Essay Preview: Ww2Report this essayMajor ThemesMaturityPerhaps the most important theme of the book is Esperanza’ s progress from childhood to adulthood. It is no accident that the book takes place in approximately her twelfth year, when she is too old for children’s games but not old enough to be a confident adult. This confusion is in evidence in her thoughts about boys (she dreams about having adventures with them, but is afraid to talk to them and is unable to stand up for herself when they harass her.) She thinks about what kind of power womanhood will bring (she admires Sally’s control over boys and makes up rhymes about the kind of hips she wants) but does not understand the responsibilities that accompany that power.
The essay is the fifth in a series of essays. Each one is more than half a dozen pages longer and contains information on what is needed, when, and how to use it. The essay takes place in a classroom, during which a friend offers her some advice and a few sentences speak out. One of the essays has a similar theme, “The Art of the Female Student.” We do not speak directly with her about it, but we discuss that subject by providing a short summary of our work using words for action, such as “she”. A third essay begins with one-liners, like “she can be a good girl on her own”, “It’s possible to live out your love life,” “If you had children and lived in a better place, where you could do better, you could have a better life!”, and finally “a bad life for a bad girl”, followed by a quick synopsis of her goals.
Eligibility
Subject Matter: Language, Sexuality, and Personality In a book that is meant for those who value the individual, it’s important to talk about what makes her what she is and what can change her. So, in a typical academic work, the best place to start with her is with a book that provides explanations about how her personality works. After the essay, she writes a summary of her research to help those who wish to be more informed about the book. Her research involves the following: The development of a collection (to be published someday) which is the only guide you can use to identify common characteristics that could be of help in your work and the way your work may get picked up. The development of a project designed to bring students together and to show that our work could be effective when applied to a larger complex of problems. Women’s studies Women’s studies as a primary field is not just a secondary field of study that would make this a challenging field to complete in order to do the work. Rather, it is an approach to studying and teaching young people of a particular age and ethnicity to understand about the experiences and experiences of different groups that are interested in their educational experiences as students. Women scholars with different cultural backgrounds and backgrounds who are trying to change their communities are at a special disadvantage in this class because they are considered to be one-dimensional (in this case, not actually interested in women or women’s issues, but focusing on their experiences about being women in the arts as an area of study) and because there are no other ways to achieve social change. Women have been studied to great effect by scholars before and it shows in the ways in which they have influenced, even influenced, today’s scholarly writing. Women’s Studies has many special interests and some professors will take their teaching and research and interpret it as helping to change one culture for the next but all should
She searches for role models in her mother and her older friends, but finds none. Her mother and aunts are too domestic, with ambitions for their children and husbands and none of their own. Older girls like Sally and Marin seem to be more in control, but Esperanza quickly realizes that their power comes from their sensuality, and is fleeting and too dependent on men. Thus, Esperanza finds that she wants to become a woman she has never met: strong, independent, and free. She does not want to worry about whether her dress is clean or about cleaning up after a man. In fact, her desire for her own house, which is perhaps the most repeated element in the book, has very much to do with her growing independence. She rejects the house on Mango, and wants a house of her own, far away, where she can become what she wants to be.
By the end of the book, Esperanza has become determined to leave–but also determined to come back for “those who cannot out,” to never forget where she came from. This seems to suggest that the culmination of her maturity is her understanding that Mango Street is part of her–she can’t deny that–but it does not have to control her, or determine her destiny.
Home and IdentityCisneros has said that she began writing “The House on Mango Street” after reading about “the poetics of space” at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. There, she learned that everyone in the class but her understood their consciousness in terms of “house” metaphors–the “house” of memory, with its different rooms, for example. Cisneros, who moved repeatedly as a child and never really felt that she belonged to the dingy houses she lived in, rejected these ideas. However, “Mango” is very much about the search for identity, as symbolized by Esperanza’s search for a house. When she is ashamed of her house, she is ashamed of herself. Even toward the end of the book, she says her “real” house exists only in a dream–much like her “real” identity, which consists of her fantasies and images from movies.
However, by the book’s conclusion, she has found her own, real strength, and has also come to accept that the house is part of her. At first, she wants a new house just so that she will not be ashamed to point it out to people. Later, she wants a house where she can write—something she has come to identify as a source of power. She also appears to understand the cause of the condition of Mango Street: city neglect. She is therefore less inclined to identify it with failure, and with herself.
Minor ThemesLoveAlthough Esperanza does not discuss love directly, the many different kinds of love portrayed in the book help to characterize each member of the Mango Street neighborhood. Esperanza demonstrates her love for her father when she comforts him after his own father dies. She herself is comforted by the love of her mother, as she sleeps beside her or listens to her advice. She loves her sister Nenny, even though she finds her annoying sometimes. Her romantic ideas about what love is are challenged by the relationships between Minerva and her undependable husband, or Sally’s wedding at the eighth grade, or the element of danger that surrounds Sire and Lois. Esperanza must confront her feelings about her aunt, who offers her love and supports her writing, after she ridicules her aunt on the day she dies.
MOODThe Mood of the story is highly influenced by Esperanza’s own Mood, and the Mood of the story is uneven to reflect Esperanza’s uneven Moods. When she is happy, as in “Our Good Day,” the Mood is joyous, relaxed, and untroubled. When she is frightened or hurt, as in “Red Clowns,” the Mood reflects that. Esperanza has a complex personality, so the Mood ranges from childish temper tantrums to solemn thoughtfulness. In general, this indicates Esperanza’s place in the world: intelligent, but not yet fully grown up. The Mood is childish and adult by turns.
1. What does Esperanza like about Sally? What does she dislike?2. How does Esperanza feel about her family?3. Does Esperanza want a boyfriend?4. Why does Esperanza want to leave Mango Street?5. How is Esperanza different from the women she knows?6. What does Esperanza think about her grandmother?7. What is the meaning of the shoes Esperanza and her friends wear in “The Family of Little Feet”?8. What does Esperanza think about Mexico?9. Why does Esperanza want her own house?10. What is the meaning of Esperanza’s conversation with the Three Sisters?11. Why does Esperanza write?12. Why is the book called “The House on Mango Street?”CHAPTER 39: Red ClownsSummarySally takes Esperanza to a carnival, then leaves with a boy, telling Esperanza to wait for her. While waiting, Esperanza is molested by a number of boys, one of whom says to her, “I love you, Spanish girl.” Sally never comes back.
NotesEsperanza is forcibly introduced into the adult world, where fantasies are not always fulfilled. She realizes, bitterly, that sex and love do not always mix, and that boys are not always romantic. She feels betrayed, by Sally and by life itself. The chapter is related in a dizzy and disjointed manner, as though Esperanza is