The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is about a twelve-year-old Mexican American girl, Esperanza Cordero, living in a poor Chicago neighborhood. Her family of six has moved around a lot from one poor neighborhood to another but their new house on Mango Street is the first one that they have owned and not rented. Still, Esperanza wants to get out of the area and move to a bigger and better house eventually. She does not have much hope, however, that this will happen in the near future.
Esperanza is looking to find herself and she discovers that to be more difficult when she is worried about things like being embarrassed about her home, her family, and even her own name. She wants to change her name when she is older as a step to her fresh start away from Mango Street. She believes that this will make her identity more of her choice and give her more control over she is and who she will become. Esperanza looks to other women in her community to see what she does or does not want to become when she grows up. She observes that many of their marriages or even their children have trapped them and kept them from achieving anything. Esperanza remembers what she has heard about her great-grandmother, saying, "She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn't be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza, I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window" (Cisneros 11). She feels bad for many of them and part of her wants to help the women of her community even though she wants to escape that part of herself as well. She is somewhat immature in the first quarter of the book which is apparent by all of her short stories, some of which do not seem to relate to each other much at all. Esperanza desires to grow up faster and become a woman much like some of the ones she looks up to. Esperanza recognizes immaturity in others more than herself. She views Nenny as immature and a burden and does not want to be viewed that way herself by others. As a result of the thoughts she tries to force maturity on her young mind when she does not yet need to very mature. Do you think Esperanza is trying to grow up too fast?
The second quarter of The House on Mango Street is leading up to climax of the plot. Esperanza tests her boundaries with men more and more as she continues to rush the process of growing up. She goes to a party where there are many boys and men but she spends most of the time sitting down. She is wearing a pretty new outfit but she is ashamed of her shoes. Esperanza values shoes and the type she is wearing affects how she feels. She feels older and more pretty when she is wearing heels but she feels the opposite with the shoes that she has at the party. Esperanza does not want anyone to see them so she says no when a boy asks her to dance. Eventually her uncle gets her to dance and it makes her happy but she is still worried about her shoes. Everyone stares in awe and her confidence slightly increases. Esperanza easily gets a job at a photofinishing store. She mostly works with adults and she is intimidated. She does not know the rules of a workplace and she feels uncomfortable. She does not struggle with the work itself; it is more the social aspect of it and fitting into the adult world. Esperanza writes, “When lunchtime came, I was scared to eat alone in the company lunch room with all those men and ladies looking, so ate real fast in one of the washroom stalls and had lots of time left over, so I went back to work early” (Cisneros 50). She is embarrassed and lonely. One day at work, an older man starts talking to Esperanza and she thinks that she has found a potential friend, which she is desperate for. He tells her that it is his birthday and asks for a kiss. She leans in to kiss him on the cheek but he grabs her and kisses her hard on the lips for a long time. This is the first time that Esperanza is sexually touched without her consent. Should Esperanza go to her parents about her poor experiences and quit her job or should she keep it to help out her family?
ReplyDeleteIn the third quarter of the house on Mango Street, Esperanza gets herself further into the adult world. She does not tell her parents about her work experience which I think that she should, however, I do understand her decision. Esperanza gets her first crush on a boy named Sire. Knowing that he stares at her, she walks right by him and ignores the fear that other girls may have in doing so. Esperanza encounters a third woman in her neighborhood that stays at home looking out the window. This group now includes Mamacita, Rafaela, and Minerva. Rafaela gives Esperanza money through the window to buy her juice. Esperanza always adds which women sit at their windows because she recognizes this as a part of their lack of freedom. She desperately wants to avoid that lifestyle when she grows up. Towards the end, Esperanza befriends Sally, a complex character. Sally does not have friends but all of the boys are find her attractive. Her father is very religious and strict so she is very modest and quiet at home. Outside of her house is her escape from her father where she can explore boys and dress to get their attention. Esperanza notices that Sally is a different person at home and calls her out, saying, “You become a different Sally. You pull your skirt straight, you rub the blue paint off your eyelids. You don’t laugh, Sally. You look at your feet and walk fast to the house you can’t come out from” (82). While it is not a husband like the other women, Sally is also trapped by a man. Do you think that Sally will lead Esperanza into trouble? I think that she will be a bad influence on her. Esperanza is beginning to look to movie characters that are “beautiful and cruel” and I believe that Sally will lead her into this. Esperanza thinks that she wants to be beautiful and cruel but she really just wants to feel like she has some power in the patriarchy.
DeleteThe end of The House on Mango Street is when Esperanza hits her lowest point but leaves us with a satisfying ending. I think that Esperanza would have some insecurity no matter what because she is a twelve-year-old girl. However, I think that most of her insecurities do stem from her circumstances because she is overall embarrassed to be poor and everything that comes along with it. Esperanza will probably fly rather than fall if she were to “untie her balloon” because she is already set on and is determined to find a better and more independent lifestyle. I think she will escape her circumstances because she is planning to so young and she is strong-willed. I believe that Esperanza views freedom as having enough money, being content with where you live, and not being held back or trapped by any man; or anyone else for that matter. She has changed from simply wanting to escape Mango Street to also wanting to help the other women who are stuck there. This will motivate her to get out so that she is able to help them. She is thinking about others rather than only herself which should encourage her journey. Esperanza suffers most in the end when she is sexually assaulted at a carnival because Sally abandons her for other boys. This causes Esperanza to go back to her childhood and no longer desire to grow up faster than she needs to. She wanted to be Sally but Sally ended up arguably, worse off, than the other women on Mango Street. Esperanza realizes that she is not Sally and she should not be like her if she wants to escape. She is not opposed to men, she simply does not want to depend on one or be controlled. Esperanza imagines her future home: “Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s. A house all my own. With my porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias. My books and my stories. My two shoes waiting beside the bed. Nobody to shake a stick at. Nobody’s garbage to pick up after” (Cisneros 108). She emphasizes “my” because she want things that are her own, not shared. Has Esperanza matured even though she has stopped trying so hard to?
DeleteAlexa 1
DeleteThe House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros is from the perspective of a you Mexican American girl living in Chicago. Esperanza describes her family and how they have moved around a lot over the years. Her whole family was hopeful for a house of their own that’s painted white and has three bathrooms. Esperanza makes it clear very early that the house on mango street is not the house she had in mind. She wants a house that she can proudly, “point to”. One without bars on the windows or paint that is peeling. Esperanza describes her family in the chapter, “hairs” where she illustrates her love for her mother saying, “[her hair] is the warm smell of bread before you bake it,” (Page 6). She goes further into detail about her siblings in the next chapter, titled “Boys and Girls”. She says inside the house, all four of the kids talk and play together. Outside the house the boys are best friends and they don’t talk to Esperanza. She is left to watch over her little sister, Nenny, who is too young to be friends with. Esperanza says that she has to keep Nenny from hanging out around the Vargas kids but does not explicitly say why. Readers do not actually learn Esperanza’s name until the fourth chapter, where she describes its meaning in a random, nonsensical way. She explains that she is named after her grandmother, who was also born in the year of the horse. The year of the horse is supposed to represent strength but superstition says that it is unlucky for women to be born in that year. She rejects the superstition, saying that those cultures were just afraid of strong women. Her grandmother is described as someone who is trapped by her husband, society, and her own sense of defeat. Esperanza seems to think of her grandmother as strong but also does not want to end up trapped like her. To respond to Kelsey’s question, “Is Esperanza trying to grow up too fast?” I would say that she is in a situation that is forcing her to mature earlier than she should be. I don’t think that she is doing it intentionally. She looks after her sister because she needs to keep her from falling in with the “wrong crowd”. Not everyone has to take those precautions in their lives. Esperanza wants to protect her image because the judgemental people around her have made her insecure about that image. My question is do you think that her insecurity is tied only to her circumstances or do you think she also feels it personally?
Alexa 2
DeleteIn the second part of, The House on Mango Street, Esperanza opens by talking about her neighborhood. She explains that only people who “don’t know better” assume that the neighborhood is dangerous just because of the latino population. Once you actually know the person behind the appearance outsiders find scary, you see that there's nothing to be scared of. She describes people in her neighborhood that could be misunderstood in that way. In this section, Esperanza goes into further detail about the Vargas children. She describes them as reckless, with no regard for themselves or others. The people in the community attempt to look after the children but eventually give up. Esperanza goes far enough to say that no one said anything when Angel Vargas fell to her death. In the first section, Alicia is described as snobby or stuck up. In this section we see that the earlier description is inaccurate. Alicia is not snobby, she is determined. She is a woman who is raising her siblings and is also trying to better herself with an education. Her community doesn’t like that she is seeking independence because the patriarchal society thinks it better that she be at home raising her siblings instead of their father.
To respond to Kelsey’s question, of course, Esperanza should quit her job and report the situation. Sadly, many people like that man feel like they can get away with acts like this because culture says they have the power to do so. The man is counting on the fear women feel when it comes to accusing abusers. The only way to combat that perception is to report these incidents even though you might be putting yourself in danger. On the other hand, I would not blame Esperanza if she chose to protect herself from this man’s possible retaliation. Either way, no one should have to work at a place with an abuser, so even if she chooses not to report the situation, it is best for her to work somewhere else. My question: This section using the illustration of flying multiple times, all of which resulted in disaster. Esperanza refers to herself as a “red balloon on a tether” and hopes that one day she can be cut loose and fly away. What is different about Esperanza that would result in her flying instead of falling? Or do you think that she won't be able to escape her circumstances?
Alexa 3
DeleteIn “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark,” Esperanza empathises with her father for the first time. She mentions that she is shocked to see him cry. In response she tries to put herself in his shoes by imagining what she would feel like if her died. This is the first time that Esperanza is forced to act like the parent to her siblings. Since her father is going to Mexico for the funeral, she has to take care of her siblings. Up to this point, Esperanza and Alicia have paralleled each other. Contrary to Alicia, Esperanza is taking over her father's role in the house. This could possibly foreshadow Esperanza’s rejection of gender roles and her role in the house. Esperanza's blind aunt Lupe is introduced in the next chapter. She is the first person in the story to approve of Esperanza’s writing, and tells her to pursue it because it will, “keep [her] free.” She helps Esperanza connect the idea of writing and escaping the neighborhood in her mind. Towards the end of the section, Esperanza describes four different women, Mamacita, Rafaela, Minerva, and Sally. All four women portray possible outcomes for women on Mango Street. All four women are trapped by the men in their lives, whether that be their husbands or their fathers. Minerva is the most similar to Esperanza seeing as they are the same age and both are aspiring poets. Esperanza believes that Mamacita is trapped in a cage because she cannot speak the language, therefore she cannot express herself. If Esperanza believes that self expression is freedom, it makes sense that she is pursuing poetry so passionately. To respond to Kelsey’s question, I don’t know if Sally would be a bad influence but I do think she needs guidance. Her situation at home is not something that she should be going through. I think the way she dresses is in rebellion to the unfair restriction her father puts on her. Sally is completely under her father’s thumb and she is in constant worry about him. Because of her reasoning, I don’t think that either of them would be good for the other. I think that Esperanza would encourage Sally’s behavior without understanding her situation. My question: Esperanza is working hard to make sure that she does not end up like the women in her neighborhood and lacks positive female role models. Without those role models, what do you think that freedom looks like for Esperanza?
Alexa 4
DeleteIn the fourth section, Esperanza drastically changes her mindset on escaping her neighborhood. Up until this point she, like her family, stuck to daydreaming and fantasizing about their dream house. Now, Esperanza choosing to stop dreaming and start taking real steps to getting a house like that. She does promise to keep her roots by helping out the less fortunate while worrying that the suburbs of her dreams don’t have a place for people who worry about those things. Esperanza also decides that she is going to act like a cultural man, getting up from dinner without doing the dishes. She sees later that this creates a problem by giving another women more work. Interestingly, she does not think of a more fair world where men and women do these tasks equally. Esperanza’s relationship with Sally shifts in this section. She goes from wanting to be like Sally to protecting Sally from the men in her life. Ironically, this is similar to her father’s attitude toward Sally. Although Esperanza tried to protect Sally, she ends up with the worst fate of any of the women on Mango Street. In attempts to escape her violent, terrible father, she finds a man who is possibly worse. Sally’s husband does not even let her look out the window. Looking out the window is the last bit of freedom that the trapped women on Mango Street are able to experience and Sally does not even get that. In the final chapters of the book, Esperanza chooses to spend time with Alicia instead of Sally, who has dropped out of middle school. Alicia is still an unmarried college student and also still parallels Esperanza. Alicia teaches Esperanza to come to terms with her roots instead of trying to become something else, like Sally. She is an example of someone who is trying to make eventual change by working on herself and preserving her roots. At the end of the book, Esperanza has made no physical signs that she is anywhere closer to leaving Mango Street then she was at the beginning. In what ways has Esperanza changed emotionally that will help her mature and possibly leave her neighborhood?
Kelsey, good emphasis on big ideas, tensions, meanings. Work on grounding analysis in more specific evidence, whether or not quoted (better in later entries). Alexa, good specificity of evidence. Work on suggesting meaning in each observation you make (also, better in later entries!). Overall, excellent tracking of tensions and especially the many sides of Esperanza as she changes. Did either of you come to a deeper understanding of the apparently "nonsensical" nature of "all of her short stories"? Can you tell how the form and structure of the vignette form contributes to the meaning of the work? Let's see if we can get replies working consistently on Kelsey's blog, whether or not you two partner again. Grade on Portals. Thanks!
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