What are some examples of personification in the house on Mango Street?
The House on Mango Street was written by a Mexican-American author.It tells the story of a 12-year-old girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago.The novel follows Esperanza over the course of one year in her life, as she enters adolescence and begins to face the realities of life as a young woman in a poor and patriarchal community.The Mexican-American culture and themes of race, sexuality, identity, and gender are interwoven throughout the novel.
The House on Mango Street is considered a modern classic of Chicano literature and has been the subject of many academic publications.The book has sold more than 6 million copies, has been translated into over 20 languages and is required reading in many schools and universities.
The American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation is one of the major literary awards that it has received.The stage play was staged in Chicago in 2009.[2]
The novel deals with sensitive subject matters, such as domestic violence, puberty, sexual harassment, and racism, which has led to challenges and threats of censorship.It is a staple piece of literature for young adults and is an influential coming-of-age novel.
Cisneros talked about the relationship between her personal experiences and the life depicted in The House on Mango Street.Cisneros is Mexican-American and was raised in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago.Cisneros was the only daughter in a family of seven children, whereas Esperanza has two brothers and a sister.She often felt isolated as the only girl in a family of boys.She attributes her impulse to create stories to the loneliness of those formative years.[4]
While completing an MFA in Creative Writing at the Iowa Writers Workshop, Cisneros first discovered a sense of her own ethnic "otherness", and at this time she felt marginalized "as a person of color, as a woman, from working-class background".When? In an interview.The House on Mango Street was written by Cisneros when she was a graduate student.She realized she had little in common with her classmates and was so angry that she wanted to quit.But...I started to have Mango Street as a way of claiming this is who I am after being there.It became my flag.Cisneros created Esperanza from his personal feelings of displacement.There is a citation needed.
The House on Mango Street covers a year in the life of a young Chicana girl living in an impoverished Chicago neighborhood with her parents and three siblings.The narrator explains how her family first arrived on Mango Street.The family moved frequently before they settled in their new home, a small and run-down building with crumbling red bricks.The family has been wandering from place to place, always dreaming of a house of their own.It is not the promised land of their dreams when they finally arrive at the house on Mango Street.The parents overcame their dejection by saying that this is only a temporary stop before moving on to the promised house.While the house on Mango Street was a significant improvement from her family's previous dwellings, Esperanza expresses disdain towards her new home because it is not a "real" house like the ones she has seen on TV.There is a big yard and many trees in a white, wooden house.She often expresses her desire to escape from her life on Mango Street.She begins to write poetry.Her perceptive nature shines through as she begins the novel with detailed descriptions of the minute behaviors and characteristics of her family members and unusual neighbors.Her descriptions show a picture of the neighborhood and give examples of influential people around her.She remembers when they paraded around the neighborhood in high heels with their friends Rachel and Lucy.She befriends two older girls in the neighborhood, one of which is Marin, who babysits her younger cousins.In her life and in the lives of those in her community, she highlights significant or telling moments.When Louie's cousin was arrested for stealing a car or when Aunt Lupe died are some of the times that she focuses on.
The novel depicts Esperanza's growing maturity and her own perspective of the world around her.She develops sexually, physically, and emotionally as she enters puberty.Esperanza begins to notice and enjoy male attention as a result of these changes.Sally is an attractive girl who wears heavy makeup and dresses provocatively.Sally's father is a deeply religious and physically abusive man.Sally ditches her friend Esperanza for a boy at a carnival and she is raped by a group of men.When she was a young woman, an older man kissed her on the lips at her first job.The traumatic experiences and observations of the women in her neighborhood, many of whom are constantly controlled by the men in their lives, only further cement her desire to escape Mango Street.When she meets Rachel and Lucy's aunts, the Three Sisters, she learns that her experiences on Mango Street have shaped her, even if she leaves.After she leaves, she vows to return to help the people she has left behind.
The novel consists of forty-four interwoven stories, ranging in length from one or two paragraphs to several pages.In first-person present tense, the main character, Esperanza, narrates the vignettes.
In the 25th-anniversary publication of The House on Mango Street, Cisneros commented on the style she developed for writing it: "She experiments, creating a text that is as succinct and flexible as poetry, snapping sentences into fragments so that the reader pauses, making each sentence."Cisneros wanted the text to be easy to read for people who spent all day working and didn't have much time to devote to reading.She said that she wanted something that was accessible.[4]
Cisneros wrote a new introduction to the novel in 2009.She talks about the process of writing the book.She first came up with the title "The House on Mango Street" and included several stories, poems, vignettes that she had already written or was in the process of writing.The first three stories were written in Iowa as a side project for Cisneros at the time he was studying for a master's degree.Cisneros wants the book to be a book that can be opened at any page and still make sense to the reader who doesn't know what came before or comes after.She says the people she wrote about were real, amalgamations of persons she met over the years, she tailored together events of the past and the present so that the story being told could have a beginning and an end, and that all the emotions felt are hers.10
The House on Mango Street is written in the eyes of an adolescent girl who lives in a working-class Latino neighbourhood in Chicago.The idea of being a Mexican American woman in Chicago reflects the author herself just 15 years prior to publishing this book.We follow this young woman coming into her sexual maturity and observing her struggle to make new possibilities for herself.The reader encounters Esperanza living between two cultures, the Mexican one which she encounters through her parents and the American one that she finds herself living in.In the book, we see Esperanza reject her community in order to establish her own identity.It was [13].
According to her name, she is a "figure of hope, a 'fierce woman' on a complex pursuit for personal and community transformation".Due to her identity as a young Chicana woman, Esperanza uses her house in Chicago to question her society and cultural customs.She observes the women in her community to find a role model of her own, and she uses what she learns from her observations to form an identity for herself.[16]
The main character mentions that Nenny and Esperanza are very different from one another.She has slippery hair.[17]
Two sisters from Texas are living on Mango street.They share an old bike.The rest of their family is described as having fat popsicle lips.In the book, they are trying out high heels together.Until a man convinces Rachel to kiss him, they give up on being beautiful.
Sally is one of the closest friends of Esperanza.There is a full scene dedicated to this character.Sally is described as the girl with eyes like Egypt and nylons the color of smoke by the author.The main character is attracted to Sally's way of being and considers her to be a true friend, she likes being around her.
Sally represents the vicious cycle of domestic violence and oppression felt by women on Mango street.She wants a man to marry her to escape the beatings and maltreatment she gets from her father.Sally's mother doesn't seem surprised or worried when she is told that her daughter is in a garden with three boys.Both mother and daughter give excuses to the father, for the violence to perpetuate, because the mother cares for her cuts and bruises.Sally marrying at such a young age to a man that would treat her just like her father shows how ingrained this cycle is in the way of life of many women.Sally was very young and immature to fully understand her surroundings, and the author doesn't blame her for what happened to her.
She came to stay from Puerto Rico because she is a cousin of a Louie's family.She wears nylons and has a lot of makeup.She has a boyfriend back in Puerto Rico that she shows off to the younger girls because he promised they would get married soon.As a figure of wisdom, Esperanza looks up to her.Marin gave advice to the younger girls.The main character will always remember her as someone who was always waiting for something to change, even though she received a lot of attention.Many of the young women in the neighborhood are represented by this character.[23]
The mother is Esperanza's mother.One of the first things people will say about her is that she has hair that is curly from the pins she uses for her hair.The smell of her mother made her feel safe.A Smart Cookie is dedicated to her mother.Her mother can speak two languages, can sing opera, is handy around the house, she could have been anything she wanted, yet she dropped out of school.Her mother was angry that she dropped out of school to have nice clothes.Throughout the book, she encourages her to keep studying.Her nature is undemanding and she is obedient.[25]
There is a young woman in the neighbourhood.She attends university and her father is thought to molest her and leave her to do all the chores.It was very uncommon for women to attend college at that time, especially lower-income Latina girls, and the community judged her for that.She is thought to be a role model for the girl.She is able to see the outside world because of her attendance at university.The cultural community of Mango Street was disrespected byAlicia when she returned to the neighbourhood from school.In the novel, Esperanza wants to learn fromAlicia.She wants to be a true American and for the community to only be part of her past.[26]
When Esperanza has no one else to talk to, she listens to the inspiration ofAlicia.Esperanza learns a lot fromAlicia and her lifestyle, realizing that she doesn't want to spend her whole life in a factory or behind a rolling pin, and instead pursues university and studies hard.There is a relationship between Mango Street and Esperanza's identity.She said "Like it or not you [Esperanza] are Mango Street."[31][30]
Esperanza scolds herself for mimicking her dying aunt in "Born Bad," but Aunt Lupe is mostly present.The passivity that women are so revered for in Mexican culture, that make women accepting of whatever it is their patriarchal society chooses for them, is presented by Aunt Lupe.Aunt Lupe was a dutiful house wife.She had a disabling illness that left her immobile.She is thought to be representative of la Virgen de Guadalupe as her proper name is Guadalupe, and she describes how her aunt went blind and her bones went limp as worms.Aunt Lupe tells her that writing would keep her free.Aunt Lupe died from her illness.
Critics have noted that Esperanza's desire to break free from her neighborhood is more than just a wish to escape poverty, it is also a way of escaping gender roles she finds oppressive in her culture.The discovery of her own feminist values, which are contrary to the domestic roles prescribed for Chicana women, is a crucial part of the novel.The novel "a las mujeres" is dedicated to the women.[34]
She struggles against the traditional gender roles within her culture.Gloria Anzalda wrote about Mexican social myths of gender with special force in three icons.The sexual and maternal identities of contemporary Mexican and Chicana women are haunted by these three Our Mothers.'[35]
The female characters in the novel are trapped by an abusive partner, teenage motherhood, or poverty.There is a way out of patriarchal oppression.There is always a way out for women who are trapped in one way or another.The suppression of women is caused by the fact that they diminish themselves to the service of others.She distances herself from these gendered expectations by creating herself as a subject of her own story in her writing.[37]
Lilijana Burcar argues in an article that Cisneros offers a "critical dissection" of the role that femininity plays in constructing young women's self-image.It is argued that women's feet are not the only constraint on their role in society.As part of an unofficial initiation into their community and society, Esperanza and her friends are given high heels.In "The Family of Little Feet," a mother who introduces her daughters to high heels leaves the girls with an initial glee, as if they were Cinderella.One of the girls felt like she was no longer herself, as the shoe almost severed her from her body.As Burcar observes, "presented with a lesson on what it means to be a grown up woman in American patriarchal society, the girls decide to cast away their high-heeled shoes."[40]
Burcar says that Esperanza Cordero was the antidote to the predestined lives lived by the other female characters.Due to their circumstances and the vicious cycle of domestication forces of a patriarchal society they are confined to the same destiny of the women that came before them.Being a mother in the home is a destiny that is centered on being a full-time wife.Esperanza, as a character, is formed outside of the gender norm and she is presented as the only one that rebels.Young women are introduced to high heels, specific forms of behaviors, and like this at a very young age if they choose to set this mainly in the years of prepubescence.While her mother is knowledgeable about the demographic of women on Mango Street, she doesn't know how to use the subway.The cult of domesticity for women and the image of a woman as the angel in the house has been endorsed by the traditional female bildungsroman.
With these foundations, there is economic dependency on women remaining in the home.It is possible that this is not the case...She leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate, instead of being the servant who puts back a chair and picks up a plate.The novel ends with a note that blames a patriarchal system for Mexican-American women being trapped in the home.It will allow her freedom as a woman if she joins mainstream America.Burcar believes that the sacrifice of other women, particularly her mother, came before her.There is a citation needed.
Women's issues are being demonstrated in The House on Mango Street due to episodes of patriarchal and sexual violence."We see a woman whose husband locks her in the house, a daughter brutally beaten by her father, and Esperanza's own sexual initiation through rape."Many of the men portrayed in the stories control or appropriate female sexuality by adopting one or another form of violence as if it were their innate right.The stories of Sally are an example of patriarchal violence.Sally was forced into a life of hiding after her father beat her.She escapes her father's violence through marriage, where she is dependent and controlled by another man.Sally was forced to exchange one patriarchal prison for another because of her father's attempts to control her sexuality.The House on Mango Street shows a glimpse of Esperanza's violent sexual initiation and also shows the oppression and domestic abuse faced by other Chicana women.Sally's beatings, the other instances of male violence in the collection, and the experience of sexual abuse by Esperanza are all part of the story.[50]
The book is about adolescence.The story appears to chronicle a couple of important years in the life of Esperanza Cordero.The transition from a naive child into a young adolescent woman is shown in this picture.When her friend, Sally, goes into the Monkey Garden to kiss boys, she is torn between her identity as a child and her emergence into womanhood and sexuality.At this moment, she looked at her feet.They were far away.They weren't my feet anymore.The garden that was a good place to play didn't seem right to me.[52]
The young women in the novel begin to explore their boundaries and engage in risky behaviors as they get older.When they are given high-heeled shoes, they walk like women.They often see older women with a mixture of wonder and fear.The attention men give them is unwanted by Esperanza, but her friends feel a bit more conflicted because attention from the opposite sex is indicative of their self-worth.She wants to live her life by her own rules.[54]
The narrative thread that connects the text is the search for self-esteem and her true identity.The aesthetic struggle that occurs in this piece takes place in Mango Street.This world becomes involved in the inner turmoil felt by the character.The main character uses this world as a mirror to look into herself as she embodies the needs of all human beings: freedom and belonging.The character is trying to unite herself with the ideas she has of the world around her, Mango Street.
The relationship between the house and the main character is a pillar of this process of self-discovery.There are battles of fear and hostility in her neighborhood.These forces guide the character's growth as a person.
The narrator reacts to the House in a very important way.She knows that she doesn't belong there and everything about it is described in negative terms.It's by knowing where she doesn't fit that she knows where to go.The concept of light and dark is similar.We know that darkness is the absence of light, in this case her identity is outside of the house on mango street.
"This isn't my house, I say, and shake my head as if shaking could ruin the year I've lived here," said Esperanza Cordero, an impoverished child who wants to find a sense of belonging outside of her own neighbourhood.I don't belong.I don't want to come from here.As she sees this as a safe place that would accept her, Esperanza attempts to find such belonging in the outside world.She likes to belong through little things, such as favouring English over Spanish in her community, or buying a house outside of Mango Street.Esperanza's sense of belonging is dependent on her separation from her Spanish native tongue, community and ultimately away from Mango Street.60
Marin is thought to lack belonging.Marin is waiting for a car to stop, a start to fall, someone to change her life, but she lacks the money and independence to leave.Marin is a person who is capable of longing, but not able to really belong as her dreams and desires are romanticized and unrealistic.
"Spanglish frequents the pages where Esperanza quotes other characters" but "English is the primary language in Cisneros's novel."Betz says that her identity is "torn" between her English tongue...She has Spanish roots.According to Betz, both author and character claim to be English in order to flourish as writers and independent women.[63]
It is thought that the language barriers present in The House on Mango Street is a sign of the boundary between one's self and the freedom and opportunities available in the rest of America.There is a certain value attributed to bilingualism in this book, while Spanish speakers are ridiculed.60
The House on Mango Street explores the complexity of its culture.The "patriarchal Chicana Chicago community that raised her will not permit her development as a female writer" is demonstrated by the hero of this novel.She addresses the oppression that many women feel when growing up in a Chicano community.[64]
The House on Mango Street will be adapted into a television series by Gaumont Film Company, who produced the Spanish language series Narcos.The planning was canceled.[65]
The House on Mango Street earned praise from the Hispanic community for its realistic portrayals of their experience in the United States.Campbell wrote that Cisneros draws on her Latino heritage...We want to lift off the page and seduces with precise, spare prose.She is an essential writer and a gifted one at that.The book won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1985 and is required reading in many school curriculums across the United States.[68]