Mia Winchell is a 13 year old girl who lives in the countryside down South with her family and her cat, Mango. Mia has a special secret that she has been hiding for 13 years. This secret keeps her apart from her classmates, her friends (including her best friend), and even her family. The book opens during the summer between 7th and 8th grade, and the story unfolds over the next few months. As she begins her final year of middle school, Mia decides that she no longer wants to keep this important detail about herself private. She decides to tell her family and friends this unusual fact about herself - that sounds, numbers, and words have color for her. Her courageous journey towards sharing this private information, as well as the responses and reactions of those around her, comprise the rest of the story.…
was her first day. Esperanza didn’t actually think he looked very nice. But she knew she couldn’t tell by their looks!…
In the book The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the passage represents the struggle for people on Mango st. to achieve their American dream by isolating their hopes from reality and illustrating their hardship. Nenny and Esperanza are in a shop when Nenny notices a music box, which, after the owner starts it up, sounds wonderful and Nenny wishes to purchase it. Nenny asks how much it costs, to which the man says, “this ain’t for sale” (Cisneros). The man implies to Nenny that it is not something she could afford. Since she could not afford something that she desired, it shows that people like her on Mango st. could not get everything they wanted.…
The chapter 5 and chapter 6 and throughout chapter 8 of the book called, The House On Mango Street; represent an ethnic picture from both the past and the present of Mango Street and the surrounding neighborhood. Cathy, Esperanza’s friend indicated what the neighborhood may have been like in the past, while the two families that moved into her house once Cathy’s left were more representative of the whole neighborhood as Esperanza came to experience it. Along the Mango Street lived the black man who was unwelcome from the rest of the neighborhood, different from the people Esperanza sees from day to day. This guy race makes him so unfamiliar that Esperanza is afraid to talk to him. Cathy has shown Esperanza the neighborhood’s two cultures, Latin American and American, and two languages, Spanish and English, which revealing the new cultural makeup of Mango Street. Cathy also provided a window into how outsiders view Esperanza’s neighborhood, even though Cathy is blind to her own family’s similarities to the families around them. Cathy’s family was moving because the neighborhood is “getting bad,” a racist reason that Esperanza immediately understands. Esperanza’s immigrant family, as well as other families like hers, was, in Cathy’s family’s view, causing the neighborhood to deteriorate, and the only thing to do was to move. However, Cathy’s family did not seem to be struggling any less than the other families in Esperanza’s neighborhood. Their house, which Cathy’s father…
In the story The House on Mango Street the author Sandra Cisneros explains all the problems that the woman go through, such as how they live lives they do not want to. For example, on page 5, it states, “I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it.” (Cisneros 5). It also states “But I know how those things go,” this means that Esperanza is so use hearing that that she already knows that it is most likely not going to happen. Another reason why some of the women in the story do not want to live the lives they are living is the great-grandmother married a…
Night is a story of a boy named Elie and his experience at Auschwitz concentration camp. Auschwitz was the biggest death camp in the world, 2,000-3,000 people were killed ever hour according to pbs.org. House on Mango Street is a story of a girl growing up in not the best of conditions. She also struggles with fitting in. The book "Night" and "House on Mango Street" differ in their use of figurative language; whereas the symbolism of Night is dark like a nightmare, so that it can show the hardships of the holocaust. The symbolism of House on Mango Street is bright and hopeful to show where Esperanza is and wants to be when she grows up.…
Esperanza is the main character in the book “The House on Mango Street”. She started off as a naive girl that doesn’t know anything about the real world she lives in. As time passes she learns more about herself and the world around her. Another major character in this book is Sally. Sally was born into a harsh family where her father will beats her. Sally was always trapped by her father until one day she marries a man that treats her just like her father but, she doesn’t notices.…
In Sandra Cisneros’ book, “The House on Mango Street,” Cisneros writes that, “the boys and girls live in different worlds” (Cisneros 8). There are only so many ways one could translate this sentence, and one of the meanings that can be deduced is that boys and girls are treated differently. This idea holds true today, but the gap between what people think boys can do and what people think girls can do has become smaller over the past years. But still, there are some prejudices left, things like girls can’t be faster/smarter/stronger than guys. Ideas such as, “you can't hit a girl,” and the phrases, “you hit/punch/run like a girl,” have not helped to heal the gap that still lives today.…
Where you live should not determine how you feel about yourself. In Sandra Cisneros “The house on Mango Street” Esperanza's was a young girl living in poverty who was embarrassed of where she lived. When a nun saw her playing outside and asked her where she lived she felt as though the nun judged her and disapproved of where she lived “you live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing”(Cisneros5) Esperanza was already dissatisfied with the three bedroom house that her and her six family members had to move into so, when the nun who is thought of to bring hope and lift spirits looks down on her it bothers her and makes her even more unhappy with her house. After, this incident with the nun Esperanza began to fantasize about what…
The vignette “The House on Mango Street” shows a serious issue; it discusses poverty and even though it was set in the 1960s, the issue, as shown by articles, is still relevant today. “The House on Mango Street” was written by Sandra Cisneros and is told from Esperanza, a girl struggling with poverty and is told through a series of vignettes. The two articles that will be referenced is “How Does Poverty Affect a Teen’s Lifestyle?” by Ayra Moore, and “Increasing the Minimum Wage Would Help Reduce Poverty” by Elise Gould. Poverty has always been a problem. In fact, 46.7 million people were in poverty in 2014. Out of that number, 33% of those people in poverty are under 18. Clearly, poverty is still a serious issue today that affects many people.…
The work of fiction House on Mango Street is written by Sandra Cisneros. It shows the dreams of Esperanza, a little girl who lives on Mango Street, an impoverished area of Chicago. She likes writing and wants to be an author. Both Alicia and Esperanza view education and writing as a pathway to better life. Through these characters, the author suggests that education would offer a kind of freedom.…
The House On Mango Street and “ Only Daughter” both prove that being an Mexican- American women is a struggle. As Cisneros shows her first hand experience, and as well shows it through story telling. Yet without telling a biography and going straight to the point she shows emotion by using literary elements. Sandra Cisneros Chose to use metaphors and imagery to express the hard ships of being a Mexican- American women. If Sandra Cisneros did not use literary elements to show the lifestyle of a Mexican-American women, the points that she showed in both the texts would not have been as powerful as they were.…
What is the american dream? Many people will answer that question by saying being successful in america. Others would say that having a nice house in a good neighboorhood, a good marriage, two kids and a golden retreiver is the american dream. Unlike these beliefs of what the american dream is for many latinos that come to this country the american dream is simply one word, survival. For esperanza her american dream is to get out of mango street. Something that she wishes for and is certain that when the time comes she will do. The house on mango street by sandra cisneros manifest all the stuggles and hardships latinos go through when they come to this country to try and achieve the american dream. Imagine going outside and not being able to read what the signs in the street say, or going to eat somewhere and not being able to get what you want because no one understands the language you speak. This is a huge struggle that all latinos face when they come here, the language barrier. Home is something that is far far away for latino immigrants. Home is family, friends, smells, food, familiar faces, the place you love. Something that most latinos don't have when they come to america. Esperansa knows that mango street isn't the home she wants. Longing for home is sometimes the biggest stuggle of being an immigrant. Something that esperanza has dealt with her entire life. In the story esperanza learns that achieving your dreams are very difficult speacially if you are a latino women.…
Esperanza feels close to the four trees that the city planted outside her window. Like Esperanza says, they are skinny and don’t belong there, but Esperanza thinks they are strong.…
In “The House on Mango Street,” Sandra Cicernos’s descriptions of the narrator’s living conditions reveal binary oppositions that often contradict one another.…