What Are The Similarities Between Genesis And The Monkey Garden

The Monkey Garden is a significant place in Esperanza’s life. It is here that Esperanza finds herself trapped between the two worlds of child and adult, unsure about whether to stay childish or grow up. To the reader, it looks like Esperanza on the fence of an important decision that will change her life forever. Ironically, Cisneros's language in “The Monkey Garden” is similar to the language used in the Genesis. This similarity can be seen when both works describe the loss of innocence and both contain a tempter and tempted. When read through these lens, it seems that “The Monkey Garden’s” message is that the changing of age is inevitable. In both “The Monkey Garden” and the Genesis, there is a loss of innocence; in the “Monkey Garden” the

In the Genesis, the serpent convinces Eve to eat the fruit by stating “You will not surely die [if you eat the fruit]” [5] This little encouragement is enough to convince Eve to eat it, showing that she was already longingly to eat the fruit, but did not have a good excuse to until the serpent’s statement. This eagerness to “eat the fruit” is shown in the Monkey Garden when Tito’s and his friends tempt Sally to kiss them. They do so by stealing her keys and demanding “A kiss for each one” [97]. “Sally pretended to be mad at first but she said yes” [96]. The fact that Sally only pretended to be mad shows that Sally quite willingly went to kiss the boys. Both descriptions of the tempter and tempted show that the tempter was not that big of an impact to the tempted; the tempted already wanted to “eat the fruit”, but only waited for an excuse to do so. The tempter and tempted show that the changing of age is inevitable. This is undeniable because in both gardens the tempted wanted to “eat the fruit” long before the tempter convinced them. Because of this, it can be suggested that even if both stories did not have a tempter, the tempted would still eventually eat the fruit after being unable to control their want. This would subsequently

In the Genesis, the Garden of Eden is told as a place of eternal springtime, plenty of food, and everyone running around naked with no shame; basically, the Garden is “innocent”. In comparison, the kids on Mango Street, describe the Monkey Garden as “a wonderful thing to look at in the spring.” [95] and a place that was “Far away from where our mothers could find us” [95]. Rumors spread about how “the Monkey Garden had been there before anything.” [96]. Both descriptions of both gardens are very similar, both describing a pardise. (QUOTE ABOUT HOW ESPERANZA WANTED TO DIE IN THE GARDEN) However, after Eve and Adam ate the fruit, “the eyes of both of them were opened” [5] and they realized they were naked, destroying their innocence. Because of this, “the Lord God banished [Adam] from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.” [6] This fate is similar to Esperanza’s fate in the Monkey Garden. In the Monkey Garden, after Sally goes to kiss the boys, Esperanza realizes that “something wasn’t right” [97] about the situation. Esperanza, mortified by the realization and embarrassed, hid at the other end of the garden. She stated, “...the garden that had been such a good place to play didn’t seem mine...” [98]. Both of these descriptions show