Week 16 Discussion

The reading from this semester that I found the most meaning in would have to be “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates.   I relate with this story because I’m still a young girl, myself. I see a lot of the tendencies I used to have in the main character, Connie.  Personally, I have met people similar to all of these different characters in this short story and it was easy for me to visualize them. This story acts as a blatant and terrifying warning to identify strangers, no matter what.  It’s hard to remind yourself of your naivety without it smacking you in the face. I think it’s important to listen to your gut, as people say.   Not only did it impact me, it provided an extremely valuable message which, in most cases, I believe is one of the most important take-aways from a short story.

The vignette that resonated me the most in the weeks reading of “The House On Mango Street” was titled “Minerva Writes Poems”. This vignette detailed a generational curse of being a single mother. It also details how much some women will put up with so they won’t be alone. Growing up in a family of majority women and having a lot of female friends, I’ve witnessed what Minerva is going through on many occasions. The domestic violence, the humility, the abandonment issues, and the toxicity around children were some of the things discussed with women and men as I became a listening ear too many. In the vignette where it states “one days is through and lets him know enough is enough” is something that I feel we all can relate to. At some point in an unhappy relationship, we say these words. We act on it and then we realize it kind of gets lonely. In Minerva case she was extremely forgiven and she lets her man back in. There is no change, but the same toxic behavior appears as soon as he is forgiven. Physically she doesn’t have an out, but I think that writing poems is therapeutic for her.

One of the vignette that stood out to me was 79-80, Rafaela who drinks coconut and papaya juice of Tuesdays” it gives of the the fairy tale Rapunzel, because she was so pretty and being locked up because her husband was afraid that she was going to leave tells us how insecure he were. Women don’t have any say in their decisions but men does , what they do and that they must be controlled and “locked away”. Being controlled just give me anxiety, i love that we live in this day and age where men cannot speak for us, we have the right to have our own opinion and stand up for our rights as women, like Maya Angelou said “We promise to accept nothing less than justice for every woman”. Esperanza must avoid being controlled and “locked away” so to speak and drifting into the wrong crowd. My pitfalls I must avoid are different because I have to avoid are slacking off on my schoolwork, but we both have to worry about falling into the wrong crowd.

A vignette that made a strong impact on me was “Bums in the Attic” on pages 94-95. On Page 94, it states, “We go on Sundays, Papa’s day off. I used to go. I don’t anymore. You don’t like to go out with us, Papa says. Getting too old? Getting too stuck-up, says Nenny. I don’t tell them I am ashamed-all of us staring out the window like the hungry. I am tired of looking at what we can’t have. When we win the lottery… Mama begins, and then I stop listening.” For me, growing up in New York City, everyone is working towards a better life. The affordable living conditions most people have to opt for aren’t the best living standards. Lower-class citizens are usually working towards things most people have. It is a wake-up call seeing someone with 3 stories in their house, a washer, and dryer, or other things that are overlooked in most homes. It can feel very shameful not to be in the same position as your peers. This vignette reminded me of my grandpa. As a landlord, he was always willing to work with people from the community in need of a place to live comfortably to get adjusted. They went on to get their own places, better jobs, and support their families. I know in the future I want to be a homeowner but I will always know what it’s like to not have certain things necessary for survival.

One of the vignettes from pages 56-109 of The House on Mango Street that made an impression on me was “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark. This story made an impression on me because it shows a daughter seeing her father vulnerable for the first time. The theme behind this story is a daughter having a connection with her father and understanding the lost that they both shared, that being her grandfather. With her being the oldest, she had to take the role in telling others about the lost. “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the dark resonated with me because seeing a parent or someone you see as someone that take on the world with no worries become vulnerable and weak, makes you want to take the role to help them through it. When I lost my great grandmother, it broke my family. One day she’s doing okay and will be home and then turn around the next day and pass way was a shock. Seeing my mother and grandmother look lost, I had to take on the role in making sure everyone is okay.

I chose the vignette on page 91, it’s called “A Smart Cookie.” This vignette paints a picture of parents transferring their life lessons to their children.  I connect with this because I have it happens to me very often. It actually happened earlier when I was doing some online shopping while watching tv in my living room my dad saw me and started to tell me why I should save up my money. I not going to lie he gave me the whole ten reasons and the look at my cousin’s talk. I know he is right, but I still find it respective. I find that the narrator of this vignette is very good at accepting these lessons of life. I like this vignette because I feel that the same thing can happen to me very often, but I probably wouldn’t see what my parents say the same way that the narrator does.

In The House on Mango Street, 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”.

For this week’s discussion board “The House on Mango Street”, I found that the vignette “Papa who wakes up in the dark.” resonated with me the most. My mother passed away in 2010, this was the worst experience of my life. Between getting the call that she had to go to the hospital to when she did pass was a terrible feeling. It broke my heart when she passed, and I got that call that morning. Being a teenager and losing your parent or just being any age and losing your parent will have you feeling lost and alone in the world. My family still expected me to continue with my life as if nothing happened and it was very difficult. But till this day I try to make her proud. And the phrase I feel like Esperanza used to indicate she feels more American than Mexican is “They will have a back-and-white photo taken in front of the tomb with flowers shaped like spears in a white vase because that is how they send the dead away in that country”.

The vignette from this weeks assigned reading The House on Mango Street that I chose was 62 Elenita, Cards, Palm, Water. I liked this reading because I actually really enjoy astrology, tarot and little rituals in my life. Elenita is called a “witch woman” in the vignette and it seems like she does brujeria rituals and is a psychic. Esperanza is disappointed in her message from Elenita.” Ah, yes, a home in the heart. I see a home in the heart. Is that it? That’s what I see, she says,” Esperanza wants a home but Elenita only see’s a home in heart not an actual material home. Esperanza is rightfully feeling disappointed and skeptical. The part that made me laugh was “Then she takes my hand and looks into my palm. Closes it. Closes her eyes too. Do you feel it, feel the cold? Yes, ) lie, hut only a little”. It reminded me of when we read Salvation by Langston Hughes and he lies and says he sees the holy spirit.

The vignette I related the most to form this week’s reading is “Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes”. In the beginning Esperanza talks about how she likes to tell stories, she says: “I make a story for my life, for each step my brown shoe takes”. (109) That reminded me that as kids we create these phantasy worlds which are fun and entertaining and we would spend hours creating a perfect, little universe in our head. When she talks about her feelings about the house: “The house I belong but do not belong to” I understand because I had a similar feeling growing up at some point. My family had to move across the country and the house we ended up living at raised very similar feelings for me. It felt at times too cramped and it was on the busiest street and noisy. Now looking back I have fond memories of us living there regardless of it being far from perfect. And the last two closing sentences: “They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out.” (110) I think show that Esperanza does feel that she belongs to Mango Street after all.

The vignette that made the strongest impression on me is “Minerva Writes Poems”. I chose this one specifically because I can closely relate to it. Growing up without a father figure puts a lot of stress on the mother. My mom when I was growing up gave me the best life she could have under the given circumstances. Reading this vignette I can sympathize with Minerva because she is trying her best. As much as she wants to resent her husband she still has to take care of the kids that she had brought into the world. “But when the kids are asleep after she’s fed them their pancake dinner, she writes poems on the little pieces of paper that she folds over and over” This quote specifically drew me into the story because although she does not have much she still hopes that her children do good and prays for hers and their success.

The vignette that made the strongest impression on me was “A Smart Cookie” on Page 90. This vignette shows Esperanza’s mother thinking back to her past and how she could have been something more compared to her present self. She tells her daughter Esperanza to stay in school and study since she doesn’t want her daughter to end up like her who is disgusted with the reason she didn’t stay in school. This made the strongest impression on me because while I don’t have as much experience compared to Esperanza’s mother I sometimes also think back and think that I could have done better in certain things. I also hope that I do not end up like the mother in the future who regrets not taking action in the past due to feeling shame or that I am not good enough to do something for whatever reason I made up back then.

Which one of the vignettes from pages 56 – 109 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. As with last week, please do not discuss the same vignette someone else has discussed, if possible. For this one, I picked “Linoleum Roses”. The name first caught my eye since roses are my favorite flowers. Reading the vignette I realized how similar it is to stories we had before ( think “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates) where both girls try to escape their lives but end up in a worst/ similar situation as before. Sally married really young to escape her life, ” She said she is in love but she did it to escape.” Similar to modern times especially in NYC, a lot of people stay with their partners simply because they cannot afford rent on their own. Sally sits at home and is not allowed to talk to her friends and is afraid to go out without her husband’s permission, she traded her prison for an entirely new prison and realized that her life has not changed for the best but for the worst. Her husband shows abusive and controlling tendencies and the fact that her husband has already broken a door because he got angry is a red flag and a sign of more abusive behavior that might spiral.

The chapter “Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut & Papaya Juice on Tuesdays” describes a young neighbor whose husband locks her in their apartment when he goes out to play dominoes on Tuesday nights. Rafaela wishes she could dance in the bar where she hears the music wafting up to her window. She asks the children to buy her sweet drinks at the store as a treat, so she drops down a dollar, and they send up a bottle of juice on a paper bag pulley. Then “Sally” is about a neighbor girl who also feels trapped inside her house by her father who worries because she is too beautiful. People spread rumors about her, which are untrue, so she stands alone by the fence pretending she was invisible, dreaming about a life where she felt loved.   “Minerva Writes Poems” is about another neighbor who has two children, and her husband keeps leaving and coming back. Minerva struggles to feed her children and writes poems in her free time. It’s hard to say if it’s worse when her husband is there and beats her or worse when he’s away. In “Bums in the Attic” Esperanza wishes she could live in a house on a hill, so she could be closer to the stars. She would let homeless men sleep in her attic, and she would be happy. Even though Esperanza knows she is the ugly daughter, in “Beautiful & Cruel” she thinks about how she will someday escape her parents’ house. She knows she can’t use her sexuality to attract a man, so instead she tries to act like a man.

In my continued reading of “The House on Mango Street”, I found that the vignette “What Sally Said” resonated with me the most. The theme of this chapter is child abuse, and the subject of this abuse is Esperanza’s friend, Sally. In the Vignette “Sally” we are introduced to the title character.  Sally is described as a raven-haired girl whom all the boys think is beautiful and is Esperanza’s only friend. We also learn that Sally comes from a very religious home. Esperanza informs the reader that Sally displays two different personalities. When Sally is at school, she is outgoing, she paints her eyelids in the style of Cleopatra. But, after school, she removes the blue eyeliner she wears, pulls her skirt down, and no longer laughs; Like Connie in ‘Where are you going, where have you been” by Carol Oates. In “What Sally said” We learn that she is physically abused at home by her father. We also learn that her mother does not stop the abuse. Sally bares bruises caused by the beatings and covers for her father stating they are due to falls and other mishaps. The reason this chapter resonated with me is that when I was in junior high school, I had a friend named Jamal. Jamal transferred into the school in the middle of seventh grade. One day he came to school with a black eye. Jamal told everyone he got the injury from running into a door. Another time, he said the burn on his hand was because he touched the radiator when it was on. Then one day, Jamal didn’t come back to school. Sometime later we had an assembly where the staff played videos that spoke about abuse, explaining what it is and the different kinds from verbal to physical and […]

The vignette that made the strongest impression on me is “A House of My Own”. The central idea of this vignette is essentially about owning a house living by yourself without having to worry about cleaning up after someone else living there and being in a quiet peaceful clean space with no interruptions. The theme of this vignette is coming of age as for why it resonates with me it’s because one day I want to be able experience the same thing

“Papa who wakes up in the dark” Honestly hit me hardest. I’ve experienced that kind grief when my mom passed away.  It was surreal. One of my mom’s friends witnessed her suddenly fall to the ground and went to tell my dad. She had fell due to an epileptic episode. Everything that happened between my dad trying to wake her up while waiting for the ambulance to being in the hospital feeling everything from uncertainty, despair to confusion and just numbness. It was surreal and it was weird. I recall going to the bathroom and began to break down in tears while entering a fury just punching the bathroom stalls. What added to this pain was seeing my father cry. Never in my life I’ve seen him breakdown. He was always calm and stoic and to see him in that state brought immense sadness and fear. I felt guilty even though its nobody’s fault but I just didn’t  know how to cope with it. It felt like we were all on a bus ride together and suddenly the bus stops and the driver tells me and my dad to get off and the driver leaves us stranded.

The vignette I chose for this discussion is “Beautiful & Cruel”, as the courses of time the definition and gender roles of women have become less strict and less attainable to the male gaze and desire. Some women still carry the traditional habits and thinking of what a women, wife and mother should be and try to project that onto their children or other women. Just like Esperanza’s mother who says “her dusty hair will settle and her blouse will learn to stay clean” but Esperanza is coming into her womanhood and denying that stereotype of being like the “others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain.” By “threshold” and “ball and chain” I think Esperanza was stating that most women wait for new stages in their life to begin which mostly means the awaiting of men and marriage. She states she will act like a man and not conform to traditional women ways and doing things her and on her own time, which men have the freedom to experience without judgement.

No speak English on page 76 resonated the most with me because my grandparents came to America not really knowing English and my grandpa still to this day has broken English and is still judged for it because many people have the ignorant belief of that if you’re in America you have to speak English, which is just not true as this country was built by immigrants and should be more welcoming to immigrants not to mention that my grandparents created many jobs as my grandpa owned a store in Brooklyn where he sold a lot of items and was very well loved throughout his community. He was so well loved that he would even have protection from the locals if anyone tried to mess with him or tried to rob the store it just goes to show that even if you may not know the language everyone deserves to be respected and cared about because they’re people at the end of the day that can bring something to the table no matter what.

The vignette from The House on Mango Street that made the strongest impression on me is Sire. I think this vignette is about self-confidence, jealousy, and passion. I loved this vignette because I can relate to young Esperanza whos growing and starting to have love feelings, which is beautiful. The description reminds me of when I was younger. It started with her seeing Sire looking at her and the confidence that she had to look back! I wish I had this confidence as a young girl. Then we can see how jealous she is of his girlfriend, Lois, even though she didn’t say it explicitly. We can understand it by the way she’s scanning her, watching Sire and Lois together, and trying to compare them both (Esperanza and Lois) saying how Lois cannot tie her own shoes while she can. She fantasizes about a boy, not a specific one but she just feels as if she’s ready for something like this, to be an adult and not a child who “every evening talking to the trees”.

There is a story in The House on Mango Street “Elenita, palms, water” by Sandra Cisnerosn that made a big impression on me. At times we want to see what the future holds for us or at times we try to find our own identity. Sometimes people will pay these called future tellers or witches so they can be able to see their future or what holds for them. We at times want to see an easier solution for everything. I believe that we need to just have faith and hope for the future, and make the right choices. I can also see the frustration that Esperanza has that she wants to see if she is going to have her dream house she always dreamed of but how Elenita tells Esperanza that she will definitely find a home at her heart. She might not find her dream house, but would have a house that she will find comfort in.

The vignette that stood out and left the biggest impression is ” Rafaela who drinks coconut and papaya juice on Tuesdays.” Although the book so far is relatable in a lot of ways, this part of the story triggers memories of my own childhood and my own inner-city “Rapunzel’s.” The description resonates with my own childhood. The visual of Rafaela hanging by the window day dreaming about the life she wishes she could have. Those kids downstairs waiting for her to appear at her window, can feel like a fun routine to look forward to every Tuesday. But for Rafaela its her little moment of psuedo freedom. As I got older, I realized my mom was one them. It almost feels like I was reading a memory of mine. Rafaela was a beautiful woman and desired the life she knew beautiful young women could have.  Instead she ended up with an insecure man who kept her locked away.  It feels like a small part of the story but it had a big impact on me because it helps pull together all the relatable moments the explained the experience of growing up on mango street, almost like growing up in my own neighborhood.

On page 108, “A House of My Own” is the story I can relate to the most because Esperanza envisions a home not owned by anyone else but her and she can do whatever she wants to it. Esperanza focuses more on the contents of inside the house that make it her own and not the size or area. When I used to visit my grandparents out in Utah, I always tell them this is my dream home and somewhere where I feel at peace. The inside of the home is very simple and organized, just as Esperanza describes “clean as paper before the poem”. I remember reading out in the backyard once and it was completely silent which made me wonder if I was dreaming because of how much I’m used to noise living in the Bronx. My grandparents’ home is a representation of who I am and how I want to live. In this vignette, a home is a symbolic image representing independence, pride, and a stable life to Esperanza, the same feelings I want to have when I own a house. 

The vignette on page 56 of “The House on Mango Street” made the strongest impression on me. I really enjoy that whenever I read this book, I can always make a connection to my own life. This helps me to better understand the character’s thoughts and actions in the story. When I was around the ages of five-seven, my family and I flew to Bangladesh because of my grandmother’s, my father’s mother’s, death. I remember being in Bangladesh and my dad sitting in the middle of the couch crying so much. All my other family members surrounded him and were crying as well. We flew to Bangladesh from America. I was so little but seeing him cry made such a great impact on me and made me realize what death is. I was standing across the room from him because I did not know what to do or what to say. “I have never seen my Papa cry and I don’t know what to do. I know he will have to go away, that he will take a plane to Mexico, all the uncles and aunts will be there…” (Page 56). I felt the same feeling as the character because I have personally gone through this situation myself. I was able to picture and remember everything again.

Hello everyone, In this week reading, “The house on mango street”, pg 56 and to the end. The vignette that most impressed me was, In Page 90-91, “A smart cookie”. This impressed me because in this vignette it talks about how her mother tells Esperanza, our narrator, her life, in like fairy tale way. Explaining why she, wasn’t able to keep on studying for a better life, education. Also the narrator tells us how her mother is a very talented woman. The narrator mother states, “Shame is a bad thing you know, it keeps you down”. and than her mother tells her if she wants to know why she keep school? and than states, “Because I didn’t have nice clothes. No clothes, but I had brains. Yup she says, disgusted. I was a smart cookie then”. So this is the reason I was impressed and the theme of this vignette is to show how sometimes our parents or other people, Did not have the chance or wasn’t able to do what they wanted for the reason of not having things like others do. Also this Is something important because it’s true and sometimes there people out there in this real world where they are talented people but cannot achieve what they want to be, because of the conditions they live in or not being able to study.