Week 15 Discussion

The vignette that stuck out the most to me was Elenita, Cards, Palm, Water in House on Mango Street. It stood out to me because of what we learned about Esperanza. While this chapter mainly introduces and sets up the new character of Elenita, I think that we gain a lot of insight into Esperanza’s character, her motivations, and what pushes her. She lives with her large family, as she has to because she is a young girl at this point. And while her family is something that is obviously very important to her, we also see her wanting distance. And we see Elenita trying to provide an immediate and less expensive solution for Esperanza, in finding her own home within herself. I think that this chapter is a good look into the formative years of Esperanza’s life. In the previous chapter, when her grandfather died, Esperanza was forced to mature fast and take over her father’s part in the leadership role. While she is mature enough for that Esperanza is having a harder time being able to understand her emotions enough to create a space within her own heart, like Elenita is trying to advise her to, where she can go to just be her..

The vignette from page 15 of The House on Mango Street that made the strongest impression on me was “Alicia Who Sees Mice”. In this vignette, Alicia is a young girl who lives in the same neighborhood as Esperanza, the protagonist of the novel. Alicia is scared of the mice that live in her house, but she is also brave enough to confront them. This vignette resonated with me because it reminded me of my own childhood and the times when I was scared of things, but still brave enough to face them. It also reminded me of the importance of having courage and being able to confront our fears     The vignette from pages 32-33 of The House on Mango Street that made the strongest impression on me was “Alicia Who Sees Mice”. This vignette resonated with me because it showed how Alicia, despite her fear of mice, was still able to take care of them and make them feel safe. This vignette showed me that even when we are scared of something, we can still find ways to take care of it and make it feel safe. It also showed me that even when we are scared, we can still be brave and do what needs to be done. This vignette made me think about how I can be brave and take care of things that I am scared of.

The vignette the most impressed me was, in page 1o through 11, titled “My Name”, this impressed me because in this chapter she talks about her name specifically and she tells us that she does not like her name and wants to be name different. The reason she talks about is because she compares it to how Her name means Hope in English, but in Spanish it can mean many different things, to more of sadness meaning in Spanish. For example she says, It means sadness, it means waiting, It is the Mexcan record my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, Songs like sobbing. Also in the last lines of the paragraph she states, “I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees.” So this shows how she feels towards her own name, she is ashamed of her own name and does not like her name at all. We can also say that she relates her name as , So his shows us that she is ashamed of her Mexican heritage. Since she inherited her great grandmother name.Also because it’s like we can say that, in Mexico culture since you inherited someone of your family, you may be like them when you grow up, and she explain what happened with her great grandmother and explains she was sad since her great grandfather left her, for not marrying him, and how she never forgave him, and she looked out the window her whole life, “The way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow:. The narrator also says, “Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window”.  So this Is what the narrator main theme of this vignette, […]

The Vignette that resonated with me so deeply is “Chanclas” because as a ballet dancer I always had bruised and blistered feet, and when I wore sandals or any open toe shoe it made me so self conscious and introverted just how Esperanza was. In contrast between the two vignettes “The Family Of Little Feet” where the shoes almost get Esperanza and her friends in trouble. Esperanza, Lucy and Rachel basked in the silly attention they were getting from men, thinking that what they wear get them the most attention and compliments. In “Chanclas” Esperanza was so defeated and shy about her big brown shoes she got every year or so, she refused to get up and dance with her cousin by first communion and also declined dancing with her uncle, until he kept tugging at her and gave her a compliment of “you are the prettiest girl here.” Although, Esperanza knew that was a lie she felt obligated to get up and dance the music away with her uncle and everyone applauded her. She felt so much pride and joy she finally knew what it meant to get good attention, “He watched me dance” right then she understood it wasn’t what she has on materialistically, it’s her true self that shines through and gets recognition.

The vignette that made the strongest impression on me was Marin. Marin is a figure that is like an older sister or could possibly actually be an older sister. She is someone that a young girl might look up to and admire. This reminded me of my cousin that I looked up to growing up because I didn’t have a sister. This is different from a parental figure because she would probably tell you things and teach you stuff that a parent would never say to their child. I feel like someone like Marin would prepare you for the real world instead of sheltering you and they just seem so much more older and mature. My cousin was someone that I really looked up to and I wanted to be just like her. She taught me many things and Marin really reminded me of her when Esperanza said, “She is older and knows lots of things.” It reminded me of all the close moments I shared with my cousin when I was younger even though we have drifted apart.

One of the vignettes from pages 3-53 of The House on Mango Street that made a strong impression on me was “Hairs”. It made a strong impression on me because it describes my family members and me and how different we are. The vignette I think fix best in this short story is imagery. My reasoning’s of choosing imagery is because it describes the difference in the hair and the way they are, but they are family. The theme is the relationship between hair and person. For example, when she said “And kiki, who is the youngest, has hair like fur”. The central idea is the difference in hair. This resonated with me because in my family we all have different hair. My hair is like a weeping willow tree, if not tamed. My brother hair is like cotton, and my mom has soft spiral hairs that’s like a slinky, when you pull on it, it bounces back. We all are family but have different hair textures.

The vignette that stood out most to me in “The House on Mango Street” is on page 36, “Those Who Don’t”. The message of “Those Who Don’t” is that from an outsider’s point of view, the neighborhood they live in seems dangerous and unwelcoming but to them, there is a strong sense of community. The people others seem weary of are people Esperanza sees daily and knows personally. This also highlights racial bias. Her neighborhood is mostly people of color, “all brown around” find comfort in this. This reminded me of The Bronx. Growing up there my entire life, I can see the beauty in my borough that others might not. Places like The Bronx have a strong community that goes on for generations. Outsiders may think the neighborhoods are scary but you grow to know the people around you personally. Going to another place like a residential area of Manhattan is a culture shock and less inviting because of the foreignness and racial disparity. When I started going to school in Manhattan when I was younger it was new and scary to not be around as much of my community as I was used to.

In “The House on Mango Street” written by Sandra Cisneros, the vignette that connected most with me and the other readings we have read this semester is “Alicia Who Sees Mice”. It discovers the theme of: lack of equality in gender relations. We learn that Alicia’s mother died recently and left her feeling the responsibilities of the house since that was the order that was expected. Her father, in a very old fashioned way, warns her of the mice around her (I imagine they symbolize success). But, Alicia takes “Two trains and a bus, because she doesn’t want to spend her whole life in a factory or behind a rolling pin”. She is afraid of that life. I found the wording of “four legged fur” interesting, it made me think of cleaning on your hands and knees, 4 limbs towards the floor. I don’t know if that was intentional but I found it interesting.  As a woman, I can relate to this vignette easily. The limitations based on gender identity are still common in the present day. 

The vignette that I looked at was on page 28 the title is named ” Those Who Don’t”. I think that this vignette talks about the type of neighborhood that Esperanza lives in and also gives the readers the idea that she knows what other people think of her neighborhood. This shows that she understands the world around her. From this vignette, I can think of a lesson that is a stereotype that a lot of people of the world have on race and color. This made the strongest impression on me because it’s something that happens every day around the world. I think this is a very passive stereotype. I make these stereotypes all the time when I meet someone new. one stereotype that I saw all the time growing up was that because I am Asian that is why I am so good at math. SO like ok so I am good at math is not because I put more work in? but because of my race?

The vignette that stood out the most to me was Hairs by Sandra Cisneros. At first look, it seems like a very simple and straightforward in its meaning. I think that at first glance it is just a brief description of the different hairstyles of the people in her family. However, I believe that Sandra Cisneros uses hairstyles to show how they are all different and connected simultaneously. She describes the feel and looks of everyone’s hair. To me, this is representing their individuality within the family. These vignettes focus on this family as a unit. Everyone together. but she describes how their roles within the family make them different and stand out from the others. And Hairs is the most recent example of how they stand out. In this vignette, the most important person is the mother. Her hair is given emphasis in the story. I think that to Sandra Cisneros and to the rest of the family, the mother’s hair is representing the safety that they feel with her. It smells comforting and reminds them of home.

The vignette “My Name” made the strongest impression on me from this week’s reading “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros. The vignette centers around the story of the author’s name and how she was named after her grandmother who Esperanza thinks didn’t have a very happy life and she hopes she doesn’t inherit her sad destiny with the name. I found it interesting that her name means hope in English and sadness in Mexican, which are polar opposites. This vignette resonated because I think growing up kids like playing with idea of trying on different names and wishing their name was something else or at least I know I did. And another reason I related to Esperanza is because my last name always stood out as being the only asian in my class and was a reason of jokes growing up because it sounded unusual to most people so I can understand who that Esperanza wanted to “baptize herself” under a new name.

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.

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.

Page 46 Titled “Chanclas” really resonated with me because when I was a kid my mom always had problems finding the size for my feet. “They’re too big” she would say. So for a time I never wore sandals because I was worried about people seeing my feet and making fun of it. I know it wasn’t her fault or intention but I did felt bad and I never told her. Then I was a teenager she’d sometimes take me shoes shopping so I can try the shoes before buying, and it was always stressful. Sandals were out of question. No sandals. No open toes. Only closed shoes. I remember my asking me how come I don’t like wearing sandals and then I open to her about how I felt embarrassed because my feet being big. However, I saw she was very sad that I felt that way and reassured me that they were fine the way they are and that “never let anyone make you feel ashamed for the way you were born.” 

“Our good day” stood out to me because friendship is not always based on how much money somebody has, but how people treat you based on your situation in life. Having a bike as well as good friends, which she did it on her own was part of Esperanza’s desire and not having to share with Nenny why it was a “Good day”. Esperanza like the fact that she has a lot in common as sisters with Rachel and Lucy. Although Cathy said “they smell like brooms” but they were similar to Esperanza than cathy, Esperanza was embarrassed to tell her new friends her name and the fact that they didn’t laugh or make fun of it made a big difference to Esperanza. She rode around the block with her new friends playing and sharing and riding the bike and giving them a geography lesson about the neighborhood. I think that Esperanza was longing for her life and home.  Making friends is hard because you sometimes try to avoid the judgement that comes with it.

The vignette on page three, from “The House on Mango Street”, made the strongest impression on me. After I was done reading that page, I automatically wondered if that is how I sound to others when I tell them where I moved from. I always tell them “I was born in Hyattsville, Maryland, and then I loved to Alexandria, Virginia at four years old, and then I moved to Brooklyn, New York at six years old. When I first moved to Brooklyn, New York, we had the second floor, and then our landlord told us to move to the fourth floor, after a couple of years, our landlord told us to move to the third floor, and here we are now.” I find it interesting when people move from place to place, it was really hectic for my family and me but enjoy having our own space, and a different environment. My family and I also used to live with my cousins for a couple of years, our house was jam-packed!