The vignette that made the strongest impression to me was “Cathy Queen of Cats” on Page 12. This vignette shows Cathy talking to Esperanza about her impressions on a bunch of people. Cathy talks about how that person is bad or that one is fine or how someone she used to know named Alicia was her friend but stopped liking her after going to college. The reason this made a strong impression on me is because the title and the content of the vignette were so different. I was expecting a story about a cat lover and how Esperanza would meet her. The vignette instead is about someone and her impression of people she probably never even met and the cat part of the title is just in the vignette when Esperanza talks about how many cats Cathy has. It also showed how impressionable kids can be as Cathy considers herself to be someone important most likely because someone told her she was and she also thinks badly of people most likely because she was told about them and never actually met them.
Daily Archives: December 2, 2022
I was very excited to see that this weeks assigned reading was The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. I have fond memories of reading this in middle school and making a beautiful diorama project for it. It was interesting to reread again as an adult as I see these story with a different level of maturity now. The vignette that made the strongest impression on me was The Family of Little Feet. I really like all the similies Cisneros uses when describing all the different feet of her family members. My favorite being when she describes her grandfathers, “his feet were fat and doughy like thick tamales, and these he powdered and stuffed into white socks and brown leather shoes”. I can just picture those chubby feet and it made me laugh when she compared them to tamales. It reminds me of when I was a little girl and I used to say my grandpa would snore like a bear.
The vignette that had the strongest impression on me out of the many in “The House on Mango Street” was “Those who don’t”. I chose this one because I can somewhat relate to it. When I was reading it the one thing that stood out to me most was the feeling of safety when you are in your own neighborhood with people that you can trust. As an Asian American living through COVID and seeing what it has done to my community, I feel the safest around my own people. As I see more and more Asian hate crimes happen on the news I feel wearier and wearier as the days go by. The quote that got me thinking about this most is “All brown all around, we are safe But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake” This specifically made me think of the fear that people may face when they are in a environment that seems hostile or in an environment that has caused others harm before.
Perhaps the book’s most important theme is Esperanza’ s progress from childhood to adulthood. It is no accident that the book takes place in approximately her twelfth year when she is too old for children’s games but not old enough to be a confident adult. She thinks about what kind of power womanhood will bring but does not understand the responsibilities that accompany that power. She searches for role models in her mother and her older friends but finds none. Her mother and aunts are too domestic, with ambitions for their children and husbands and none of their own. Older girls like Sally and Marin seem more in control, but Esperanza quickly realizes that their power comes from their sensuality, and is fleeting and too dependent on men. From the start of the book, Esperanza realizes that men and women live in “separate worlds,” and that women are nearly powerless in her society. There is a constant conflict between being a sexual being and keeping one’s freedom, as most of the book’s female characters are trapped both by abusive husbands and needy children. Esperanza comes to recognize this dichotomy as she is caught between her own budding sexuality and her desire for freedom.
The vignette that made the strongest impression on me is the Boys & Girls vignette (page 8). The central idea of this vignette is essentially about how boys and girls live in separate worlds the boys in their universe and the girls in their own universe. It’s also about wanting a friend who can truly understand you to the point where you wouldn’t have to explain your jokes and you can tell all your secrets to. The theme of this vignette is Family, Friendship, identity, as for why it resonates with me it’s because she mentions in the story you can’t pick your siblings you just get them and their just your responsibility and as someone with siblings I agree with that wholeheartedly you don’t choose your siblings you just get them and you have to accept them for who they are no matter what because at the end of the day they’re your family
Which one of the vignettes from pages 3 – 53 of The House on Mango Street made the strongest impression on you? In a post of at least 150 words, identify the vignette and discuss its theme or central idea, explaining why it resonated for you. Please do not discuss the same vignette someone else has discussed, if possible. The vignette Hairs made the strongest impression on me. It tells us how even though they are a family and are blood-related everyone still has different hair. As an east Asian no one actually knows that we also have different textured hair. Everyone just assumes we all have straight black hair which is not actually true. The stereotypes people have for different races are not okay and very prejudical. For example I have wavy hair so having a vignette that explains everyone in the family has different hair even if they are closely related speaks to me. It also shows how much the mother loves them and the family and does alot and how the mother’s hair reminds them of baked bread a homely smell and feeling. The calm sound of rain and snoring creates this blissful setting for the entire vignette and you can just picture the setting.
Upon reading many of the vignettes in “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros. I feel that the one that resonated most with me is “My Name”. In this chapter, we learn that the main character’s name is Esperanza. The name belonged to her great-grandmother. Esperanza says that the name means “sadness” in Spanish and reflects on how that meaning rang true for her Great-grandmother. Esperanza describes her great-grandmother as a wild woman who would not be tamed until she was forced into marriage by Esperanza’s great-grandfather. This union filled her great-grandmother with sadness because it stripped this once-strong “horsewoman” from the potential lives she could have led. Embodying the sadness that her name represents. While applauding her great-grandmother’s wild spirit, Esperanza does not want to end up living in sadness as her grandmother did, the meaning her namesake holds. She instead wants to carve her own path with a name that befits her true self. My first name (Joseph) is also the name of my grandfather, Joseph Wiggins. During my teens, I sought to distance myself from that name. My reasoning was that I saw it as plain and boring so, I went by a slew of nicknames; “J”, “JA”(A combination of my first and middle initial), Daze, Turtle (a name bestowed upon a friend who no longer dwells on this planet, R.I.P. “Black”). During my 20’s in my professional career, my co-workers knew me as and addressed me by Andre, my middle name. In my 30’s, I still go by Andre. The idea of my name being “plain” no longer bothers me. I do it for other reasons. Joseph Wiggins was driven, fashionably savvy (despite being color blind), and a successful entrepreneur and businessman. During the 1950s, my grandfather and his brothers began buying property. They brought […]
“The House On Mango Street“ is a collection of short stories or vignettes that are quite relatable for many people. The vignette that I relate to the most is page 6 “Hairs” I relate to it because my family and I have completely different kinds of hair as I’m half Cuban and half Puerto Rican, my father and his sister have straight hair while my brother has thick curly hair and I also have curly hair but it’s not as thick. I think this story sort of highlights that even though you can all be from the same family everyone can have completely different traits whether it be hair eye color or whatever, I also relate to it because besides hair I’m one of the only ones in my immediate family that has hazel eyes as the rest of my immediate family has brown eyes, I get this from my grandmother who’s on the Cuban side of the family. This story related to me a lot also because I’ve always felt like an outsider in my family somewhat because I have different hair and eye color but this story helps to highlight that it’s not a bad thing and that it’s quite beautiful to see the diversity in just one family.
The vignette that made the strongest impression on me from “The House on Mango Street” is “There Was an Old Woman She Had So Many Children She Didn’t Know What to Do”. This vignette is about Rosa Vargas, a woman who lives in the neighborhood and has too many, and too wild children. She is a single mom since the father of her kids left her alone. This vignette specifically caught my attention because I thought it would be a funny story (from the title and the first 2 lines of it) until I realized it’s not funny at all. Rosa is struggling to take care of her own children, who cause a lot of trouble, all by herself. It seems like her neighbors tried to help her but gave up because the kids are very naughty, and at the end of the day, they’re not their responsibility. I can tell that this vignette, along with the others, is written from a young and naive point of view. The way she writes about some unfortunate experiences in a nonchalant way, and not giving them much of the attention they should have gotten.
“Those Who Don’t” is the vignette that made the strongest impression on me in “The House on Mango Street”. Growing up in Harlem when it was predominantly black kept people that wasn’t of color out of the neighborhood. Not that non-minorities weren’t welcome; they just didn’t care to come to that side of town. The few that did come around, you can sense and feel their discomfort. Now due to gentrification, there are different races in Harlem, however non-minorities still tend to be afraid in certain circumstances. The crackhead that they may run from entertains us because he or she just like to dance. The look of intimidation on a big black guy may scare a person, but we know him as a gentle giant. Most of all people of color welcomes every race into our community. Whereas other communities are not too fond of welcoming us. The stereotypes of people of color are all some people know but experiencing the love and comfort that we actually give can put a non-minority mind at ease. I was able to relate to this vignette, it described my experiences growing up in a black neighborhood.
On Page 53, “The First Job” is what I related to the most because just like Esperanza planning to get a job to pay her tuition, I did the same. I also went to a Catholic high school and know that it wasn’t always easy for my mother so I decided to get a job early on to help pay for college. Esperanza lying about her age is the same thing I did, being 18 and working with older men doing a job that requires heavy lifting and lots of hours means I usually have to do all the work. I prepared myself before I got the job to grow facial hair and work out as much as possible to make myself look older and it worked for a while. Only my boss knew I was 18 but he was never around so the other employees didn’t know I lied about my age. Until one day he comes around and see’s the oldest guy moving bricks and says out loud, “Why don’t you let Christian do it, he’s the youngest here so he has more energy”. At that moment I became very nervous because now all my employees know how old I really am and they just laughed asking me why I had lied so I told them the truth. Afterward, I did end up having to the most of the work.
“The house on Mango Street” is a novel created by Sandra Cisneros. This novel contains vignettes which are narrated by the character named Esperanza. Esperanza talked about relocating with her family to Mango street because their pipes broke in their previous apartment and their landlord refused to fix the problem. Esperanza also compares the house they are currently living in with the other houses that she has seen on TV. She also mentions she has to share a bedroom with her siblings, and she has hope of living in a better house. She got to visualize and dream about having her own house and one day she wouldn’t have to move each year. Her parents told her to dream big and gave her that aspect to have her own house. That passage gave me a strong impression because I can also relate to it because I remember me and my family had to relocate a few years ago due to the same situation Esperanza had when she had to relocate. The landlord would not fix anything in our apartment and we got the message that he wanted us out so we moved out to the Bronx. After relocating my mom told me that one day I would get my own place where you would have your own backyard, and be your own landlord. She told me to dream big and never give up on my hopes and dreams.
