles of women is brought into light. The gender roles found in the book are still issues today. Such ideas ruin much of society because people have yet to question and altar them.
In the book, The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is portrayed as a young innocent girl that drastically changes over the course of the book. Esperanza is new to mango street and encounters many challenges but also positive experiences that she is able to take away from mango street. In order for Esperanza to transform as a human it was inevitable for her to face the struggles on mango street. As Esperanza matures throughout the novel she experiences three major developments that shape her future through the awakening of maturity, responsibility and her awakening of her interest in poetry.
Esperanza’s Odyssey Esperanza ’s journey of self-identification is apparent in the novel “House on Mango Street”. Her hopes of leaving the barrio were clearly shown in different vignettes: “House on Mango Street”, “Bums in the attic”, “Beautiful and Cruel”, and so on. Her process of self-identification will entail her realizing that she is growing more mature, figuring out her sexuality, and understanding her culture as a Latina.
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
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.
Esperanza tries to wear high heels like a woman, tries to have a boyfriend like an older woman, and she tries to get a job like an adult. Esperanza’s longing to grow up quickly causes her to confront the reality of being an adult. Although Esperanza desperately wants to be an adult, she is not prepared for the responsibilities that accompany adulthood; she is unable to successfully make the transition
At first Esperanza believes her name expresses herself as a person, but she accepts it. Even though, Esperanza was ashamed of living on Mango Street that is the place she lived, and had many experiences. The vignettes that were described about Esperanza’s situation of identity and growing up is all a worry. In the end Esperanza’s writing will express her feeling from Mango Street, and she will come back to write about the house that she belongs but does not belong