The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros

1. The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros A House as Quiet as Snow

2. Sandra Cisneros: Growing Up in Chicago • Born in the Hispanic Quarter of Chicago in 1954 • Mexican-American (Chicana) • She was the only girl in a family of seven, and grew up in poverty • Her parents emphasized education • Her family moved often; she was shy and introverted, but connected with her community privately through writing • http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/chh/bio/cisneros_s.htm • http://www.sandracisneros.com/html/about/bio.html

3. Becoming a Writer • Attended Loyola University in Chicago as an English major • Attended the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, a graduate school for young writers • Was afraid her underprivileged background would put her at a disadvantage in the literary world • However, her heritage gave her the unique voice that shaped her career • http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/chh/bio/cisneros_s.htm • http://www.sandracisneros.com/html/about/bio.html

4. Novel Structure • The novel is told as a series of vignettes, 1-4 pages each • There is no real chronological order but a series of insights into Esperanza’s experiences, thoughts and feelings. • The vignettes show the trends in behavior in the community and shows contrasts between strength and weakness, freedom and bondage. • The novel is dedicated A Las Mujeres, To the Women.

5. Writing Style *Cisneros’ writing is a cross between poetry & narrative writing *Uses simple conversational language “For the ones who cannot out” *Uses loosely structured, lyrical sentences “Now she draws with a needle and thread, little knotted rosebuds, tulips made of silk thread”

6. *Blends Spanish & English to enrich text “Your abuelito is dead” *Vivid imagery “Crumples like a coat and cries” *Convincing realistic characters

7. The House on Mango Street: Significance • This is Cisneros’s first novel. • It is a way to relate her cultural identity to her life and the lives of others. • Cisneros attempts to break the cycle of defeats that women suffer due to social and religious stereotypes. • Esperanza is an outlet for the author’s views on the perceptions of women in her milieu. • http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/chh/bio/cisneros_s.htm

8. Characters Esperanza, the main character and narrator feels like she doesn’t belong, like the 4 skinny trees outside her tiny window, who longs for independence. She starts her own quiet war. She finds that she is not like the other residents of Mango, that she can and will find the strength to leave Her life of poverty behind. She realizes that Mango is a part of her, and where she comes from is as important as where she’s going. .

9. More about the Narrator, Esperanza… *Told from the perspective of a 13 year old Chicana girl in Chicago. *addresses mature subject matter. *In English, Esperanza means hope and waiting. *She represents independence & a way out of the slums.

10. Cisneros’s writing is very imagistic. She makes unexpected comparisons between things to give connotations to what she describes. As she watches her neighborhood, she decides that she will not become like the women she knows, trapped and powerless in a man’s world. However, she feels she must come back, to help the others who are trapped like a caged bird

11. Alicia Alicia, the medical student who is still bound to her old fears.

12. Characters Cont. Marin, who waits. Beautiful Rafaela, The modern-day Rapunzel. Rosa Vargas, with too many children, crying for the husband who left.

13. Characters Cont. • Mamacita, from Mexico, who dreams of the pink house she left behind and refuses to speak English. • Sally, the subject of abuse until she marries, to escape, before eighth grade, and moves from Mango Street into into another sort of trap.

14. Setting Mango Street symbolizes both Esperanza’s ball and chain and her inspiration. In the beginning of the novel, she is disappointed with the house on Mango Street but as an adult she is able to realize its importance to her life

15. Books by Sandra Cisneros • Bad Boys, Mango Press: San Jose, California, 1980 • The House on Mango Street , (Arte Publico Press: Houston, Texas, l984), Vintage: New York, 1991. • Woman Hollering Creek, Random House: New York, 1991 • My Wicked Wicked Ways, (Third Woman Press: Berkeley, California, l987), Random House: New York, 1992 • La Casa En Mango Street, translated by Elena Poniatowska, Vintage Español, New York, 1994. • Loose Woman, Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1994. • Hairs/Pelitos, Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1994. Spanish translation by Liliana Valenzuela. • Caramelo, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2002. Spanish edition translated by Liliana Valenzuela. • Vintage Cisneros, Vintage, New York, 2004. • http://www.sandracisneros.com/html/about/publications.html

16. Further Research • For more biographical information: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/cisneros/bio.htm • For more analysis of The House on Mango Street: http://www.bookrags.com/notes/hms/BIO.htm • To buy books by Sandra Cisneros: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/102-7635974-7540935 • Teaching resources for Cisneros’s works: http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/cisneros.htm