Arnie Kumar
12/02/17
English B3
The House on Judgment Street
Society affects the individual, often in unconscious ways. People in this book have been affected by society. Sandra Cisneros explains how Esperanza is affected by the society mainly on how she looks and the house or apartment she lives in. Whenever people go out in public, society should not judge or affect them in any harmful way. Esperanza struggles to find herself and come out to show the public who she really is. Her family judges her on how she acts and dresses. Esperanza is always judged and scared because of these actions by people.
Society affects the individual, often in unconscious ways. People should never judge other people on how they look or act. “You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded” (Cisneros 5). This quote proves that when people go out they are usually judged. A nun from her school was judging Esperanza just by from where she lives. Esperanza got a strange feeling that when she said “You live there?”, that she thought that there was something wrong with her home.
…show more content…
“And anyway, a woman's place is sleeping so she can wake up early with the tortilla star, the one that appears early just in time to rise and catch the hind legs hide behind the sink, beneath the four-clawed tub, under the swollen floorboards nobody fixes, in the corner of your eyes” (Cisneros 31). The quote shows how women are supposed to act. They are supposed to be fixing, cleaning, taking care of everything. They are saying that a woman’s place is to wake up early, only to wake up to more work, which they do everyday. This shows how in Esperanza’s community, women are portrayed differently. Although the quote does not mention anything about men, you can still see the torture that the women are given in Esperanza’s community. Women are demeaned and treated as slaves and undergo many exhausting
It’s not clean and the people don’t look trustworthy.’” These quotes clearly suggests that Esperanza dislikes sharing her possessions with the less fortunate, wants more for herself, and believes that she is too
Esperanza is forever marked by the house and neighborhood she lives in. She wants to be like other kids who are allowed to eat their lunch at school instead of having to go home everyday. These students live father from the school than she does. Esperanza assumes these children live in better houses and neighborhoods. She is embarrassed by her house and angry that she must be identified by it. As said by Sister Superior, “I bet I can see your house from my window. Which one? Come here. Which one is your house?” The sister points to an ugly row of houses in the general direction of Esperanzas address.
To begin, Cisneros uses metaphors of classism to express Espernaza’s views of classism and how it causes those of a lower class to be devalued. Throughout the novel, Esperanza dreams of moving into a new house, a house on the hill because “people who live on hills sleep so close to the stars that they forget about [those] who live on earth” (86). The house on the hill is a metaphor for those who are higher up in the social class. Those who live on the hills live their live their entire lives so easily and “[do not] look down at all except to be content to live on the hills” (86). Esperanza critiques that the higher class are happy with their own lives and ignorant to their privilege, therefore, they do not care about the less fortunate. This metaphor of
As Esperanza goes into detail,The more Esperanza describes her neighbors the more Esperanza struggles with her place in society and desires to leave her neighborhood.
Esperanza is new to the neighborhood, and was never proud of her previous houses, but the negative intonation that the nun uses on her makes her feel like she is being judged, not on who she is, but what her family can afford. There is the place Esperanza now has to call home and the degrading presumption that the neighborhood already has causes her to accept that she can’t change her image without money and let her personality shine through. She seems to accept her label as poor in the story, “A Rice Sandwich”, where she believes the special, also known as rich, kids get to eat in the canteen and she wants to be part of that narrative, so she begs her mother for three days, to write her a note to allow her eat in the canteen. When she couldn’t endure her daughter’s nagging anymore, she complied. Thinking this would be enough affirmation, Esperanza went to school the next with the note and stood in the line with the other kids. She wasn’t recognized by the nun who checks the list, and has to face Sister Superior, who claims that she doesn’t live far enough to stay at school and asks Esperanza to show where her house is. “That one? She said, pointing to a row of ugly three -flats, the ones even the raggedy men are ashamed to go into. Yes, I nodded even though I knew that wasn’t my house,”(45). Esperanza was compared to the most raggedy men, and had to accept
Esperanza is a shy but a very bright girl. She dreams of the perfect home now, with beautiful flowers in their luscious garden and a room for everyone to live in comfortably all because of the unsatisfied face the nun made that one afternoon--when she moves to the house of Mango Street. She thinks it’s going to be a “grand house on a hill that will have a bedroom for everyone and at least three washrooms so when they took a bath they would not have to tell everybody.” (Cinceros 4) Reality is so different for her when her dream is shot down in a heartbeat when she
She was born in Chicago, Illinois. Cisneros grew up in a Latino family around the 1950s and 1960s. She had a Mexican father and Chicano mother. Cisneros was encouraged by her mother to read and was not insisted with spending all of her time performing classic “women’s work”. Cisneros welcomes her culture with open arms, but acknowledges the unjustness between the genders within. Having experience growing up in a poor neighborhood in a working class family while facing the difficulties created by racism, sexism, and her status, Esperanza longed to leave the barrio. Later, she finds her capability to succeed individually and find a “home with herself”; she worked to recreate some Chicano stereotypes for her community. Cisneros didn’t want to
As stated previously, Cisneros' style in The House on Mango Street suggests to us that liberation can be achieved through an art form, rather than physically picking up and moving your residence. Esperanza overcomes her condition by creating the realm of literature, rather than the physical reality of another house in another time and place. In this way, she is able to distance herself from her community and family. But all the while, still holding on to her heritage and ethnicity. By affirming her own artistic ability, Esperanza is able to blend all of her dreams. Because of this we come to understand that one can achieve self-discovery and even independence through something so remote as literature. This is where I find Cisneros' influence the most powerful. I believe she is stressing a theme here, not just for Hispanics, but for all minorities as well. She lets them know that liberation can be achieved within several realms of the human experience.
Esperanza has a variety of female role models in her life. Many are trapped in abusive relationships, waiting for others to change their live. Esperanza had many struggles in her life, not growing up where and how she wanted to so role models were very important to her. These role models showed her the way she didn't
Self-exploration is hindered in this book and my life. I can very much identify with Esperanza perspectives on societal issues that Latin women face. A society dominated by men and women relying on them, whether it is a father, spouse or friend. Men are considered the strong reasonable as where women are weak and emotional, in turn women need men for protection. A young girl may have two story paths, one where she relies on the protection of her father while she watches her mother cater to him or two, witnesses the struggles of a single young woman and absence for a father. This book describes marriage as priority for every girl or else how could she survive; appearances and physical features are highly valued traits. This attitude is not one that Esperanza agrees with, nor do I. For example, Marin she is the girl standing on the street just “waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life.” This character implies that she does not dream of actively setting life goals for herself and working to earn them, instead she will wait until a man makes it happen for her. The ideology behind this thought being that as a woman she must thrive to be as attractive as possible to heighten her chances of marriage and acquire
Esperanza believes in feminism and women independence. In the vignette Rafaela who drinks coconut and papaya juice on Tuesday, this character is confined in her house because her husband thinks she is too beautiful to look at. “And then Rafaela who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much gets locked indoors
In conclusion, we know that Esperanza’s negativity of herself begins to slowly change as she slowly experience what accepting means and how she began to accept where she was from . Throughout this book, Cisnero showed us accepting is an important part of growing in life as well as determining the true you. In the beginning she hated her life always wanted to escape out of Mango Street versus the end she says she is going to come back. From the beginning to the end, Esperanza finally accepted where she was from and how Mango Street has developed who she became
The vignette “Beautiful and Cruel,” conveys the impact it has on Esperanza. In this vignette, Esperanza feels that she is “an ugly daughter” and “the one nobody cares about” (Cisneros 88). She does not need, or want, a man to lead her life, unlike the women she knows. She does not need, or want, a man to make decisions for her. Unfortunately, she still feels the pressure to look gorgeous and stunning: “Nenny has pretty eyes and it’s easier to talk that way
Lots of things can change when era changes except gender roles but after read this story, gender roles are changing distinctly than others. Even though it has changed a lot now, woman still has difficulty with when they get a job so we must strive until the equality of man and woman is evenly distributed. Esperanza make effort to improve her life and cultivate own self but not make effort to gender equality. She has interest in gender role but not that much so she think about it but not to act. From this essay, I have gave examples of how people might react to the idea about gender roles. However, we need to realize that women should take action for themselves instead of following
With this in mind the internal conflict is important, because it shows Esperanza’s sensitivity about everything what concerns herself and her being insecure. One of the vignette that tells about is called “ Chanclas.” It recounts about her being non confident, because of her old shoes that she gets every year. For example, the quote says, “ Then Uncle Nacho is pulling and pulling my arm and it does not matter how the new dress Mama bought me is because my feet are ugly.” (Cisneros 46). This quote shows that she cares so much about one detail and even the prettiest dress cannot divert her attention. She does not pay attention to the dress, because she just thinks about her shoes and she assumes everyone will look at her feet. Another quote which supports her insecure, is “ Meanwhile that boy who is my cousin by first communion or something asks me to dance and I can’t. Just stuff my feet under the metal folding chair stamped Precious Blood and pick on a wad of brown gum that’s stuck beneath the seat. I shake my head no. My feet growing bigger and bigger.” (Cisneros 47) According to this quote Esperanza does not want people to notice her imperfection so she stays out of society contact. It is not because she does not want to she explains it as a cannot thing. She does not want to embarrass herself. The quote which stays for her having low self esteem is “Until my uncle who is a liar says, You are the prettiest girl here, will you dance, but I believe him, and yes, we are dancing. And Uncle spins me, and my skinny arms bend the way he taught me, and my mom watches, and my little cousins watch, and the boy who is my cousin by first communion watches, and everyone says, wow, who are those two who dance like in the movies, until I forget that I am wearing only ordinary shoes, brown and white.” (Cisneros 47) There is a clear statement that supports, that she thinks about