House on Mango Street Blog #5

By -
I really enjoyed reading The House of Mango Street because it related to culture and also I loved that it was displayed through the life of a young girl. There were even more themes that stood out in the book to me and that was language, society, family, and gender roles. Sandra Cisneros definitely did a great job showing the reality behind many minorities that live in America.  While in class we discussed the question that many of us had on our minds and that was, “Why does Cisneros decide not to use quotations when dialogue is taking place?”. I learned something new when we discussed it because I never knew that this was the way that Spanish authors write. That was definitely the biggest question for me when I first began to read the book but as I continued on it definitely was easier getting used to and I enjoyed reading it. 

One of my best friends who is from Colombia moved here while in elementary school. She explained to me that she did not know any English at all when she first moved here but that she would listen to people around her at school and that was the way she became better at it. I have always thought that it was so amazing that she is now fluent in two languages because that is something I have always wished to be able to do. We can see that this connects to the book because Esperanza lives around Hispanic culture while at home and she sees that when people do not know English they have it a little hard while living here in America because they may not be able to understand others around them. My friend has stated to me that she loves being able to speak to her family with their language and also loves that she’s able to connect with people here and not feel left out. 

I agree with the authors portrayal of adolescence in this book because we all have went through the stages of puberty when we start to like boys and life just starts to change. This book would definitely be one that I would let my students read because it lets us view things from someone else’s point of view and has a great story behind it. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe...
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm...
Read more

Postmodernism in Curious Incident

By -
Before I start writing, I first want to acknowledge that I just really loved this book! It seemed like a lot of the class had trouble enjoying or appreciating the novel because it's so different stylistically, which is understandable, but all of those unique elements helped make the novel more authentic. The main topic I want to focus on (also what I'm writing my paper on) is how a lot of postmodernist elements were used in the novel to make Christopher come to life. While obviously not every postmodern novel is about an autistic kid, I think Haddon really used a lot of these elements to his advantage and they ended up working out really well to characterize Christopher. One of the major postmodern elements which helps this book really craft an authentic portrayal of autism is the fact that it's metafictive. Basically, this means it's a "story within a story." Readers would be extremely limited just reading the parts of the novel which are meant to be C...
Read more