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The House On Mango Street Figurative Language

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The House on Mango Street Essay Opportunities and social class are all seen in society, there are many different opportunities for many different people, and your social class can reflect your opportunities. In the book, The House On Mango Street written by Sandra Cisneros, the main character Esperanza was born into a large family and is represented in the lower class. Throughout her life, Esperanza and her family have moved around and have never owned their own house, Esperanza has always dreamed of them owning their own house. One day she thought her dream was coming true but the house was far from what she expected. There are numerous ways the author, Cisneros, uses tone and syntax to emphasize opportunity and social class. One matter …show more content…

A language technique Cisneros uses is figurative language. This is seen in the text when Esperanza is talking about how the people in higher social classes constantly look down upon the people in lower classes. This is seen in the text when “People who live on hills sleep so close to the stars they forget those of us to live too much on earth. . . They have nothing to do with last week's garbage or fear of rats” (Cisneros 87). Cisneros uses figurative language to exaggerate how people in the upper-class act toward those in the lower class. The author says, “so close to the stars” (Cisneros 87). This showed that the people who live on the hills are living the “dream” life and they sleep so close to the stars while people in the lower class sleep next to the garbage. The author also contrasts these two because of the way he described how the lower classes live. Another language technique Cisneros uses is imagery. This is seen when Esperanza sees a Nun from her school and shows her where she lives, but the Nun just judges her. This is shown in the text when, “There. I had to look where she pointed- the third floor, the paint peeling, wooden bars Papa nailed on the windows so we wouldn't fall out. . . The way she said it made me feel like nothing” (Cisneros 5). This supports Cisneros's use of imagery to emphasize Esperanza’s living situation and how people judged her. By Cisneros using imagery to describe

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With this insertion of imagery, it is clear that Esperanza craves a free-spirited life, but she finds herself bout to the shackles that Mango Street brings to her life. Esperanza comparing herself to a balloon indicates how she is metaphorically filled with air,

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How would you feel when you grew to realize the street you were raised on wasn’t good for your wellbeing and that you needed to get away? Well, ‘The House on Mango Street, written by Sandra Cisneros is a story about Esperanza’s childhood growing up in Chicago and how she develops as she gets older throughout the book. She realizes throughout the book that she didn’t belong on Mango Street. It takes whomever is reading it on an adventure through Esperanza’s point of view on her life. The book shows an overview of her childhood through several small short stories put together.

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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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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 is about a young girl named Esperanza and the different challenges she faces throughout her life. She has a big family that consists of 5 other people and has moved to different homes many times. As she moves to the house on Mango Street she is disappointed at the fact that the house was not the house of her dreams nor the one she imagined it to be. The house on Mango Street is an improvement compared to Esperanza’s previous homes, but it is still not the house she or her family dreams of, and throughout the book Esperanza feels that she doesn’t belong there. As a family of 6 people, it consists of different responsibilities including taking care of younger siblings and so Esperanza has to take care of her younger

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The people that Esperanza see have thoughts such as “they think we will attack them with shiny knives” because of their brown skin color. Then according to Esperanza, “watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake” she experiences the same thing because of the setting and their fear of what people will do to them because of their skin color. Esperanza describes it as “ that is how it goes and goes” because they realize that people have experienced the feeling of going into the unknown where they feel like they don’t belong and can relate that everyone goes through it. As a result Esperanza understands the feeling they get, she understands the people who are in her

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Esperanza is the protagonist whose name in Spanish means hope. She perceives beauty to be a major source of feminine power, and she has the goal of becoming one of the girls whose beauty is envied. Esperanza describes trees as the “only ones who understand me” (Cisneros 64) because she is unable to relate to the “beautiful” girls and sees herself and someone dull. She tries to be like Sally, a beautiful girl, But she also notices that beauty is not an infallible weapon, and that it can backfire because the beautiful women in the novel are often the ones who suffer the most at the hands of men.

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In the vignette “Four Skinny Trees”, Cisneros’ use of figurative language and imagery conveys the idea that Esperanza is trapped in Mango Street. In this vignette, Esperanza expresses her similarity with the trees by using personification, she writes, “Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine” (pg. 74). By comparing herself to the trees, Esperanza expresses her feeling of being trapped in Mango Street. The author writes, “Four who do not belong here but are here. Four raggedy excuses planted by the city.”

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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.

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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

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One literary device that Cisneros frequently uses in The House on Mango Street are similes. A simile is a comparison of two things using "like" or "as." His hair is like a broom, all up in the air. " This simile emphasizes the wild and unruly nature of Esperanza's father's hair For example, when describing her father's hair, Esperanza says, "His hair is like a broom, all up in the air." (Cisneros 4)

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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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“In the meantime they’ll just have to move a little farther north from Mango Street, a little farther away every time people like us keep moving in (Cisneros 13).” This quote is a significant part of the story because it shows how Esperanza truly feels about herself and her family. She thinks that because she is poor and lives and a bad neighborhood people move away from her family. Esperanza doesn’t think very much of her or her family at all. She thinks that it is because of their race that people do not want to be near them.

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However, 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 we have come from is an important part of growing up and determining who we are. In the beginning of

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This ideal heaven that Esperanza's family dream about is what gives them hope to keep going everyday, although it may not be attainable. Since Esperanza does not know this, though, when they get to their new house on Mango Street, she sees it is nothing like that despite the depictions of a house she was told. This contributes to a cynical, jaded attitude that is sad to see someone so young have, as we see when she her parents tell her that this new house is temporary, and she tells the reader: “But I know how those things go” (Cisneros, 5). Here, although the house of dreams help her parents keep surviving, it gives haunts Esperanza as an unobtainable myth.

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