The Landlady

Hook: In the coming-of-age novel, House on Mango Street, the main character Esperanza narrates the story through her perspective of the situations she encounters as she grows older in her new neighborhood.

The House on Mango Street uses three vignettes to state that innocence shelters children from the extreme truth of the adult world. To begin, in “The First Job”, an older man unexpectedly forces himself on Esperanza: “I thought I would because he was so old and just as I was about to put my lips on his cheek, he grabs my face with both hands and kisses me hard on the mouth and doesn’t let go” (Cisneros 55). Esperanza’s innocence allowed her to kiss an old man on the cheek for his birthday because she could not imagine anything inappropriate occurring. However, the man “grabs [her] face with both hands” and “doesn’t let go”. This violent action shatters the innocence that has hidden Esperanza from the adult truth. Next, Esperanza witnesses how Tito and the boys treat Sally in “The Monkey Garden”: “One of Tito’s friends said you can’t get the keys back unless you kiss us and Sally pretended to be mad at first but she said yes” (Cisneros 96). The adult game played angers Esperanza as the boys use Sally to their advantage and Sally “[pretends] to be mad” but still willingly complies. Esperanza, unlike Sally, sees the situation as wrong because of her innocence, but when she attempts to save Sally, the boys laugh at her. Embarrassed, Esperanza is exposed to an adult type of game and now feels confused from this break in her innocence. Finally, Esperanza completely loses her innocence after being sexually assaulted at the carnival: “You’re a liar. They all lied. All the books and

Society has built a role for women. And there’s no better example of this idea than The House on Mango Street, in which Esperanza describes specific moments of her life which lead her to believe in women independence and feminism. She has different ideas and thoughts on the definition of women and what they should be. Esperanza doesn’t fit into the constructed definition Mango Street has of how women should be.

The most important Theme in The House on Mango Street is identity. Identity is a very

What does it mean when you need to fulfill a dream? Every person may have a different view towards the answer to this question. Personally, I believe this means your strong impulse to follow and conquer what you feel most passionate about. In the novel, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros ,the main character Esperanza shares her journey through life and her longing desire to leave the house she lives on Mango Street forever. Throughout the novel there are multiple themes that transpire during Esperanza's life. Although each theme shows relevance, I conclude the most compelling theme in the novel and the most apparent in today's society is the need to fulfill a dream.

The book I read was “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros. There was many themes in this book. The two I want to focus on are Loss of Innocence and The Power of Words.

In life, we are often deeply influenced by the people who surround us. Consider the age-old adage “Birds of a Feather Flock Together”; this familiar saying reminds us that, in life, we gravitate toward people who appeal to us, and those people can have a great impact on who we are and the choices we make. In Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, Esperanza meets many women who play a role in her life. Some of the women impact her in negative ways, but others help her to see that she can make more of her life than what her Chicago neighborhood offers. Of all the women in Esperanza’s life, Esperanza is most influenced by her mother and Alicia because they teach her to rely on herself in order to escape Mango Street.

We all have had times where we have felt trapped, times where we have been cornered, with no escape. Times where we have felt entrapped. Entrapment makes you feel like you have no way out or like there are no choices that can be made. In the book The House on Mango Street, the author, Sandra Cisneros has a theme of entrapment; the theme is shown through the symbol of windows which represents freedom, something that women in the book were not granted, the author was showing us that freedom is a privilege and not something to take for granted.

In the novel, The House On Mango Street, women face numerous challenges in their lives. Women face abuse, objectification, and oppression. They are also subjects to the societal roles that hinders them from being free and successful. Cisneros utilizes metaphors to reveal the theme of society’s gender roles restricting the lives and sexuality of women.

I never had a choice. They decided it all for me and the next thing you know, we

Most women in America nowadays are lucky enough to consider themselves to be an independent individual, but females were not always guaranteed their freedoms. Throughout the early 1900’s, authors would characterize husbands to be controlling figures. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins demonstrates just how possessive the husband is to his wife in their marriage. This short story shows just how miserable the woman is to be in a marriage with John because John, thinks it would be best that his wife is isolated to get over her postpartum depression.“The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrates how a male dominated society leads to the woman not being their own individual by using characterization, narrator perspective, and conflict between women and society.

In The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, a little girl from a Latino heritage is given birth to. Not literally, but in the sense of characterization. Esperanza is a fictional character made up by Cisneros to bring about sensitive, alert, and rich literature. She is the protagonist in the novel and is used to depict a female’s life growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Cisneros creates the illusion that Esperanza is a real human being to communicate the struggles of growing up as a Latina immigrant in a modern world, by giving her a name, elaborating her thoughts and feelings, and illustrating her growth as a person through major events.

Everyone has challenges in their life, their feelings behind their actions make them who they are. In the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros there are many conflicts which explore the characters, to get to know them closer. The internal conflict is used to discover the identity of the main character, Esperanza.

Kids usually don't act their age. They either act older or younger. They grow up too fast or too slow. In the book, House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, a girl named Esperanza moves to house on Mango Street and doesn't seem to fit in. She meets a girl named Sally at her school and becomes friends with her but Sally is not a good friend. She chooses boys over Esperanza and abandones her a couple of times to be with boys.Ezperanza cant fit in because she is growing up too slow while Sally, who is not a good friend is growing up too fast .Sandra Cisneros develops the theme through character conflicts. The theme of House on Mango Street is not to grow up too fast or too slow.

Henrik Ibsen's, A Doll's House is definitely a unique story written by a very intelligent, complicated writer. I believe he intentionally wrote the play in a manner which would lead every reader to draw his own conclusions. He forces us to find our own interpretation of the play in context with our personal lives and experiences with the opposite sex. The theme may be interpreted by many as a study of the moral laws that men and women are required to follow by nature. I believe it is primarily based on the gender stereotypes that determine the role of women in society.