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Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Book Reports The House on Mango Street The House on Mango Street Preface ...................................................................................................................................... 2 1.1 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 The author and her novel – Biographical notes ............................................................ 3 2.1 The New World ............................................................................................................ 4 2.2 Colonies and Settlements ............................................................................................. 5 2.3 The American Dream ................................................................................................... 5 2.4 Hispanics ...................................................................................................................... 6 2.5 Mexico and its population ............................................................................................ 6 2.6 Mexican immigration ................................................................................................... 7 2.7 Mexican Americans divided in first and second generation ........................................ 7 2.8 Mexican-American Literature ...................................................................................... 8 3. The young Latino girl’s dream 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 9 3.2 Esperanza ..................................................................................................................... 9 3.3 Esperanza’s dream of a house of her own .................................................................. 10 3.4 Meaning of home ....................................................................................................... 10 3.5 The Home Metaphor in the Novel ............................................................................. 11 3.6 Machismo ................................................................................................................... 12 3.7 Machismo in the Novel – women as second class citizens in the Mexican society ... 12 4.1 The American Dream .................................................................................................. 12 4.2 Immigration according to Cisneros ............................................................................ 13 4.3 America, a salad bowl ................................................................................................ 13 Epilogue .................................................................................................................................. 14 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 15 After having read the novel “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros I will now concentrate on the background of the novel that moved Sandra Cisneros to write it by investigating the novel with special regard to its different dimensions. The novel “The House on Mango Street” is written by Sandra Cineros. It deals with family, neighbourhood and dreams of a young Mexican girl, Esperanza Cordero growing up in Chicago. The novel begins when the Corderos move into a new house on Mango Street in the Latino section of Chicago. The fact that it is the first house they have ever owned, make them proud. But when Esperanza sees it, she is disappointed by the red, dilapidated house. It is not the one their parents told them nor Esperanza dreamt of. Esperanza is not just dissatisfied with her home, but she is also ashamed of her appearance and of her name, which is always mispronunced, and sounds if the syllables were made of tin and if they were a punishment for the ears. Esperanza was named after her great-grandmother, who was forced to marry and sentenced to a life full of sadness. But Esperanza swears that she will not have the same destiny like her great-grandmother. Esperanza longs for a name that fits to her, that expresses her identity: “Zeze the X” (Cisneros, p.11). In time, she notices how joyful and harsh reality can be in life. Her first friendship is just a brief one because Cathy’s familiy soon moves away because of the neighbourhood, that becomes more inhabited by lower-class, people like Esperanza’s family. By contributing five dollars for a bike, Esperanza is included in the circle of friends of two younger sisters. By Lucy and Rachel, Esperanza is introduced in the wonders of growing up by talking about clouds, hips and parading around Mango Street in high-heeled shoes. By the older kids, Esperanza can observe the hardships young people are confronted with in rough neighbourhoods: Louie’s car theft, the death of a boy by an accident Marin gets to know, and Marin’s desperate attempt to find a husband she can escape from this place. All these things open Esperanza’s eyes and show her the limited chances which are offered and she had in such a neighbourhood. Alicia, on the other hand, is an exemple for the less who leave nothing to his fate, but take the initiative. Despite her father’s view, she goes to the university and studies all the night hoping to leave the house one day. Equal to the novel’s progress, Esperanza gets to know her sexuality. She gets excited when boys look at her on the streets. But her illusion of true love is destroyed by sexual violence. Her friend Sally’s behaviour towards boys contributes to Esperanza’s caution and distance by dealing with the opposite sex, too. Nevertheless, Esperanza does not stop dreaming of leaning against a car with her boyfriend in a place where that does not bother anyone. But she has set her standards higher than most of the women around her. She do not search for a man to escape from this place, she has seen too many unhappy marriages. Ruthie exemplifies such an one. She has run away from her husband and seems to be mentally disturbed. The young Rafaela is locked up by her husband because of her beauty. Nevertheless the tragic event is Sally’s which ends in abuse. Sally, Esperanza’s friend, only wanted to dream and share her love like Esperanza. Hurt and beaten by her father who just wanted to prevent the familiy’s ruin by Sally. To escape, despite of her minority, she marries a salesman. But unlike her wish, the abuse continues. Saddened but also encouraged by her friends’ experiences, Esperanza wants to become a writer, and change her dreams into reality. Esperanza is led by the dream to leave Mango Street at once, nevertheless she knows that she will have to return one day to help and encourage all those who will fallen in the big hole of hopelessness. She can leave Mango Street but she can not escape from it. Because it has become to an indispensable part of her life that has influenced her dreams and personality there she has also learned valuable lessons for her life. 1.2 The author and her novel – Biographical notes Born as a daughter of a Mexican father and a Chicana mother in December 20 th 1954, Sandra Cisneros is now a famous American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and poet. Cisneros is one of the first Hispanic-American writers who has reached the commercial success. Like Esperanza in “The House on Mango Street” , her first book, the Cisneros’ also frequently moved, however, rather because of her father’s homesickness for his native country. Consequently Cisneros often felt homeless and displaced, she began to retire and to dedicate to books that became her childhood and confidants. There was one book, called “The little House” by Virginia Lee Burton, that formed her thoughts and dreams. A picture book that tells the story of a small house built on a hill in the country by a man who vows never to sell it. This little house was Cisneros’ dream and it is also reflected in “The House on Mango Street”. Furthermore there are some parallels between the novel and Cisneros’ life. Beside the strong wish of belonging, other chapters like “Alicia Who Sees Mices”, “What Sally Said”, “Darius and the Clouds”, and “The First Job” are not just fiction, but reality. They are written down experiences she gained with the confrontation with young Latinas and their problems in her brief time as counselor at Loyola University of Chicago. (cf. http://twu.edu, 24.Feb.2001) All her writings have been formed by her experiences. She writes about real people she has met and raises issues she is interested in: feminism, love, oppression, and religion. “In ‘Ghosts and Voices: Writting From Obsession’ she says, ‘If I were asked what it is I write about, I would have to say I write about those ghosts inside that haunt me, that will not let me sleep, of that which even memory does not like to mention.’” (http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/SandraCisneros.html, 24.Feb.2001) Once it was the New World, and nowadays it has become to a world power. America is both a continent and a country. America the country is offically called United States of America, it includes 42 states and its population is varied because it is a nation of immigrants. Compared to the worlds standards it is relatively young no more than 200 years old. But it is the world’s greatest economic power (cf. http://www.Britannica.com, 27.Feb.2001). America the continent consists of North- and South America. They are connected by the Central American landing stage. In all America has an area of 42 million km². It was named after Amerigo Vespucci an Italian merchant and explorer. Because of the cultural and linguistical aspect America can also be devided in the English-language America, Portuguese-language or Spanish-language America (cf. “Die **Neue Welt**: Amerika”, in Bertelsmann Jugend Lexikon 1998). Actually it was discovered by the Vikings but their knowledge was lost. And just through Christopher Columbus who tought he had landed in India it was taken note of in 1492. The Native population were so called Indians mistakenly. Lured by material gains like gold, silver or vauable stones more explorations were undertaken by adventurers across the Atlantic Ocean in the name of their kings or churches. After Spain’s successful conversion and gain of materialisitic things through the Native population Spainish began to found their first settlements. Of course England and France did not want to sit back and watch how the whole New World were coming more and more under Spanish influence. And so the first English colony was planted on American soil in order to prevent the expansion of Spanish dominance. One of the first famous English settlement is probably the one that was founded by the Puritans. Jürg P. Keller describes it as “ceratinly the most incisive event in the early history of the New World”(p.51). The Puritans were a religious minority that had to suffer much under King Charles I reign and the Anglican Bishops. Led by John Winthrop and nourished by their dream to find an untouched region where they could live according to the Bible they left England and crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the Mayflower in 1620. As they arrived in the New World they settled the region of today’s Salem, Cambridge and Boston in 1630. Other suppressed and persecuted groups came to America and settled to make their dream come true. All immigrants had one thing in common: They were all nourished by the American Dream. Centuries before America’s “rediscovery” people had dreamt of an ideal world. Just when people’s circumstances of life were interefered by the industrialization in the early 19th century people turned towards the New World across the Atlantic Ocean and could name their dream that was projected onto America. The catchword American Dream can be variously interpreted and in fact it has never been really defined. In my opinion it has been always used in connection with the New World, a place where everyone is regarded equal independent on social status or circumstances. This much is certain the American Dream means to live in liberty and affluence and to have unrestricted opportunities and equal chances. That is also the reason why immigrants were lured to the New World. They all came because of their serious circumstances of life. Some were looking for labor, some for refuge because of persecution or they fled from starvation or wars. Hispanics are difficult to define as a group but by the term Hispanics you normaly understand a Spanish speaking ethnic group. There are approximately 17 different subgroups. The largest subgroup are Mexican American 63.3%, followed by Puerto Rican 10.6% , Cuban 4.2%, Central and South American 14.4% and other subgroups 7.4%. (www.nclr.org, 03.Mar.2001) According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census decennial census and population projections it is expected that Hispanics will outstrip the Blacks and become to the largest minority groups in the United States. Because of the many different Hispanic subgroups I will concentrate on the largest subgroup: Mexicans. Mexico is a country in North America and it borders on the United States in the north, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea in the east and Guatemala as well as Beliz in the southeast. Mexico’s territory includes many islands in front of the coast which cover an area of approximately 1 964 382 km². Its capital is known as Mexico-City (cf. www.britannica.com , 03.Mar.2001). Mexico’s population consists of three maingroups: the ones of Spanish origin, the others of Native origin and the last group of Mestizos both Spanish and Native origin. The last group predominates the Mexican society with 55%. The share of Natives amounts to 30% and the white population just makes up 15% (cf. www.hausaufgaben.de , 03.Mar.2001). It is supposed that the total population of Mexico runs up to approximately 98.6 million. That means for Mexico’s population density that 50 inhabitants live on a square kilometre. Through Spanish influence about 90% of the Mexican population are Roman Catholic. According to Michael D. Rodriguez ( http://students.depaul.edu, 09.Mar.2001) Mexican immigration can be divided in different phases. But despite of these different phases of immigration legal or illegal the reasons have been always the same. All Mexican immigrants came first of all in search for a better life than their homeland Mexico could offer. Despite of Mexican’s glut of mineral resources it has just a limited amount of agricultural land and a rapidly growing population. And that is also why low lilving standards are widespread in Mexican society. In hope to change poverty and oppression for economic security and liberty a vast number of Mexicans leave their homeland since the economic situation and political oppression are the factors they have had to endure and suffer from. The Mexican immigration to the United States has been always dependent on American labour demand. They were mostly involved in the railway work in the southwest and also in the automobil industry. Because of their low wages Mexicans have been always gladly taken by American employers. Beside the Mexican strong longing for a better life the common border of America and Mexico contributes the high quote of Mexican immigrants as well. The American immigration policy just admits a certain number of immigrants. But the 2000 mile long US-Mexican border is to long to be well controlled. So there are people who try to reach the USA by simply walking across the border by night or by swimming across the Rio Grande. Some succeed, some do not. They are those who try it over and over again untill they succeed. Many Mexicans just want to stay in America till they gain enough money and want to return. So they live and work in the USA without giving up their own culture. Their attempts not to become too American fail because of their intensive social integration. But in the end all those who have integrated in the American society and have a life like all the other Americans do not regret their decision on having left their homeland (cf. Green Line 6, p.64). 2.7 Mexican Americans divided in first and second generation After the Mexican War between the United States and Mexico in 1846 Mexico had to cede almost 40% of its state territory including California, New Mexico and all the present-day states of the Southwest to the United States (cf. “Mexiko” in Bertelsmann Jugend Lexikon 1998). So the first generation of Mexican Americans was created and most of them became overnight to strangers in their own country. While the first generation had maintain their tradition against all odds, the second generation came in search of refuge as peons between 1909-1910 during the Mexican revolution (cf. http://www.students.depaul.edu, 13.Mar.2001). Despite the fact that there exists “two sorts of Mexican Americans” people had never made distinction between the original Mexican population and the following generation as immigrants. They all were regarded as the same low class. According to Ada Savin the Mexican-American Literature is inspired for the most part by Mexican folk beliefs. She assumes that the folk beliefs in the existence of spiritualism is a rich source of inspiration for Mexican-American writers. Savin supposes, however, that the contemporary Mexican-American writers are rather inspired by their experiences that they had as children when they “accompanied their parents on their journey north in search for a place of their own in the land of the gringos” (Savin, p.347). Many Chicano writers find it important to make their own background accessible to others to make contacts between both their own experiences and those of their ancestors and those of others (cf. Simone, p.xvii). All those written stories that balance two cultures should bring back both in the first generation and in the following generations. For the first generation they are memories of nostalgia, clinging to their tradition and also memories of homesickness. However, for the second generation the memories are ambivalent: love and respect for their parents but also desire for individual development that means leaving family and being lost in the society. And for the third and fourth generations these stories often include the desire for connection with ancestors and their culture. 3. The young Latino girl’s dream The stories that are told in the novel “The House on Mango Street” are universal stories which can fit to the American society espacially to the immigrants’ one. I will just concentrate on the Hispanics aspects and have decided to focus on the young Latino girl’s dream that is mentioned all the time by the main character Esperanza as the central thread. But first of all I will introduce the main character Esperanza. Born as the first daughter among four children by Mexican parents she grows up according to the Mexican culture and lives through a “story of initiation” in the Mango Street. In the beginning, we get to know a very idealistic girl who assumes that everything is pretty and funny. Esperanza is a shy innocent girl whose weakness is her gullibility but at the end she turns to an independent, strong woman. I will now compare two chapters that make clear her mental modification. In “Boys & Girls” Esperanza makes her Mexican culture accessible to the reader. She mentions the gender seperation, the balance of power between men and women and her duties as the firstborn in the family. Furthermore we get to know Esperanza’s dissatisfaction being paired with her sister Nenny who is too young to be her friend. Esperanza longs for a like-minded friend all of her own. And compares herself with a tied red ballon. I assume that the red balloon stands for independence, freedom and self-development. The anchor that hinders her is probably her family that limits Esperanza in her possibility of self-development by the family structure and seperation of duties through the gender line. In “Beautiful & Cruel” the “red tied balloon” becomes to a fighter of her own quiet war against the male dominated Mexican society. Esperanza refuses to be tamed or to wait for a husband. She just wants to be the sort of woman whose power is her own and that cannot taken away by anybody, not even by the male gender. She wants to be the one “who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate” (Cisneros, p.89). With this self-knowledge Esperanza is given something that she can call her own that she has been longed for for a long time. By accepting the situation she is in and coming to her decision not to become like the others who “lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain” (Cisnerps, p.88) she is given a personal identity that challenges the Mexican cultural and social expectation women have to fulfill. In my opinion these two chapters emphazise Esperanza’s change of heart. In “Boys & Girls” you see a young girl who makes up her mind about her given possibilities in the Mexican culture. In “Beautiful & Cruel” the young girl sees beyond her chances and the reader sees a woman who has become independent from the society’s chains. Esperanza changes from a little girl who makes wishes about her future to a woman who takes her future in her hands and fights against the limitation that every Mexican woman is faced in society. 3.3 Esperanza’s dream of a house of her own The first chapter “The House on Mango Street” introduces you to the cirumstances of the Cordero’s life. The reader is told about the Cordero’s way of life and finds out about the numerous moves from one poor district of Chicago to the next. This new house on Mango Street is the first one the family can call their own. Unfortunately it is not the one they thought of. It is a house with crumbling bricks, a swollen front door and a missing front yard. The house includes just one washroom and “everybody has to share one bedroom”(Cisneros, p.4). These social circumstances and poverty that Esperanza lives through act as a physical obstacle from leaving Mango Street but it does not prevent her from creating her dreams and her desires of a beautiful home of their own with trees, a big yard and everybody’s own bedroom. This dream is partly based on the social burden. The reality shows that people treat others who are not like them differently. Esperanza also had such an experience: Once in Lomis she was playing when she was interrupted by a nun passing by who wanted to know where Esperanza lived. Esperanza’s answer filled her with shock near with disgust. Since that day Esperanza has realized that she must have a real house to be accepted by other even by nuns. The term home stands for a place where one lives; an environment where security and happiness are offered. It is usually regarded as a valued place as a refuge or place of origin and beloning (cf. http://www.dictionary.com, 17.Mar.2001). The idea of a home plays for many people an important part in their life. No matter which sort of home a house, an appartment or a bucket it will always be a place where you can return. More importantly it represents one’s own life. That is why it is so important that you should have a fixed home that marks you as an individual who differs from others. In my view, culture and tradition are some ways of life that have their origin in home, they are the home’s way of life. The existence of a variety of different ethnic groups shows that there are also a large number of different ways of life that differ from culture, behavour and identity. Beside the physical place that home offers it has also a function as a foundation for culture and social induvidualism for social structures. The feeling of acceptance and having a place that you can call your own is often the most important thing to adolescents who are just beginning to establish their place in society. This fact fits especially to Esperanza. Esperanza is a girl who has never really belonged anywhere in her life. Her life has been just made up by numerous moves. Since the coincidence with the nun (see “3.3 Esperanza’s dream of ...”) Esperanza has known that she will not have a place in the world, if she cannot call a place her own, a place where she can be proud of. So her strong desire to have a house of her own becomes to a big part in her life. Esperanza is now dissatisfied with her home and longs for a better one. In “Bums in the Attic” you get to know more about Esperanza’s strong longing for a house and her sense of shame when it is Sunday and the Corderos indulge their habbit to go for a walk. Esperanza is tired of gazing at those houses which cannot be theirs and rests at home since she has discovered this sense of shame. But she vows that she will own a perfect house on a hill one day and will not forget where her roots lie so she will be willing to let bums live in her attic. Since she will know how you feel if you have no place that you can call your home. Like in “Bums in the Attic” Esperanza’s dream home is described once more in “A House of My Own”. You get to know that it is not the sort of house but just “a house all my own” (Cisneros, p.108) that grants her personal desire and dreams. It is not just the physical aspect, but more the mental aspect to have your own quiet place. Machismo is often seen in the domestic situations throughout Hispanic people and stands for a strong, exaggerated sense of masculinity (cf. http://www.dictionary.com, 19.Mar.2001 ). It is often seen as a negative aspect because of its misogynous concept that says that women are just second class citizens. It speaks out for the discrimination of women that are just ascirbed to do the housework and to birth children (cf. http://www2.cwrl.utexas.edu, 19.Mar.2001). 3.6 Machismo in the Novel – women as second class citizens in the Mexican society In “My Name” Esperanza tells about her great-grandmother’s destiny that was to look “out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow” (Cisneros, p.11). She was born as a horse woman in the year of the horse and was just as a horse caught and married by Esperanza’s great-grandfather. The role of those women in such a patriarchal ruled circumstances is mostly unimportant. They must only do the housework and birth children. The men are the head of both family and society. The consequence of such a society that is seen as normal is that even women themselves think that their position lays behind the men’s one. And so they learn to manage with their situation by ignoring or just by sitting “their sadness on an ellbow” 4. The Novel mirrored with the reality “The House on Mango Street” told by the young Latino girl Esperanza reflects many-facettedly the American society. It refers especially to the American Dream that centres around both material and immaterial succes. However, in “The House on Mango Street” it is less dealt with material success but rather with immaterial success. The American Dream is led by hope for a happier life not necessarily a richer one. 4.2 Immigration according to Cisneros Immigration starts with expectations that promise prosperity and secure future from misery. Although in most cases immigrants have ever worked hard and have been diligent, the term immgrant has turned into a negative one by time. In “No Speak English” there are presented two immigrant experiences. It is shown that the association of immigration is not always right if you just think of hope for a better life. The term immigration has a broad spectrum. Immigration also means leaving homeland and can stand for feeling of displacement and frustraion as well. I use the term salad bowl because I think it fits better than any other one. The salad is certaintly an entity but the various ingredients cannot be uniform: a carrot cannot be a cabbage and a tomato cannot be a chicory. And since Mexicans cannot be Chineses the American population cannot be called a melting but rather a salad bowl. Some say that the American civilization has not been homogeneous and uniform and even today it is diverse and pluraliscitic in its ethnical variety (cf. Degler, pp. 295f). Even in the novel it is made clear. The Spanish neighbourhood where Esperanza lives is the residence of many other Hispanic people. They all have not lost the touch to their culture. So “Mamacita” the mother of a man who lives across the street refuses to give up her custom and language. And Esperanza’s family keep their tradition and culture, too. The reality shows that there are many people who brought their culture with to America and that they are still practiced by them. Since the author of my book was Hispanic and also the book treated with Hispanics, I have focused one group of American society: the Hispanics. Although I have been aware of the ethnic’s variety of American society I have never really realized the Hispanic group although they are the largest minority group beside the Blacks. I have to admit that I was not really happy with my topic, but after having work on my attidude towards the topic changed. However, I would be lying if I claimed that my term paper has helped me to understand the Hispanic’s situation better. While the time that I passed with my term paper I have realized that the United States has been seen as a land of new opportunites not only by Hispanics also by many other ethnic groups. But unfortunately America has changed in its structure and its openness for new ethnic groups by time, so that for many people who had still associated America with wealth as well as chances nothing really changed on their arrival in America. Since America’s history of origin is actual based on the American Dream I think it is a shame not to be able to investigate the American Dream with its origin and its progress. Bibliography: Literatur sources: Bertelsmann Jugend Lexikon Ausgabe 1998. ( Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, 1997) Cisneros, Sandra, The House on Mango Street. (United States: Vintage Contemporaries, 1991) Degler, Carl N., Out of Our Past: The Forces That Shaped Modern America. (New York: Harper & Row, rev. ed., 1970) Keller, Jürg P., The American Dream Gone Astray. (Berne: Peter Lang, European Academic Publishers, 1995) Savin, Ada, “Mexican-American Literature” in: New Immigrant Literatures in the United States. (London: Alpana Sharma Knippling, 1996) Simone, Roberta, The Immigrant Esperience in American Fiction. (Boston: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1995) Web sources: http://www2.cwrl.utexas.edu/sheila/314s96/students/mitch/mach.htm, 2000, 19.Mar.2001 http://twu.edu/www/twu/library/zumwalt.html, Mar. 2001, 24.Feb.2001 http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/SandraCisneros.html, Mar. 2001, 24.Feb.2001-03-22 http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/4/0,5716,121244+1+111233,00.html, 27.Feb.2001 http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/0/0,5716,115530+1+108719,00.html, 03.Mar.2001 http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=home, Jan.1998, 17.Mar.2001 http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=machismo, Jan.1998, 19.Mar.2001 http://www.hausaufgabe.de/cgi-bin/data/fetch.pl?id=1469&ids=1469+1188, Nov.2000, 03.Mar.2001 http://www.nclr.org/about/nclrfaq.html, 1999, 03.Mar.2001 http://www.students.depaul.edu/~mrodrig/history.html, 09.Mar.2001 Word Count: 4823
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