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The Monkey Garden By Sandra Cisneros

470 Words2 Pages

Not everyone can be good at everything, flaws and strengths are a part of human nature. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cineros breaks down parts of the young teen Ezperanza’s life in a series of vignettes. In the vignette,“The Monkey Garden,” Cisneros characterizes Esperanza as someone whose mature and creative observations about people contrast with her lack of social understanding. Cisneros’s use of contrast shows that Esperanza is observant of people, even if she often doesn't understand the reason behind their actions. In the vignette, “The Monkey Garden,” Esperanza watches as her friend Sally makes a deal to kiss boys to get her keys back. Ezperana was uncomfortable with “Sally going into the garden with Tito’s buddies,” even though the boys and …show more content…

In this vignette, short sentences are used to show Esperanza’s confusion with social situations: “They were laughing. She was too. It was a joke I didn't get” (96). The author's use of nondescript, short sentences cause the reader to feel the loneliness of Esperanza because she doesn't understand other people her age. However, Ezperana’s creative observations are written in longer, descriptive sentences to show her intelligence. After Sally tells Ezperana to go home, Ezperanza feels embarrassed and hides herself in the garden: “I read somewhere in India there are priests who can will their heart to stop beating. I wanted my blood to stop, my heart to quit its pumping” (97). Most children, when coping with suicidal thoughts do not relate it to things they read. Esperanza is both different in the way she interacts with people and the way she makes creative connections and observations. The use of longer sentences shows that Ezperana is confident about the topic, unlike how she interacted with

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In both of these chapters, Esperanza is looking to find her true self. In “Boy & Girls”, Esperanza separates herself from Nenny to create her own life. In “The Monkey Garden”, Esperanza, while exploring the sexual part of life, becomes friends with Sally to try and define herself. Cisneros uses this struggle for self definition to show that defining yourself is one of the hardest parts of growing up, but just because something is hard, doesn’t mean you should give up on

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Coming of Age of “The Monkey Garden” The “Coming of Age” is an arduous problem that everyone has to face whether they like it or not. The “Coming of Age” is the challenging transition from childhood to adulthood. It is vital because everyone will be treated inferior until they accept it.

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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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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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876 Words | 4 Pages

Everyone is affected by life’s circumstances. The responses to those experiences can have a positive or negative outcome in one’s future. In Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, the protagonist, Esperanza, gives us her views on life, how she views herself, and she views her future. Not only does she give her perspective throughout the story, she tells us of the numerous experiences that she grows through. These experiences have an impact on her, creating new emotions and new adult like perspectives she has never faced before.

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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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The community around Esperanza has many gender roles that separate the boys and girls, which makes her want to break these roles and be her own, independent, person. In the vignette “Boys and Girls” Esperanza sees that gender roles are prominent around her neighborhood and school. Esperanza’s brothers, who she always talked to at home, “But outside they can not be seen talking to girls. Carlos and Kiki are each other's best friend, not ours”(Cisneros 8).

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“And then she died, my aunt who listened to my poems. And then we began to dream the dreams.” She believes it is her fault that her aunt is dead, and feels haunted. She feels bad because she did something bad to someone who cared about her, somebody who listened to her. Esperanza is haunted by death and tries to uphold her aunt’s last wish for her by

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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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Many people are undermined by the drawbacks of belonging to a low socioeconomic status. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is raised in a poor, Latino community, causing her to be introduced to poverty at an early age. This introduction of poverty affects Esperanza in many ways, one including that she is unable to find success. Esperanza struggles to achieve success in life because the cycle of poverty restricts her in a position in which she cannot break free from her socioeconomic status.

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The main protagonist Esperanza, matures from a childish girl to a young confident woman through many critical and life changing events in the story. Ultimately, the author, Sandra Cisneros implements the symbols of confidence, the house on mango street and the metaphor of shoes to show how Esperanza develops into a more mature state. Sandra Cisneros

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This tactic seems to be rooted in making her mother feel like Esperanza feels unloved, which to a child’s mind will make the adult in question bestow gifts and reassurance upon the child to prove their love. In Esperanza’s case, this comes in the form of a note to eat with the “special”

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Both sides are caught in a struggle of perception that leaves them each feeling vulnerable. After receiving multiple pairs of high heels as a gift, Esperanza goes out in them in hopes of a brighter, more exciting day. Rather than that, she is called out as a prostitute — a man offering money for a kiss at the dry cleaners. After the events unfolded and Esperanza had

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1212 Words | 5 Pages

Esperanza tries to fight this ‘childish’ fear of boys, and she doesn’t cross the street like the other girls. Esperanza attempts to get over her fear, and looks back at him, straight into his eyes. “I had to look back hard, just once, like he was glass. And I did. I did once” (72).

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1095 Words | 5 Pages

Not once, or twice, or ever again.” (Cisneros 105). One of the reasons for this is her meeting the three old ladies who came for Rachel’s sister’s funeral. There prophesy that Esperanza will leave Mango Street boosts her self-confidence. The narrator also says, “Before Keeler it was Paulina, but what I remember most is Mango Street, sad red house, the house I belong but do not belong to.”

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