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The House On Mango Street And A Raisin In The Sun Essay

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The novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry are both pieces of writing that discuss a common theme, growing up. Growing up is mainly seen in the character Esperanza from The House on Mango Street and Walter from A Raisin in the Sun. Esperanza, the narrator, is at first portrayed by Cisneros as a naive person because of her lack of good judgement. However, as the novel continues, she goes through tough situations and learns from them, which eventually builds her st rong character. In A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry shows the element of growing up through her character Walter. He goes through a hardship that makes him lose his own ability to make sensible decisions, but his family makes him realize that he has to learn from his mistakes and make the right decision, which he does in the end, and so he finally grows up. Both authors suggest that a person truly grows up when they have reached the point that they can learn from their mistakes, and make the right decisions. In both The House on Mango Street and A Raisin in the Sun, growing up is shown as a progressive process for Esperanza and Walter. Esperanza is put through many difficult situations that she …show more content…

Selfishness is an imperfection that both characters have in their personalities that they come to grow out of by the ends of the books. How easy both characters put trust in people is another immaturity that they don’t necessarily grow out of, but it emphasizes that they make bad decisions. The fact that Esperanza is a child makes her journey in growing up much different than Walter’s just because of the situations that usually only children are put through. Growing up takes many times of going through tough times and is gradual for both Esperanza and

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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.

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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.

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It shows this because Walter diminishes his sisters Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor by making a misogynist comment in which insinuates on her settling on being a nurse due to a doctor clearly being an often male dominant profession. Furthermore, Walter is deluded by greed on opening a liquor store which causes him to have no regard for the feelings or desires of others. Clearly, the central idea of the text is that in trying to achieve a dream it can bring out a person selfish tendency because people tend to disparage others dreams in order to attain theirs. The author 's use of conflict is important to the developing the central idea that oneself can become selfish when trying to obtain the American dream because it creates tension.

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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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“That’s the problem with the world, too many people grow up.” – Walt Disney. Growing up quickly is a dream for many girls. They will make countless attempts in hopes of becoming a woman faster. In Sandra Cisneros’s, The House on Mango Street, Esperanza becomes one of those girls who spends all of their precious time trying to grow up quickly.

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