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Liminal Spaces In Sandra Ciseneros's The House On Mango Street

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Sandra Ciseneros’ The House On Mango Street showcases a theme of confinement specifically towards female characters. Throughout the novel, Esperanza gives naive accounts of the isolated and trapped lives of a select few of her neighbors and friends. This recurring theme in the book is connected to the symbolism presented in liminal spaces, windows, and inside vs. outside. Liminal spaces are places of transitions. These are spaces where one has not taken on what lies ahead, but have moved away from the past. “She (Marin) can’t come out - gotta baby-sit with Louie’s sisters - but she stands in the doorway a lot...” (Ciseneros 23, 24). In this context, the doorway is the liminal space. Marin is stuck in this transition point, torn between the curiosity and wonder of adolescence …show more content…

This quote reinforces the significance windows have. Sally is prevented this escape and is confined and trapped by her husband. Sally’s husband does not want her to realize the life that she is missing on the outside and potentially come to her senses about their marriage. Both Rafaela and Sally are confined by their husbands. Rafaela’s husband is worried that she is too beautiful and will run away while Sally’s husband limits her contact with the outside world. Windows gave these girls a peek into the life they wish they lived. One of the biggest symbols of confinement shown in The House On Mango Street was inside vs. outside. This comparison directly equates to confinement vs. freedom. Throughout the text, there are examples of characters (specifically, female characters) being confined and stuck indoors. “...And even then she (Marin) can only stay out in front.” (Ciseneros 27). Marin is confined to her home and is only given the chance to step out when her aunt returns. She is confined by her responsibilities. She is allowed only a minute amount of freedom (outside) whilst being tied and confined to her

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Mitchell Curtis English 9 / Period 6 Mr.Boyat 17 October 2016 Three Influential Characters in The House on Mango Street In the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the story is developed through the eyes of a young girl Esperanza. She learns about the realities of life in a house that she recently moved into. There are many characters that are written as she learns about her new neighborhood. The three most influential characters in the novel are Sally, her Mother ,and Marin.

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She works all the time, yet the only source of freedom she gets to have is sitting on the front porch, dreaming of leaving somewhere far away. Also she can only go when her aunt

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The windows are a representation of what Esperanza does not want to be. Her goal is to leave Mango Street and become something better. She does not want her life to be sitting by a window wishing for something better. She wants to be able to live her life without being tied down to something.

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The House on Mango Street includes many characters who struggle with accepting the realities of the hardships in their

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Another major character in the book, Sally, marries a man. Sally may think that she has escaped from her dad’s cruel treatment but has not realized that being dependent on another person will only end her up in the cycle of abuse again. For many women on Mango Street, looking out of the window is seen as the last hope of freedom, and her husband even bans her from doing so. “ She likes looking at the walls, at how neatly their corners meet, the linoleum roses on the floor, the ceiling smooth as wedding cake. (102)”.

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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.

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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.

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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

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722 Words | 3 Pages

“All discomfort comes from suppressing your identity”(Bryant H. McGill). We can not decide upon our own identity; It comes from our hopes, dreams, memories, culture and experiences. We can not suppress or change who we are or where we came from and must except ourselves. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros introduces the main character Esperanza, who is initially ashamed and tries to repress parts of her identity. One of the main themes in The House on Mango Street is E. acknowledging her name and mango street as part of her self identity.

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Because Esperanza is capable of finding love as she says, the window acts as a device that she can direct her hope through. While fantasizing about a different life, “away from Mango Street”, Esperanza describes a house that she would find nice, a house with “flowers and big windows … [that] would swing open, all the sky [coming] in” (Cisneros 82). Esperanza isn’t content with her current life and wishes for a life with something more, a life with a house to call home. The windows that bring in the sky in Esperanza’s dream home act as a symbol for significance in life, the windows are big because they are part of Esperanza’s hopes that she has been dreaming of through windows and the sky coming in represents Esperanza being wild and free from the bounds of her current unsatisfactory environment. Windows symbolize the novel’s theme of struggling to attain a gratifying life by acting as an object for the characters to direct their hope

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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 ).

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The "windows are barred" (648), and the unmovable bed "that is nailed down" add to her feeling of imprisonment. (650). Thirdly, the narrator suffers from oppression.

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1627 Words | 7 Pages

In the House on Mango Street, Esperanza is seeking for an identity of her own. In her current neighborhood, she struggles with economic, cultural, and gender based barriers to personal growth, and she believes that changing her surroundings is her solution; however, she realizes that to discover her identity, her ultimate destination is a home in the heart. The house on Mango Street was one that was the opposite of what Esperanza had dreamt her entire life. The house is, “…small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you 'd think they were holding their breath... bricks...crumbling in places, and the front door...so swollen you have to push hard to get in". (Cisneros 5)

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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.

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1141 Words | 5 Pages

The character understands her world very well. According to the story, the woman feels that losing her strongest familial tie is bad, but the opportunity to move away from the bondage of personal relationship and marriage, provided after the demise of her husband, makes the whole situation better. In particular, during this era when Chopin was writing the book, American wives were legally bound to their husband status and power. When a woman became windowed, they did not bear the responsibility of following and finding a husband. Furthermore, windowed women gained legal recognition after their husband?s death and, consequently, had more control over their lives.

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