The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

[meganbmoore]

This novella is a collection of vignettes told from the perspective of Esperanza, a young woman just entering puberty who lives in the Latino section of Chicago. Each vignette is independent from the one before. Told in relatively chronological order, Esperanza’s perceptions are initially naïve and accepting of the world, even though she’s aware from the start of her social status. As the book continues, however, she becomes more and more aware of the difficulties and differences caused by her race, especially the sexual dangers. By the end of the book, aided by unpleasant experiences, she comes to find her life and environment suffocating, and uses her writing to escape from it.

The book doesn’t have a plot, particularly, but is instead about Esperanza’s impressions and perceptions of the world, and how she deals with them. I wish this was something I’d been assigned to read in middle school, or early in high school. I would have gotten a lot more out of it than the books about boys and sports and boys and their parents.

Comments

[yukina-raven.livejournal.com]

I actually read this book for my 11th grade English class. I really enjoyed it. I should probably re-read it because I've forgotten most of it by now.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have minded reading it in my 11th grade English class...

[yukina-raven.livejournal.com]

I thought it was a very fitting book for 11th grade English. I liked it more than the other we read like Frankenstein and that other book about Nazis that I forgot the title of... something about moons. "Two Moons Down"?

fff I don't remember.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

I read this book in my Junior year of High School English, and I find it amazing. ^^ I really do adore its structure, and the slow development of Esperanza's voice.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

High School reading curriculum has clearly improved the last few years.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

Well, we still had to read Wuthering Heights.

[marspeach.livejournal.com]

I had to read it for 10th grade English. I didn't like it very much, mostly because we read a lot of similar books at the time. It was also confusing.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I found it very easy to follow. But then, I'm reading it at 28, not 16.

[danyellalot.livejournal.com]

Ah, I read that for Honors English in 9th grade. Almost everyone hated it but I rather liked it.

[heavensgardener.livejournal.com]

I read it for 8th grade pre-IB English. Probably my favorite of what we had to read.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

I read that just for fun maybe fifteen years ago or so. I really enjoyed it.

I also liked "Woman Hollering Creek" though I'm not sure if I finished all the stories in it.

[seven-trees.livejournal.com]

I remember reading this in 8th or 9th grade. I might have read it in Spanish though, because there's a lot of it that I'm blanking on.