house on mango street quotes about home

Then he asked if I knew what day it was, and when I said I didn’t, he said it was his birthday and would I please give him a birthday kiss. For example, Esperanza does not express shock at Rachel's rude treatment of adults; on the contrary, her lighthearted tone celebrates Rachel's "very sassy" remarks.

They think we’re dangerous.

Quote 1. "She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horse- which is supposed to be bad luck if you're born female- but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong." Here I am and here I stay. GradeSaver, 30 March 2000 Web. (including. How could they? What the narrator sees is contrary to everything her parents said; her house is tiny, crumbling, and without a yard. ", We didn't always live on Mango Street. That’s when we move away.

Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Everything is waiting to explode like Christmas.

In their community, males dominate and women are treated as … She will not give it away. The narrator longs to escape; her way of being, like that of a helium balloon, demands it.

The excitement the young girl experiences while relating the tale of the "queen of cats" is evident in the repetition "Cathy who is queen of cats has cats and cats and cats.

But even so, it's not the house we'd thought we'd get.

com). The house on Mango Street isn’t it.

Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. They are dangerous, he says. And his home is in another country. I am one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate."

86-87, Quote 11: "I have begun my own quiet war.

She sets me free. So too, the shapes- flowers and sweets- that the narrator sees in her mother's curls helps us understand the narrator's regard for her mother's beauty and goodness; indeed, her hair fulfills both a the feminine ideal and the ideas childhood nursery rhyme idea of what little girls are made of- sugar and spice and all things nice.. At the opening of the novel, Esperanza feels like a vagabond – her family has moved so often that she doesn't feel like she can claim any one place as home. But this isn't it. An old man owns it. In Spanish it means too many letters.

You can find this storyboard in the following articles and resources: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is not the traditional novel, but a collection of short pieces, all written from the view of Esperanza, a young Hispanic girl. (1.2)

The simile "the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow" shows how great-grandmother's whole physical and spiritual being was defeated by an unwanted marriage. This chapter is laden with recurring The House on Mango Street themes: friendship, poverty, and neighborhood life.

The narrative style is quite relaxed, both in terms of language and chronology.

She looks at all the things they own: the towels and the toaster, the alarm clock and the drapes. One of the main themes of The House on Mango Street is the blurring line between the private and public spheres. For ourselves and for each other...because of what we did to Aunt Lupe."

They have nothing to do with last week's garbage or fear of rats.

By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our. These themes are often bluntly revealed in the narrative itself and also through more subtle channels of language, symbolism, and metaphor. A real house. Teachers and parents! The house on Mango Street isn't it. A boy held me once so hard, I swear, I felt the grip and weight of his arms, but it was a dream.

This reveals Esperanza's comprehension of the cultural relegation of women to the status of objects, their worth determined by their pleasing appearance and function. This introduces an important textual theme: the narrator's desire to find a physical and emotional space of her own.

“Chinese, like the Mexicans, don’t like their women strong.”. But I know how those things go."

These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Her narration illuminates life on Mango Street as well as her concerns about her place in the world. Just like that. The repetition of the adjective "little" alludes to her dainty physique, as well as the daughter's fascination with the exquisiteness of such hair, so different from her own unruly locks.

House on Mango Street study guide contains a biography of Sandra Cisneros, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler. Quote 2: "And the story goes she never forgave him. However, the narrator then delves into a "stream of consciousness" reflection on the smell of her mother's hair, leading to a revelation of the comfort enjoyed in the physical and spiritual closeness to both the structure and the members of her home. The diction of Cathy's speech is that of teenage gossip and indeed reflects the favorite pastime of the occupants of Mango Street.

A real house. The man paints the walls of the apartment pink, but it's not the same, you know.

Sure. 3.

Quote 1: "I knew then I had to have a house.

Sally, do you sometimes wish you didn’t have to go home? I would. But this isn't it. 27, Quote 4: "All brown all around, we are safe.

To Esperanza at this point, the idea of a real house in the suburbs sounds like an appealing place to call home.

Her name "is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing"; this metaphor links her name to her family's county of origin and to the despondency of homesickness.

One I could point to. A real house.

So too, the syntax emphasizes her hunger for true comradeship.

Another important theme is the dual beauty and harshness of the Mango Street neighborhood. Her mother's curls are like roses and candy. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. We also see a new twist on the theme of home, when the sisters both identify a house as looking "like Mexico." Those who don’t know any better come into our neighborhood scared.

Papa's hair sticks straight up, sister Nenny's is silky, Carlos' is thick, straight, and doesn't need a comb, and the youngest, Kiki, "has hair like fur.".

The haven of a mother's arms leads to a related phenomena, a mother's nourishment.

In simple, everyday language, the narrator describes her house and relates connections in her mind in a stream of consciousness fashion.

By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our, Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Vintage Books edition of.