Literature Analysis #3

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read.

“The House on Mango Street” is a series of vignettes about Esperanza, a twelve year old Chicana girl, going through the phases of childhood. Esperanza has to cope with moving to a new home in a completely different neighborhood where she learns of the different lifestyles that could possibly be hers.  After Esperanza experiences the new friendships both good and bad, sexual assault, and the changes of her body as she grows into a woman she decides that she wants to leave the house on Mango Street and create a life where she has her own home that isn’t small or rundown but the way she wants it filled with a beautiful, happy family. Underneath this dream, though, she knows she can never fully escape this part of her life, her pas and those in it.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid clichés.

The theme of this story is “being the beholder of your own future”.  Throughout the plot, Esperanza serves us as a perfect example. Esperanza take the lives of those that surround her, such as neighbors, and this helps her form an outline of what her life could be. The characters that help her with this transformation are also beholders.

3. Describe the author's tone.  Include three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

There are numerous tones found throughout the story. Each vignette/chapter is a different tone that goes along with the changes of point of view Esperanza goes through.

•      Disillusionment: “Sally, you lied. It wasn't what you said at all. What he did. Where he touched me. I didn't want it, Sally. The way they said it, the way it’s supposed to be, all the storybooks and movies, why did you lie to me?” Esperanza was disillusioned because she was expected “this” to be something out of a fairytale book but the fact that she was assaulted took it all away from her.
•       Denial: “He never hits me hard. She said her mama rubs lard on all the places where it hurts. Then at school she’d say she fell. That’s where all the blue places came from. That’s why her skin is always scarred. But who believes her…”  Sally seems in denial when it comes to her father’s physical abuse out of fear, probably.
•      Anxiety and Distress: “All brown around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah. That is how it goes and goes.” The fact that they are going through some where exceptionally dangerous, this causes anxiety and distress.

4. Describe five literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the theme and/or your sense of the tone.  Include three excerpts that will help your reader understand each one.

1.   Imagery is such a strong literary technique that without it the impact of the story would not have been as great. Imagery gives the reader the chance to experience the events Esperanza goes through at its fullest. For example, when the characters felt fear as they went through the neighborhood of another color, the reader was able to feel that same fear because of imagery.
2.  A literary element would be characters. The characters are a main part of the story; they pretty much are the story.  It’s because of the character that Esperanza decides what she wants and what she doesn't want.
3.  Symbolism is another literary element used in “The House on Mango Street”. For example, in the chapter “Hairs” each family member’s hair in Esperanza’s family represents their personality. Papa's hair is stiff and stuck up like a broom in the air, it actually means that he is stuck up, strict, stiff, etc.
4.   Motifs were also used in the book. A motif I found was the fear of falling. An example would be Angel Vargas and Meme who both fall from significant heights. These falls cause Esperanza to hope she would never have to experience “falling”.
5. The last literary element I found in the story was personification.  At the end of the novel personification was used when Esperanza speaks of Mango Street as if it were someone and not something. "One day I will say goodbye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever". The street represents what she is leaving behind.