The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, is a collection of vignettes that tells a Coming-of-Age-Story told through the eyes of an adolescent girl.I think that Esperanza will leave her home and not return. She has waited her whole life to get out of her house on Mango street because she is embarrassed by it and she does not like living there. At the first chance she gets, she will leave and try to forget the negative years on Mango street. In the beginning of the book and the end of the book, Esperanza states a list of all the places she has lived. “We didn’t always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler. 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(109-10)”. When I read this, I got the feeling that Esperanza does not like any of the houses that she has lived in. She seems to really care about where she lives and it reflects in her feelings. She had such a negative idea in her mind about her house that she would never want to return to it.
In the second to last vignette in The House on Mango Street, Esperanza describes her perfect house and all of the conditions to make it perfect. “Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s. A house all my own... Nobody to shake a stick at. Nobody’s garbage to pick up after.” In this quote, Esperanza is describing her perfect house. She seems so attached to this idea, that if she were to leave, then I highly doubt that she would return because her house that she would find would be great. She seems to resent the work that she has to do when she says she does not want to pick up after anyone. That would be another reason for her not to return, because she might have to do more work and that was one of the main reasons she would have left.
I think that girls and boys should be raised the same, because there should equality for all. Sandra Cisneros, author of “The House on Mango Street”, a Coming-of-age story, would has a similar idea on that issue. She shows her view point on the issue with this quote. “There is always the one with red lips who is beautiful and cruel.” With this quote, she is saying that girls should embrace their feminine side and should not let men control them and let them keep their independence. I think that this quote is saying that their is always an extra independent woman that controls people and does the opposite that the stereotypical women in Esperanza’s life. I think that it is interesting that Sandra Cisneros conveys how she thinks people should be raised in her book.
The next quote that exemplifies Cisneros’ ideas about gender differences in her book. “All the books and magazines, every thing they told you is wrong” (100). I think that this quote is saying that Esperanza's expectations for what is males and females is different than the media, and that confused her. Sandra Cisneros, is trying to say that the expectations by the media and the actual expectations can be very confusing to people that are Esperanza’s adolescent age. This quote gives a very good idea about how Cisneros views the modern media and how it can drastically affect the expectations of teenagers.
The next quote is showing how important it is to a character to be noticed by the opposite sex. “What matters, Marin says, is for the boys to see us and for us to see them.”(27). This quote is by, Marin, an older female figure that Esperanza looks up to. This quote seems to be saying that girls and boys are raised differently in this society and that Cisneros is agreeing with this. She is also saying that physical attractiveness and appearance are important. Boys and girls are not raised to look deeper into personality. I think that this is a problem, because personality is important too.
My names have much significance to me. In Greek, my first name means helper of mankind. To acquire my first name, my parents were traveling in Paris, France when my mom was pregnant with me. They were walking around enjoying the many sights of The City of Lights, when they came across a marble statue of Alexander The Great. They thought that the statue was so magnificent that they wanted to name their son after it.
My middle name was passed down from my grandfather on my mom’s side, his full name was Edwin Martin Quinn. My grandfather was a spy in World War II and he gathered intelligence to help the allies defeat the Germans. He was deceased before I was born, so I was named in his honor. Sometimes people scoff at the name, Edwin, but when I hear this I just smile inside because I know that I was named after a very brave man, brave like a lion.
My last name also has a very interesting story. My great grandfather on my dad’s side was was orphaned by a fire at a young age, at this time his last name, Freund. He was later adopted by his mother parents and he took their last name, Noble. I like the name Noble because it gives me a goal to live up to, to be noble.
Cans
When I was trying to earn money for a Washington DC trip as an 8th grader I collected cans, plastic bottles, and glass bottles. At the beginning, I handed out fliers that asked for recyclables. There were many different types of can donors, the pick-ups and the drop-offs. To acquire cans from the pick-ups, I would take my wagon over to their house and load it up with the goods. For the drop-offs, they would kindly drop off anything that they had to offer. Between these groups, their were many differences. The people who dropped off seemed way more organized. Some people who I picked up from would put anything in the bag, from salsa containers to orange juice cartons that were still full, neither of them weren’t worth any California redemption value. One of the most interesting can donors was a Vietnam war Veteran with a really bad drinking problem. With the consistency of old faithful, he would call over and request to talk me.
Is Alex available?, he would say in an slightly inebriated voice.
Yes I’m here, I would always reply.
I have some recyclables ready for you to pick up, come on down, he would say, barley slurring his words together.
Ok, I’ll be right over, I retorted.
I would always wonder if he was ok when I heard him on the phone because he seemed to always be impaired due to alcohol.
The first time I ever made the trek over to him house, my nose was assaulted with the thick stench of alcohol that wafted from his house. When I saw the three hefty garbage bags full of recyclables, I figured that he had been saving them up for many, many months because of the sheer volume. I happily collected them and hauled them back to my yard. When I looked to investigate my loot, I found that only 25% of the recyclables were actually available for the California Redemption Value. The other 75% filled up all of my blue bin. The next week at the same time, I received a call and went over to my donor, very surprised that he was ready for me to pick up already. I didn't expect it, but there were three full garbage bags of recyclable again! When I looked through the bag, to my dismay, it was full of blue bin clogging items that I would receive no money for. At first I thought of all the extra work that this would cause me to endure, but then I thought about how badly that all that alcohol was affecting my neighbor.
On the trip that I worked so hard to go to, I saw many sights, including the Vietnam War memorial. Later, I thought of how my neighbor was negatively affected by the war and was forced by post-traumatic stress disorder to start drinking the pain away. When I was visiting in DC I sent him a postcard thanking him for the support. To this day, whenever I walk by he will always call me over and talk to me.
Handwriting
Everyone in my family has different handwriting. My Dad’s handwriting looks like quick scratch, where every word seems to blend together, but surprisingly it is still readable. My Dad’s messy handwriting is derived from the thousands of papers my Dad has written due to the fact that he is a lawyer. My handwriting is very messy and it closely resembles Dad’s handwriting because we both are bad at keeping it neat. My sister who is 11, has handwriting similar to mine, but it has something mine is lacking, that little girly touch, that all girls seem to have present in their handwriting. My Mom’s handwriting seems to be infused with bubbles because it is very flowy and big and easy to read, much like her personality. She tries to write neatly because she is a teacher and she wants to set a good example for her students. My sister who is 4 has handwriting that I cant categorize yet because she doesn’t write very often, but from what I have seen she might be destined to the fate that is bad handwriting, well I guess it runs in the family.
Number Five
My sister and I sensed some big news as we ate spaghetti and meatballs at the kitchen table. My dad`s fidgeting and my mom`s unusual silence signaled the coming changes. In the days before, my parents dropped subtle hints about the special surprise but my sister and I did not understand them. When my dad noticed my puzzled expression, he said, “We are having a baby!” Screams and cheers of approval and sheer happiness erupted from the kid’s side of the table while my parents beamed at the positive reaction. The cheers and applause sounding like we won the lottery.When he said that, I knew a monumental transformation would enter my life. My mind raced. Would it be a boy or a girl? Would it look like me? Would we have to share a room? Would I have to change diapers!?! Before I knew it, my mom turned into even more of a health nut. She dragged me and any other unsuspecting family member on vigorous walks, ate strangely named vitamins that I recognized from aggressive commercials and drank lots of herbal tea that smelled earthy like our compost pile to coax the baby out. Instead of watching television, our family past time turned into feeling my mom’s belly for kicks and movements. In a flash, the eve of the big day arrived, the arrangements were made and everyone was ready for the arrival of the newest Noble. We did not know if she would arrive on her due date. We eagerly awaited her arrival. On the Friday before her due date, my mom walked us to school before her doctor’s appointment. She did not come to pick us up after school as usual. Our neighbor picked us up and told us that our mom was in the hospital having the baby. Early next morning my dad picked my sister and me up to go visit my mom and new sister. My dad asked us if we wanted to get balloons to make the new baby feel welcome but my sister and I quickly refused because we did not want to wait any longer. On the drive to the hospital I interrogated my dad on the labor, he said it was quick and easy (for him at least, my mom had a different story). When we got to the hospital room, her tininess and fragileness confounded me; afraid to even touch her for fear of hurting her. She looked like a little glass doll, free of imperfections. I could tell from the sweet innocent look on her face as I held her that we were going to be very close. At that moment I was genuinely happy to have a baby sister. My newborn sister got the name “number five” by being the fifth person in the west coast Noble family. My dad tried to use this numbering system for all of us, but it never took flight similar to the idea of room cleaning. The only person stuck with this cheesy nickname was Allison Katherine Noble.
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, is a collection of vignettes told through the eyes of an adolescent girl. There is a lot of symbolism in this book including trees, which are very symbolic. In the book, Esperanza expresses admiration for trees and how they “work together”. In the vignette, “Skinny Trees” Esperanza compares herself to the trees. “They are the only ones who understand me. I am the only one who understands them. Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong but are here... But Nenny just sleeps and doesn’t appreciate these things”(page 74). In this quote, Esperanza is comparing herself with the trees when she says that they both don’t belong here. By saying this, I think that she is admiring them because, like her, the trees are surviving hardship and staying in a bad place even though they don't belong.
The tree in Meme Ortiz’s backyard is a symbol to Esperanza that even though she is in a bad neighborhood now, she can still grow up and have a life. “ Around the back is a yard, mostly dirt, and a greasy bunch of boards that used to be a garage. But what you remember most is this tree, huge, with fat arms and mighty... higher branches.”(page 22) In this quote Esperanza is admiring the strong tree that grew from almost nothing in the bad part of her town. I think that she want to be like this tree and grow up against the hardships that are put against her by society.
I think that Esperanza personifies the trees to make them seem human. When she personifies, she gives them the aspect of sympathy. She shows this when she says, “I had to hide myself at the other end of the garden, in the jungle part, under a tree that wouldn't mind if I lay down and cried a long time.”(page 97) In this quote, she is very upset and she needs to find a place to let out her emotions. Since the trees are something that she has a lot in common with, that is the first place she goes to find shelter. Trees represent a big part of Esperanza’s life because they share many of the same feelings.
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, is a collection of vignettes told through the eyes of an adolescent girl. There is a lot of symbolism in this book including windows, which are very symbolic. In this book, windows mean being trapped. When ever windows are mentioned it is referring to the person being trapped. “She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow.”(page 11) In this quote, Esperanza is describing the life of her grandmother, who she shares a name with. I think that Esperanza thinks that her grandmother looked out the window her whole life and had no time to go out and explore the world. I think that Esperanza is scared that she might be subject to the same fate of a life that doesn't get to do anything. This seems like a horrible way to spend a life, especially constantly being taunted by whatever you might see out of the window.
Another person in the story who has an experience with windows is Mamacita, one of Esperanza’s many neighbors. Mamacita is someone who doesn't speak English and just sits around in her room all day. “ She sits all day by the window and plays the spanish radio show and sings all the homesick songs about her country in a voice that sounds like a seagull.” (77) I think that she is trapped by the language barrier that separated her from the rest of society. Since she couldnt communicate with the rest of the neighborhood, she just sat and sang sad songs that reminded her of her home country and made her even sadder because she can never go back or leave her window perch.
Rafaela is another one of Esperanza’s neighbors. She is married and is contained by the windows, just like many of the other characters. “And then Rafaela, who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much, gets locked indoor because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at.” (79) This quote explains that Rafaela is trapped in her own house looking out the window, but she cant go anywhere because she is confined to her house by her husband, who doesnt want to lose her. The symbolic window makes many appearances in The House on Mango Street.
