芒果街上的小屋《Something About The House On Mango Street》

In The House On Mango Street(Nanjing: Yilin Press 2006) Sandra Cisneros tells the story of a Spanish girl called Esperanza Cisnero in a series of vignettes describing her family her friends her neighbors and her dream —" to have a house all my own... Only a house quiet as snow a space for myself to go clean as paper before the poem." The author Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago but her Mexican father and Chicago mother constantly moved around from neighborhood to neighborhood leaving Cisneros with the mixed feelings of strong family ties and scattered homes – one of the themes appearing in this book. Meanwhile the family's perpetual visits to Mexico gave Cisneros a sense of Hispanic heritage just as the main character Esperanza Cisnero. That is why although this book is a novella in my eyes it is like an autobiography to some extent.

In The House On Mango Street Esperanza Cordero recollects her life growing up on Mango Street a poor Latio neighbourhood in Chicago. Though the novella has no complicated plot and no main characters except Esperanza it presents us a rich and real Latino urban world and introduces us to a great amount of different people. We meet Esperanza's little sister Nenny who has the same laughter as her and is always her responsibility. We meet the Mexican-American sisters Rachel and Lucy who accompany Esperanza on various adventures and experiences on Mango Street meeting new people and learning new things. We meet Darius who is one of Esperanza's schoolmates and loves to look up into the sky and dream about the clouds. We meet Aliciawho attends a local university so that she may have a better life. And most unforgettable we meet Sally a beautiful girl with eyes like Egypt who comes from a strict religious family and has a abusive father. She finally becomes a loose woman and gets married before the end of eighth grade to escape from her father’s house. And there are many more unique people who have their own stories. Esperanza spends her adolescence seeing the sadness and poverty that run through the neighbourhood and becoming intimate with the people on Mango Street. Through her discovery of the neighborhood Esperanza learns that it is the people of Mango Street that make the place home.

I am impressed with the vividness of Sandra Cisneros’s writing style. She skillfully uses a lot of similes in the book and brings a scene to life. For example she describes the trees:“four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong here but are here”(240) when I read this I almost see four skinny trees swaying in the wind. She describes the whistling:“then we heard someone whistling—beautiful like the Emperor’s nightingale.”(231)when I read this I almost heard the pleasing whistling. And the descripton I like most is the chapter of Hairs.“But my mother’s hair my mother’s hair like little rosettes like little candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you holding you and you feel safe is the warm smell of bread before you bake it.”(155) the description is so vivid and delicate that it makes me feel so warm and reminds me of my own mother. In addition Sandra Cisneros likes to use the repeat of words to intensify feelings.for instance “I hold my papa in my arms I hold and hold and hold him.”(216)“without the whole world waiting for you to make a mistake when all you wanted all you wantedSally was to love and to love and to love and to loveand no one could call that crazy.”(251)the repeat of “hold ”and “love”in the two sentences showed the deep emotions of Esperanza and almost moved me to tears. With such expressive details and beautiful similes Sandra Cisneros shows us what she saw heard and felt picturesquely.

There is defenitely more than one theme in this book. We can see Esperanza’s struggles to forge her own sexuality and identity which can represent all young girls’ struggles from their adolescence to ***hood such as coping with the development of their bodies(the chapter of Hips ) and finding their place in the society(the chapter of The first job). The book also conveys the message of sticking to hopes and pursuing dreams. In order to have a better life Alicia goes to the local university through hardship. In order to change her life Marin is always dancing under the streetnight. As for Esperanza she is always dreaming of having her own house and leaving Mango street and she tries her best to fulfill this dream. And the theme I am in favor of most is the concept of home. For a long time Esperanza regards the house on Mango Street as simply a house she lives in rather than her home. She dislikes the house because its sad appearance and cramped quarters are completely contrary to the idealistic home she always pictured. She wants to leave mango street. However during the wake for Rachel and Lucy’s baby sister Esperanza is offered words of advice by the girls’ aunts: “You will always be Mango Street. You can’t erase what you know. You can’t forget who you are.” This is where Esperanza begins her transformation. She realizes that although her family has not always lived on Mango Street although it is a slum although the house which she lived in is not what she dreamed of it is perhaps the most important place she has lived for it represents her heritage and upbringing. Then Esperanza continues to long for a house of her own but she also allows a place in her heart for Mango Street and submits to the idea that she will return“for the ones I left behind for the ones who can not out.” Esperanza finds her way home taking the first step out of the door.

With short chapters having no specific relations to each other The House On Mango Street seems to have no focus when I first read it. But when I read it for the second time all the chapters turn out to be an integrated story and form a wonderful book. Sandra Cisneros tells the story in lyrical and poetic language with little distance between the reader and the narrator. She tells us to appreciate the beauty in small things and moment in our life to hold fast to our dreams and most important to remember where we are from and always leave some room in heart for our home.