The House on Mango Street
In the book The House on Mango Street, author Sandra Cisneros presents a series of vignettes that involve a young girl, named Esperanza, growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Esperanza Cordero is searching for a release from the low expectations and restrictions that Latino society often imposes on its young women. Cisneros draws on her own background to supply the reader with accurate views of Latino society today. In particular, Cisneros provides the chapters "Boys and Girls" and "Beautiful and Cruel" to portray Esperanza's stages of growth from a questioning and curious girl to an independent woman. Altogether, "Boys and Girls" is not like "Beautiful and Cruel" because Cisneros reveals two different maturity levels in Esperanza; one of a wavering confidence with the potential to declare her independence, and the other a personal awareness of her own actions and the decision to take action and wage her "own quiet war (Cisneros 89). Author Sandra Cisneros was born in 1954 in the Latino section of Chicago (Encarta 1). Cisneros is an "American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and poet (Encarta 1)." Her works have brought the perspective of the Mexican American woman into the "mainstream of literary feminism (Encart
She longs to escape, much like a helium balloon. In both vignettes, Esperanza looks to others for answers, first to the boys in her neighborhood and then to the movie vixen. In "Boys and Girls," Cisneros introduces a gender separation that dominates Esperanza's experiences. She refuses to neither tame herself nor wait for a husband, and this rebellion is reflected in her leaving the "table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate (Cisneros 89). Esperanza is "alienated from the rest of society in many ways (Hannon 1). She also considers her differences as a source of isolation, as she floats in the sky for all to see. " Cisneros writes of the "hopes, desires, and disillusionments of a young writer growing up in a large city (Encarta 1). " Cisneros' rough language and violent images of self-bondage reveal the contempt with which Esperanza views many of her peers whose only goal is to become a wife. "Beautiful and Cruel" marks the beginning of Esperanza's "own quiet war" against machismo (Hispanic culture powered by men). " But she uses this alienation to become "strong and inspirational (Hannon 1). Cisneros supplies Esperanza with a small voice, but also with a tone of wishful thinking, which gives her the ability to be powerful. In The House on Mango Street, there are some similarities, but more differences that separate Esperanza's character, as she grows more mature and aware of the situation that surround her. " Cisneros decides to accept the oppression as part of culture, but also d!etach from this view by telling women, old and young alike, to find their own independence.
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