The novel The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, is a compilation of several rich and fascinating stories. These stories compliment each other perfectly to construct an even richer and broader story. As Sandra Cisneros wrote, "to tell one big story, each story contributing to the whole-like beads in a necklace." It is the story of Esperanza. The character of Esperanza faces unimaginable struggle as well as moments of joy.
             The form in which this novel was constructed works incredibly well. It is narrated in the voice of a young girl who is too young to know that no one may ever hear her, but whose voice is completely convincing. It is the creation of a mature and sophisticated writer. The novel seems to wander casually from subject to subject. It jumps from hair to hips, from clouds to feet, from an aunt to a girl named Sally, who has "eyes like Egypt" and whose father sometimes beats her. But this randomness disguises an artistic exploration of themes of individual identity, estrangement and loss, escape and return, romance, inequality, sexuality, repression and oppression. Although this book has only one hundred and ten pages, it is extremely rich in content. I feel that it has a lot of "flavor," like a hot cup of imported coffee. It's moments are bitter and hot, yet have a smooth and sweet aftertaste.
             Reading this novel, I began to appreciate this form of her vignettes. In another class I am taking this semester, I am reading a novel entitled Silent Dancing. This book is somewhat similar to The House on Mango Street, in that it is written with the same form. The author of this novel, Judith Ortiz Cofer, tells the story of her childhood through vivid and colorful stories. Cofer bases her form on Virginia Woolf, and describes her style as an encompassment of several "moments of being." These moments, she calls "ensayos," are said to capture the truth. I believe that this is evident in Cisneros' novel as w...