The House on Mango Street - by Sandra Cisneros
Cisneros's work is a delightful collection of vignettes, all centering around a young girl named Esperanza and the neighborhood in which she lives. This book has a fairly contemporary setting and focuses on many of the relationships and problems between contemporary Chicano immigrants and their surroundings and neighbors. In a wider vein, it also addresses the issues of tolerance, diversity, and difference and the way such issues are treated in education, the workplace, and in communities. Gender roles in Chicano culture are also well presented as a repressive system that makes women feel as if they are not capable of aspiring to any individual success. Throughout the course of the vignettes, Cisneros introduces us to many characters, the majority of them women. These women are tied down by social, familial, and cultural obligations, and Esperanza hopes to be the young girl that breaks free from this neighborhood's cycle of depression, degradation, and oppression. This book is realistic and detailed in its colorful observations of the many characters and personalities that make up a community while bringing together an overall picture of what it means to be Hispanic.
Why This Work?
1. This novel is easily divisible into short segments. The vignette format allows a reader to get relatively close to a character in a short amount of time, perhaps understanding their circumstances as a general role or archetype in Hispanic society.
2. The book does a great job of dealing with gender roles in society, both in White and non-White cultural groups. Women's realistic roles are portrayed, as well as their idealism and hope for a better future for their daughters through education.
3. The book honestly portrays economic disparity and shows the economic disadvantage that many recent immigrants face in the U.S. and the restrictions that these disadvantages can place upon one's opportunity for social advancement, education, and "the pursuit of happiness."
Resources:
This website gives biographical information about Cisneros and breaks down each of the vignettes in the book as to their plots and overall significance.
This site, provided by a classroom educator, details ideas for writing assignments, lesson plans, and ways to involve your classroom in Cisneros's ideas in race relations and in the socioeconomic implications of this particular work.
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Last Updated July 8, 2004