The House On Mango Street (continued)

Sorry, my computer messed up earlier and I never got to finish.
I was saying, that many of the female characters in The House On Mango Street are expressed as being apart from the world around them. Additionally, Cisneros continually throughout the novella describes them as looking out the window from inside. Esperanza's grandmother was wild until she was forced into marraige by her husband, and then spent the rest of her life looking out the window of her house instead of being who she wanted to be. Louie's girl cousin Marin is can't leave her house, and stands looking out the doorway all day. Mamacita arrives and sits all day by the window because, esperanza believes, she is afraid because she can't speak english. Rafeala is locked in her house by her husband and leans out the window too much. Etc. Etc. Etc. The more I read, the more I can see this displacement felt by these women in their home country. And the confusion as to where they belong.

The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

I have actually had to read this novella before, but honestly, the first time I opened it, read a few pages and shut it. I guess that I just didn't think it was worth my time because It seemed too brief and superficial to be meaningful. For our class, I reread it, and it is actually much better the second time. I tried to think of the story in the context of the "New Mestizo" and the life of Sandra Cisneros. We learned about the experience of Mexican-American women, as they feel that they constantly straddle the border of two cultures and never feel completely excepted into either. She described, in her youth retreating inside of herself and living as an observer of the world around her, more so than a participant. All of this information really added to reading the House on Mango Street. I noticed, more than the last attempt at finishing the book, the lives of the women. it seemed that all of them experienced the same sort of separateness form society. The first time I read the book, I thought that their distance form the outside world was due to the conditions of their surrounding, instead of an issue of identity. Esperanza stays inside and looks out the window