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The House On Mango Street By Sandra Cisrenos

258 Words2 Pages
Sandra Cisrenos’ The House on Mango Street features vignettes that exemplify a connection between the identity of Esperanza, the protagonist, and the setting. Esperanza explains that the way people react to her house “makes me feel like nothing.” (Cisrenos 5). People in the story, such as a nun, judge Esperanza as a person through the dilapidated house that she lives in. Negative comments regarding her living conditions, such as the one by the nun, hurt Esperanza’s feelings, therefore lowering her self worth. At school, Esperanza mentions that “special kids, the ones who wear keys around their necks, get to eat at the canteen. Even the name sounds important.”(45). Comparing her situation to that of others, Esperanza believes that she does not
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Esperanza’s Achievement of Cultural Identity and Autonomy In the coming of age story of Sandra Cisnero’s novel The House on Mango Street, the author uses simple but profound language to express the young girl and main character, Esperanza’s, goal is to become an autonomous individual who controls her own choices. She is driven by her observations of the many trapped and powerless people of Mango Street. This desire is physically represented by her dream of a new house in a different place—at first it is a house for her family, but at the story’s end, it is a house she owns alone, where she can write. It not only symbolizes her dream of agency of trying to change her name to something that shows the “real” her.

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Although there are a variety of characters throughout literature that have made sacrifices that expose their values, none of them come close in comparison to the sacrifices of Esperanza in Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street. The consistent sacrifices displayed through Esperanza’s self-image, innocence, and cynicism express the struggles and desire for feminine individuality and respect that begin for many in childhood and dissolve into adulthood. Not only does Esperanza display these sacrifices constantly throughout the novel, the author’s use of her character as a beacon of catharsis to the reader symbolically represents the majority of women. Much like other women, Esperanza constantly tries to find herself throughout her own sacrifices,

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730 Words | 3 Pages

She has a beautiful voice and many talents that could have allowed her to break the cycle of poverty. She chose to let shame take control of her, in hence, she lost her identity along the way. In turn, this only increased her level of shame. All these things considered, the theme shame and identity is linked to the title” The House on Mango Street” because her Mama never escaped the cycle of poverty and is still experiencing the results of her shame. Esperanza knows that through her writings that she can find her identity and break the family cycle of

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824 Words | 4 Pages

The vignette “The House on Mango Street” helps the reader obtain a better understanding of Esperanza’s house because it describes the broken down and small house she and her family lives in. In addition, the vignette “Gill’s Furniture Store Bought and Sold,” compares to Esperanza’s sometimes dark and confusing life. Lastly, the vignette “Those Who Don’t” gives the reader a better understanding of Esperanza’s life and how strangers judge the people around her. Esperanza’s street is intimidating and scary to strangers and passersby who do not know them. The houses are small and falling apart in places.

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1002 Words | 5 Pages

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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287 Words | 2 Pages

House on Mango Street analysis essay: Hopes and Dreams In the House on Mango Street, a novel by Sandra Cisneros, she suggests the notion that hopes and dreams can be obtained even when people are at the bottom of the totem pole as seen in Esperanza’s desire to live in a better place and find friends. One way that Sandra Cisneros suggests this theme is when Esperanza feels ashamed of her current house and knows “she has to have a real house. One she can point to and feel proud of (Cisneros 5) Another example is when Esperanza and the nun are talking and the nun asks where Esperanza lives and she is forced to “point to the the third floor, with the paint peeling”

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The House on Mango Street was written by Sandra Cisneros. The House on Mango Street is a Coming of age story about Esperanza. In The House on Mango Street Esperanza the protagonist is very similar to the author Sandra Cisneros. Like Cisneros Esperanza grew up in a Chicago Barrio. The Spanish word Barrio means the Spanish-speaking quarter of a town or city, especially one with a high poverty level (Barrio).

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876 Words | 4 Pages

Stemming from Esperanza’s previous discomfort with her family’s low socio-economic status, her statement reflects a commonly experienced effect of poverty, determination to pursue dreams. Again Esperanza demonstrates a strong desire to escape the societal and economic bonds she was born into in the vignette “Born Bad”. Her dream that “One day I’ll jump out of my skin” (Cisneros 60), while not about her specifically owning a house, still communicates her ambition to change. Additionally, the use of the words “will” and “one day” in both of her aspirations demonstrate Esperanza’s certainty

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Struggles of Role Models on Mango Street Many people have other people in which they look up to, and often repeat that person’s actions while some of these role models could have something bad going on in their life. In the novela The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros the main character Esperanza looks up to many role models, all of which has something going on in their lives. Esperanza always has the dream of having her own home. Her family moves all of the time, and usually gets a non spacious apartment.

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Many people in society struggle to understand themselves and often times lack self-worth. The House on Mango Street, a novella by Sandra Cisneros, illustrates Esperanza’s life through her personal experiences with finding herself during her adolescent years. 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 one comes from is an important part of growing up and determining one’s identity.

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876 Words | 4 Pages

Esperanza cares a lot about what her environment tells her about herself in order to be accepted. During one’s teen years, people are typically very self conscious about how they look or how they are labeled in front of their friends. They are willing to do almost anything to fit in. This quality that a child obtains matches the process in which Esperanza judges herself from what those around her think. She wants to change her identity to fit in with the environment that she has been put into.

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437 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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793 Words | 4 Pages

According to E McCracken in Breaking Boundaries: Latina Writing and Critical Readings (1989), Esperanza “represents a universal experience of the young Latina growing up in an inner city” (McCracken, 1989). This universal experience is explored in her coming of age story as Esperanza struggles with the economic and social conditions of her upbringing. She is forced to face tough decisions about her story, like whether to stay in her impoverished neighborhood or to pursue more opportunities elsewhere. Through Esperanza’s journey, Cisneros is able to draw attention to the unique challenges faced by those living in low-income homes, as well as the resilience and resourcefulness of those who are determined to make something of themselves.

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1134 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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2364 Words | 10 Pages

Assisting in her journey of self discovery, the neighborhood residents allow her to experience different stories and understand the diversity in the world. Sandra Cisneros details this situation in her novel The House on Mango Street. Cisneros shows Esperanza’s coming of

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