The document discusses themes from 'Mango Street', focusing on Esperanza's journey of self-discovery and her rejection of traditional gender roles within her community. It highlights her feelings of not belonging, the impact of trauma, and the importance of names and identity. Connections are made to other literary works that explore similar themes of oppression, community, and the complexities of growing up as a marginalized individual.
The document discusses themes from 'Mango Street', focusing on Esperanza's journey of self-discovery and her rejection of traditional gender roles within her community. It highlights her feelings of not belonging, the impact of trauma, and the importance of names and identity. Connections are made to other literary works that explore similar themes of oppression, community, and the complexities of growing up as a marginalized individual.
The document discusses themes from 'Mango Street', focusing on Esperanza's journey of self-discovery and her rejection of traditional gender roles within her community. It highlights her feelings of not belonging, the impact of trauma, and the importance of names and identity. Connections are made to other literary works that explore similar themes of oppression, community, and the complexities of growing up as a marginalized individual.
The document discusses themes from 'Mango Street', focusing on Esperanza's journey of self-discovery and her rejection of traditional gender roles within her community. It highlights her feelings of not belonging, the impact of trauma, and the importance of names and identity. Connections are made to other literary works that explore similar themes of oppression, community, and the complexities of growing up as a marginalized individual.
• “Like a painting”: you begin in the room of a house, the camera begins to move upwards, shows you different houses on mango street but also he neighborhood. She is trying to paint for us the story in a fragmented way, like a collage, vignettes that are put together. • Hips to bear children and to dance (symbol of sexuality). • Esperanza matures and decides she is not going to follow the path of her grandmother, and marry a man and establish, as any other woman of the community would. This is a clear statement against sexism. In comparison, Sally marries a man and becomes miserable, since he controls her life and doesn’t allow her to go out, becoming “one more” of the community. • The sense of “not belonging” to the community, nor the US, that Esperanza has is due to various reasons: first, she is a second generation immigrant and never has been in Cuba. Her parents were born in Mexico, and shared the experiences of their culture with her, which is why she is able to talk about Cuban culture so well, but she feels rejected and un belonging to Mango Street. • The mention of the term “little Spanish girl” adds racism to the rape. Rape culture has to do with power. • Little innocent girl that tries to learn from grown up women. Esperanza learns from Sally the type of women she does not want to end up being. • ressignifying concepts; love is understood as a form of abuse, contradicting the idea we have of love. • The construction of ghettos: places with people of different ethnicities, rejection from others, moving away when other immigrant people come in, the feeling of loneliness since she has to take care of her father alone. • Trauma with her father: the mention of mice is probably a metaphor for the sexual abuse she suffered from her father, him telling her “they are not real” (the mice), is a way of denying her trauma. Also, the mice could be associated with poverty, when homeless are mentioned, the word rat appears in connection to them. • “The family of little feet”: hypersexualization of girls ad how vulnerable they are. • Role of the aunt: Esperanza has a good relationship even though her aunt used to make fun of her. Esperanza used to read her poems to her aunt, which was the one who motivated her to keep writing, and follow her dreams, as that would be what would make her free. • Homage to the all the undocumented people who died outside their home country and families whose names will never be known due to no documentation. • Esperanza is the oldest of her siblings (age 12ish) • Mamacita: a character who refuses to assimilate into the immigrant lifestyle. First act of rebellion is to refuse to learn English. • The idea of belonging at the end of the novel: “when you leave you must remember to always come back for the others” “you will always be Esperanza, you will always be Mango Street”. • A house of my own: reference to Virginia Woolf’s “A room of one’s own”, reflects the importance of having one’s physical space, reflects your stability.
Connections with other texts
• The bluest eye - Toni Morrison In common: the narrator are not exactly the protagonist of the story. Both stories deal with rape culture; from childhood to adulthood, women are conditioned to sexism. The key of the plot in both cases is the pregnancy of the protagonists. Girls becoming women as the principal topic, and the connection of family with the concept of community. Differences: Toni Morrison takes the story to an extreme (it’s an uncommon story), In Mango Street, the stories could easily be an story that occurs in your neighborhood. In The Bluest Eye, the pregnancy of Pecola makes her life miserable, in comparison to Mango Street where Esperanza is able to break free, and is able to realize that she is innocent in this situation, and point at the guilty one; Sally. Difference between “house”, and “home”, she does not have a physical house, but rather, has a home inside of her, which is her family, who care about her. Pecola did not have a house nor a home (family). • She Unnames Them - Ursula K. Le Guin In common: In Mango Street, there is a symbolism for names, the name “Esperanza” (name of the protagonist and her grandma), in the means that she is the new hope. The difficulty os people mispronouncing her name causes her to reject her own name and identity. The importance of the role of names is also highlighted in She Unnames Them, which is the topic in which the whole plot revolves around. • Part Time Indian - Sherman Alexie In common: rewriting of a story, Esperanza was left with no option but to leave her community, and years later she would come back. Just like Junior. The idea of leaving your community so one day you can come back and help them. Esperanza becomes a writer, just as Junior aspires to become an artist. Mythology references. • Lost in the Funhouse - John Bart In common: circular development, the story finishes how it began. The story narrates how she becomes a writer, the writer in the making. She comes back to her community in the form of a book, Connection to Junior being a cartoonist, and Claudia being a writer, with the objective of giving voice to those who can’t talk. (Like Pecola). Terms • Intersectionality: different layers of oppression (gender, age, social class). In the three novels we have studied we can see intersectionality, especially due to the social class aspect. The children on this novels become aware of the sense of community and this intersectionality. They all belong to different cultures and ethnicities, which summarizes the true legacy of the 60s (that is giving voice to the minorities). • Meta narrative: going against the idea of “romantic love”. Esperanza blames Sally and magazines and books that gave her the idea that her first sexual encounter would be romantic and wonderful, when in reality, she was raped violently by a group of men. Connection with The Bluest Eye.
