House On Mango Street Symbolism

In every book, the author of that book has a reason they’re writing, to get a point across, to tell a story, to inform the people. Authors always have reasons why they write the books they write. Authors use certain tones and symbolism within their writing. Everyone reads in their lifetime in order to gain knowledge, each and every piece of writing they read has a lesson or agenda on why it was written. In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros uses tone and symbolism to make the argument that kids who live in a religious household are often raised differently when compared to their peers. In the book “The House On Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, Cisneros uses symbolism to show how a child’s upbringing impacts their whole life.

Growing up in a religious household not only impacts the parents, but also gets passed down to the children as well, in the vignette “Born Bad” it shows how the parents' beliefs have an influence on how children think for and about themselves. “Most likely I will go to hell and most likely I deserve to be there. My mother says I was born on a evil day and prays for me.” (Cisneros 71) Here Cisneros is discussing how a child’s guardians really affect how children are raised. By the parents' religion believing that their child was born bad, that grief gets passed onto the child that has zero control. This sets up a real life example of how religion pushes people away from what it symbolizes, because of the belief that the day you were born on was bad, this also is an example of just how much religion can affect households as a whole and each and everyone’s mental health. Within the same vignette Cisneros also makes another point how religion can affect a child’s mental health by, discussing a death of a family member and death in their religion didn't match with what they thought,“Maybe the sky didn't look the day she fell down. Maybe God was busy.” (Cisneros 72 ) This evidence from the vignette “Born Bad” represents how religion can’t always explain everything. Especially within a

In the vignette “Sally,” Cisneros chooses to write about the symbolism of a girl who is limited to social interaction based on her fathers religion."They are very strict in his religion…[and] she can’t go out," (Cisneros 81). This line from the vignette represents perfectly how a child’s guardian's religion impacts the child mentally and socially. This represents many homes across the US and globally who depend on their religion to structure their whole life and family members' lives. Many children aren’t able to interact with their peers because their parents restricted them from such activities based on their own morals and personal beliefs. Lastly in the same vignette “Sally” Cisneros makes sure to symbolize that Sally’s home life is unlike her peers, "You become a different Sally, you pull your skirt straight, rub the blue paint off of your eyelids, you don't laugh Sally." (Cisneros 82). By showing that Sally has a rough home life Cisneros presents the real world issue of child abuse. Cisneros not only uses the symbol of Sally changing her appearance when she gets home but she also touches on abuse within a marriage or relationship too. Both of these are truly real world problems and apply to everyone because, the symbol of Sally changing her appearance when she