The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
“Butterflies too are few and so are flowers and most things that are beautiful.”
The House on Mango Street is a book containing several stories with multiple different characters and their lives. It focuses on the perspective of a young girl named Esperanza and growing up in Chicago. It is almost auto biographical but the author states that introduction that she wove in many different facets of the lives of people around her. It isn’t just one story but many. Sandra Cisneros writes in very short chapters and in everyday language. There is a lot of jumping between narratives and there is not one singular storyline. This is a short and quick read. It was written many decades ago and received both high praise and challenges for its content. It is a frequently challenged book which means everyone all the more reason to read and distribute it. Anytime someone tries to forbid you from reading something one should run as fast as possible towards it.
Sandra’s writing paints a very vivid account of life in the Latino section of Chicago. Her descriptions are detailed and transport us to what it must have been like living there. There were a couple funny moments but overall, it seemed very serious and subtle in the approach. The writing felt childlike with strong hints of stream of consciousness. I could picture a young girl thinking this when I was reading. It was her struggle of not wanting what she was seeing where she lived. Esperanza is very strong-willed and dreams of a better life. She has “decided not to grow up tame like the others” and as she says, “I have begun my own quiet war.” She rebels and in one instance she “is tired of looking at what we can’t have.” She wants more. One issue I had was it was very hard to keep all the names and stories straight. I was not fully in step with all the friendships and familial relationships throughout the telling. A lot of people were introduced in the book. There were descriptions of what was happening to them and some importance got lost with the sheer volume. You didn’t get to know other characters well as you jumped right into the next chapter. This is why I loved reading. You get to learn about things you might not have been exposed to and can see things from different perspectives. This is why everyone should read. Empathy can more easily develop through reading. I might have understood everything, and I cannot relate to growing up like she did but I gained a little something from reading this story. I can see why this book generates a lot of conversation, especially by showing what a different world looks like. It has a theme of recognizing where you come from and what helps shape you but wanting something better. “Like it or not you are Mango Street.”
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