"The Red Tent" is a compelling story about the otherwise untold life of a woman from the Bible. Diamant tells the story of Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob from the Book of Genesis. In the Bible, Dinah gets only a passing glimpse, but in this novel, Dinah tells her story and the story of her mothers and the other women in her life. Much of the novel, especially initially, takes place in the setting of the red tent. The red tent is the place where women go during menstruation and childbirth it is a place men of the time period have no access to. Dinah's life takes many unforseen twists and turns as she grows older, but is always in the context of the stories she learned growing up with her mothers as…
Esperanza’s not wanting to be trapped uncovers the fact that she has “inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window”(Cisneros 11). Cisneros uses figurative language such as “inherit her place by the window” and repeats “inherit” to give the perception that Esperanza falling into the same place as her grandmother isn’t what she wants for herself. In “Beautiful and Cruel,” Cisneros uses figurative language to describe Esperanza’s thoughts on the entrapment of women. Esperanza states she has “decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain”(88). Cisneros uses the metaphor “ball and chain” to refer to the anchor that men are on women and describes the fact that with it, women feel trapped and powerless wearing it. In “Linoleum Roses,” Sally’s feeling of being trapped and scared led her into a situation much the same but with another man. Sally has wound up with a…
Esperanza Cordero is a twelve year old girl living in poverty. Her family moves to a run-down home on Mango Street in Chicago due to her parents wanting to independently own a house. The story begins when Esperanza is twelve, and continues for a year. Throughout the year, Esperanza and her friends Lucy and Rachel experience physical as well as mental changes. For the first half of the story, the girls are living as “children.” They are vulnerable to the harmful influences of society. Some times when they are susceptible to these influences is when they strut around town in high heels and when Esperanza does not notice the issue when a man kisses her at her job. During the summer time, the girls begin puberty and to become sexually mature. In…
Second, Cisneros also uses metaphors to explain how her great-grandmother becomes an independent woman. After she is forced to marry this man she becomes independent because she had to do something she never wanted to do which was marry. An example of a metaphor from the text that was used to show her independence is,”She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many so many women sit their sadness on an elbow”(Cisneros). This quote explains how unlike any other women Esperanza’s great-grandmother stared out a window her whole life to pass her sadness by while other girls would just hold their head up with their arm.…
In the 1960s, society was drastically different than what it is today. In particular, family life was a completely different way of growing up or raising children. Books, even those written in the present day, can express these differences using examples from the past. One book in particular, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, contains three families who exemplify the differences of raising children in that society to that of the present.…
1. Esperanza is the narrator of this story. What is her attitude toward the house on Mongo Street?…
On the book The House on Mango Street Esperanza is a little girl that is affected by different situations. There are things that happened to her that shaped her as an individual and change her perspective of life. Female sexuality is a really strong topic where we can see how young females are affected with it and how they see it. Esperanza is a young virgin girl at the beginning of the book and she longs to have a sexual encounter for it is something new for her. She is just a child and things started to happen in her life and mind that prepared her for that special situation. Esperanza and her friends think that by having sex they will become women, real women. Through out the book we see different situations with sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is a big issue that has been taking over little girls’ minds…
W.G. Sebald said, "I think that fiction writing which does not acknowledge the uncertainty of the narrator himself is a form of imposture which I find very, very difficult to take. Any form of authorial writing where the narrator sets himself up as a stagehand and director and judge and executor in a text, I find somehow unacceptable." This relates to The House on Mango Street in a sense that Cisneros' writing is acceptable because she let's Esperanza tell the story, only clueing in a few times. There are times where she tries to sound childish, but it is clearly stated. In Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street, Esperanza depicts her uncertainty through metaphors, imagery, and diction.…
The excerpt begins with main character, a native American, visiting a 7-11 to buy a creamsicle. He goes to the store in an attempt to distract himself from a fight with his girlfriend. The employee of the graveyard shift feels uneasy as the main character enters the store. The employee thinks he is going to get robbed. The main character notices the employee reaction and so attempts to mess with him by simulating a robbery scenario. The excerpt talks about the main character trying to find peace. Peace that is unachievable at the moment due to a fight with his girlfriend; the uncertainty of what he is going to do with his life forces him to drive away in order to reevaluate his life.…
The House on Mango street is a feminist piece of literature because it brings attentions to the sexist way the men in Esperanza’s society regard women. Esperanza tells her story by focusing on the women around her who are owned by the dominant men in their lives due to restricting gender roles that encompasses not only women but men. “My great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off...She (Esperanza’s grandmother) looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow.” (11) Cisneros brings attention to the cruel way that men in Esperanza’s society treat women. The normality of these discriminatory actions describes a gender role that society has set for men, to be the dominant figure in…
In all aspects of life, women are pressured to be someone they are not. They are put in situations that force them to chose a path of life. In “The House on Mango Street”, Esperanza is forced to think about leaving Mango Street in the future, because she is surrounded by women who are pushing her to become an adult.…
At the beginning of the story, readers learn about a girl named Esperanza whose life has always been unstable and has always been moving from house to house constantly.…
In the critical essay over The House on Mango Street, the essayists main ideas, including feminism and the role of women in the “borrio” are evident. Even though those were the main points, and readily proven, I honestly don’t have an opinion on them. The things I really got out of this essay were the details that I missed in the book itself. The first is Esperanza being born on an “evil day,” I had known she was born in and unlucky year, but I didn’t realize the exact day was evil or unlucky as well (Iliescu: 26). The second comes from Elenita's prediction of Esperanza’s future. When we got to this part of the book in class, I remember connecting that line to only Nenny, who was previously the “anchor” holding back Esperanza’s “red balloon”.…
“Linoleum Roses.” Without a doubt, in Sandra Cisneros’ book The House On Mango Street, the…
Exposition of the story occurs in the majority of the first and rest of the chapters. In the first chapter “house on mango street” we are introduced to Esperanza family and environment. She quotes BY the time we got to Mango Street we were six – mama, papa, Carlos, Kiki, my sister Nenny and me.” This is the exposition since Esperanza family is introduced including her self and the setting. However this is not the only resolution, because each chapter in this story is a story of their. Each chapter tends to have a different setting and introduced new characters. This is important because it effects technique. Since we get this motif of new Characters getting introduced every chapter. The rising action occurs when Esperanza is alone at the carnival,…