In the novel The House on Mango Street, the protagonistEsperanza tells us about her daily life in a Latino community. It is about how Esperanza grew up and lives in a Mexican- American culture. The author describes this as straddling between two cultures, growing up with Mexican traditions but living in American; that is what truly identifies a Chicano. Another way that Cisneros defines Chicano is by describing Esperanza’s daily life to demonstrate what it truly is like to be a Chicano day by day. Some of the things she mentions in this story are common things we would see in a Chicano culture for example, in the chapter of “Chanclas” they have a family party to celebrate a bautismo, like in any Mexican culture, what they have to eat are tamales and a variety of other tradition Mexican dishes Another example seen is how she inherits her great grandmother’s name; which is a common thing to happen in a Mexican family.
Lastly, we also see how her parents want Esperanza to work at a young age. Her aunt finds her a job but she has to lie about her age to be able to work, These experiences that the author describes are few of things that identifies one as being a Chicano as they play a big role in howa Mexican-American lives day by day and faces the different issues that the society brings. The dominating theme of this novel is how Esperanza grew up in the Latino community. She gives us her childhood experience by telling us who she is and who she wants to become. Esperanza looks up to many of the older girls in the story such as her Tia Lupe who tells her to keep on writing, because that is how Esperanza is going to succeed. All the characters play a role in her life, as she takes something from them to help her grow as a person. She also gives different views of the people and also of the culture to let us know what we would expect to see in her neighborhood.
Esperanza’s only dream is to be able to live in her long dream house that her parents described to her every time they would have to move. By the time they move to The House on Mango Street, Esperanza seems to be ashamed by how she lives, and that is why her dream is to live in a nice house, so she will not be ashamed. Esperanza learns to grow and mature with all the experiences that she faces throughout the story. Good chapters that describe coming of age are “Hips“ from our understanding from reading we start to see how her hips are developingrAlsothe shoes symbolize what she has been through, Her wearing the heels shows her maturing in many ways. Lastly, we see many deaths in the story. I believe her experiencing these deaths shows how she is growing as a person and help her figure out her adult life, I believe the novel has a very strong meaning in how Esperanza matures, and straddles in the two cultures.
127 our experts are availableright now
One method used in this story is literary analysis; Cisneros gives small details to convey a big meaning The setting and structure of the story focuses on teaching the reader what the coming of age is like in the Chicano culture, For example, they Claim that The House on Mango Street is in the “barrio.” Showing that she lives in animprovised community. Strengthof Esperanza is that she is smart and ambitious girl that wants to improve her self, Another strength of the book is that it shows different aspects. Besides giving an overview of the Latino culture it gives a strong detail in different aspects of life such as love, maturityand the community where she lives. As Esperanza matures in The House of Mango street she realizes her strengths in her self and the things she has to do in life to move up. Part of the story is told when Esperanza is a child but her thoughts and feelings are as if she was in adult.
Many times being Chicano/ Latino means keeping the Mexican traditions, In the Mexican culture the role of the women was just to focus on being the housewife, and role of the men was to be in charge of working and bring everything else to the house.This was and is still a tradition in the culture. A bit of this is illustrated in the story as the author in some aspects describes the issues Latina women go through in society. One of the chapters of the book, “Alicia Who Sees Mice.” Alicia‘s father brings her hopes down of getting an education and becoming someone. In the story her father tells her that a role of the women is to get up and make tortillas. In history and in the story Mexican society didn’t like the idea of women being ambitious and going out to work, the men thought that by keeping them at home they were protecting them. However, this reflects machismo from some menin the Mexican and Mexican-American cultures.
The author is trying to convey that Esperanza is a strong girl and will do anything to not be treated like most of the woman in her culture have been treated for the past years. She is a woman with the power to change the traditions and go against machismorThe problems of being women in a Hispanic Society are problems that have been seen for many years now. Another way this story connects to things covered in class is that many Mexicans came to the US to find a better way of living. We see that Esperanza’s dad is hard workingman and is shown to represent of being a Machor Sandra Cisneros did a greatjob of telling the story through the lenses of a Chicano child. She shows some experiences that children in the Chicano community often go through and how these experiences forces them to mature or shape their lives.
It has a strong meaning on the experiences this girl faces to show she matured as she came to age andhow determined she is to make changes in her way of living to improve her life The story is written in vignette format giving us a snapshot of her life, which makes it easier to connect and understand the protagonist’s liferThrough out the vignettes she transforms from a young girl to an adult, The Government protects people from being racial discriminated and also from being discriminated from their gender. All women and men should be treated equally and their shouldn’t be any racial discrimination and not be turned away because of their race.
