One of the themes of "The House on Mango Street": Obtaining women's autonomy

The protagonist-Esperanza fights with her family and community in order to obtain women's autonomy Alienation led to the path of writing. The low social status of Latin American immigrants is the main external reason. The awakening of the protagonist, the "little girl" Esperanza's own consciousness is the internal reason for her transformation.

Drifting under the sky of racial discrimination, the protagonist has no roots of his own. He cannot return to his hometown in Mexico, and he is unable to rush into the sky of white Americans, making the "little girl" feel helpless and hesitant. , all of which stimulate the "little girl" to finally choose a different path to change this situation.

The "protagonist" of the novel "The House on Mango Street" is Esperanza, a "little girl" living on Mango Street in Chicago's Latin American immigrant community. She murmurs to herself The lives of immigrants living on Mango Street. Through her own observations, she looked at the life of her family, the lives of her neighbors and all the people on Mango Street, and came to her own conclusion - only if she doesn't live like her mother, only if she doesn't live like other girls, Only through self-salvation, self-living, and writing can we embark on the right path.

The reason why the heroine was able to complete this series of changes and finally embark on a different path stems from the oppression of the family, that is, the family of her parents, the family of others, and the cruelty of girls starting their own families through marriage. The reality becomes a vivid negative teaching material for the protagonist to achieve transformation, laying the foundation for the little girl to make the right decision.

The book "The House on Mango Street" can reflect the social status of Latin American immigrants at that time. When the white girl Cathy told Esperanza, who had just moved in, that "the people in this community are getting more and more mixed" and said that the whole family wanted to leave Mango Street, the protagonist was suddenly touched. A little girl in someone else's country The differences he could feel immediately stimulated him. Different races and different skin colors suddenly awakened her racial consciousness. Esperanza finally understood that there is serious racial discrimination in the so-called white society. This is why they shy away from the Mexicans on Mango Street. Even if they make many efforts, it is difficult to get rid of their own color. Due to their racial status, it is also difficult to get rid of their own poverty and become equal to the white people around them and blend in.

Esperanza felt discriminated against and excluded. She was like a wireless kite in the social background, floating under the sky of racial discrimination. She had no roots of her own, that is, she could not return to her own. Her hometown in Mexico, and her inability to rush into the sky above white Americans, made her feel helpless and hesitant.

In the eyes of the heroine, families are divided into two types, one is the parent's family where children are born, and the other is the family formed through marriage. In these two types of families, in addition to the general social background, that is, the low social status of Latin American immigrants, men are also one of the reasons why women cannot be happy. The chains of women's oppression are passed from the hands of the father to the hands of the husband. The author uses many examples in the book to vividly show the different fates of the girls on Mango Street. At the same time, he also uses vivid examples to sound the alarm for the young protagonist: relying on men, relying on beauty, and relying on marriage still cannot change the fate of women. Alicia's father naturally despised his daughter and only wanted her to become a housewife. Marlene longs to attract men through her beauty and longs for pure love. She "waits for a car to stop, for a star to fall, for someone to change her life."

When an unmarried woman hopes to change her destiny through marriage, she is actually jumping from one kind of pain into another whirlpool. At the expense of self-delivery is a greater self-sacrifice. Rafina, who was locked up in the house by her husband because of her beauty, had an equally tragic fate. Because Rafina is beautiful, her husband keeps her locked in the house, and she lives in a cage of her husband's power. Minerva, who liked to write poetry, was only one or two years older than the heroine, but was abandoned by her husband. With her two-year-old child, she cried all day long and lived the same life as her mother. The beautiful Sally, her father used his authority to intimidate her every day, and even beat her like a dog. In order to get rid of the torture, she married a salesman. But Sally's husband took over his father's whip and continued to torture her, refusing to let her go out. Even Esperanza's mother herself is like this. Although she is beautiful, she married because she had no money to study and works hard every day to serve men.

The young protagonist Esperanza’s family is also patriarchal, and she even dares not talk to her brother outside. All these bloody facts that happened in various families were observed by the little protagonist through her own eyes, written down, experienced, and then thought about, becoming vivid negative teaching materials that she can awaken to. Regardless of whether these women are beautiful or not, their fate is equally miserable - they are either abandoned by men, beaten severely, or imprisoned. The thought that a new family would save her fate was shattered. Esperanza no longer hopes to wear beautiful clothes to attract men, and no longer hopes that marriage will change her destiny. She has learned many truths from her sisters, and she has gradually gained insight into the truth with her natural keen observation.

Only the protagonist's own awakening can gain women's independent rights

1. The awakening of female consciousness. At first, the protagonist thought that boys and girls lived in different worlds, and boys had different powers. As long as women put on high heels and become beautiful, it can help them change their destiny. It wasn't until Bam wanted to forcefully kiss Michelle that Esperanza realized that men would take advantage of their status to easily take away things that girls didn't want to give. She began to struggle internally and changed her mind. She realized that even if a woman is beautiful, They are nothing more than men's trophies, tools for men to use as they please. So Esperanza used her innate power of observation to observe her surroundings and the world, and devoted herself to writing. She no longer placed her hope on gender or that beauty would bring about any change in her destiny, and began to oppose the use of sex. , using family as a means of escaping from real life.

2. Awakening of social responsibility. If the little girl Esperanza just escaped from her past life, the significance of this novel may not be so significant. The key is that the little girl changes from an initial strong sense of self to a sense of responsibility to the entire community, to the entire Latin American immigrant community. At first the little girl just wanted to leave Mango Street. But then she gradually came into contact with the neighbors around her, and she felt a sense of love and responsibility for them. Especially the sense of responsibility for the girls on Mango Street. Although these different women have different fates, the endings are all tragic without exception, so the protagonist feels a strong sense of responsibility to save them and help these girls get rid of their inherent fate. Her life's responsibility. Just like the protagonist says at the end of the book: "They won't know that I left to come back. For those who stayed behind me. For those who couldn't get out." This reflects the protagonist's strong sense of social responsibility. As a writer, she has indeed done it, making the whole world pay attention to the living conditions of Latin American immigrants and a group of immigrants on Mango Street. Because of the best-selling of her works, more people have The deep thinking has aroused discussions among many scholars.

3. The awakening of writing consciousness is also the most important awakening of the young protagonist. The young protagonist Esperanza realizes that writing will give her the power to escape from Mango Street. Esperanza's powers of observation as a writer continue to mature throughout the work. In the early days she was a participant in the stories she narrated, but gradually she was able to write exclusively about the people around her, and she began to feel different from the people around her. By the end of the book, Esperanza already knows that through writing, she has gained power that is different from that of her family and others, and that she is different from them. Although she has not found her own home yet, she already has her own independent and private spiritual world.

The second theme of "The House on Mango Street": Constructing a Unique National Identity

"The House" is an excellent Mexican novel that broke out in the post-colonial dilemma. The background naturally determines the inevitability of the construction of national identity. "The Cabin" is the journey of the entire nation, represented by the protagonist Esperanza, as it grows and seeks to rebuild its national cultural identity. The fate of the protagonist is intertwined with the fate of Mango Street, and Mango Street is the epitome of the entire nation. The fate of Mango Street is the fate of the entire nation, and its process of seeking self-identity is also the process of seeking national identity. She went out “for those who didn’t.” Although he was on the margins and regarded as "other" by the colonized people, he did not give up on himself or give up the pursuit of his own identity. This pursuit process includes two aspects: resistance and subversion of the colonizer's culture and the pursuit of the ideal "homeland".

Cisneros sticks to his own Mexican culture by emphasizing the differences in national culture, paying attention to the parts of Mexican culture and white culture, emphasizing the separation and difference between national culture and colonial culture, and focusing on colonial culture. The national crisis brought about by the socialist system.

Most postcolonial writers are free from the dilemma between national culture and colonial culture. Cisneros emphasizes national differences and highlights the "root" cultural tradition in her creations. The most important and unique thing is that this novel is the story of the Mexican immigrant himself, using his own voice to write about his experience as the "other". From this level, this novel is also a counter-writing of colonial texts. . Multiple Narratives

1. Children’s Narrative Perspective and “Children’s Paradise”

In “The House on Mango Street”, the author Sandra Cisneros adopts the method of communicating with adults The whole story of Mango Street is told from the perspective of children with relative perspective. Children are in the early stages of life, and their understanding of the world is emotional and illogical. Due to the characteristics of children's thinking and feeling, the text from the children's perspective presents the prose characteristics of fragmented plot and structure in space. This fragmented form of textual expression is precisely a breakthrough in the structure of traditional novels based on causal logic or chronological order.

The 44 memory fragments in the work "The House on Mango Street" are like 44 long and short poems, showing dynamic, intertwined and impacting cultural vitality. The seemingly unrelated sections describe the life experiences of the women living on Mango Street, symbolizing the fragmentation of their lives. Any fragment in the book can stand on its own, just like a photo in Sandra Cisneros's personal memory exhibition. For example, I first met Cathy, the Cat Queen, a distant cousin of the Queen of France; I rode a bicycle bought by the three of them together and wandered on Mango Street; I delivered papaya juice to Rafina who was locked in the house by her husband; I heard that my mother did not realize it. Complaints about wishes; embarrassment at the christening party when she was afraid to accept someone else's invitation because she didn't have new shoes, and feeling at a loss after being forcibly kissed by a man while waiting for Sally. Sandra Cisneros uses this to explain why and how she walked out of Mango Street and realized her dream of reconstructing herself.

"Rosettes", "candy rings", "bagel-like cats", "thick lips like ice cream", "tortilla stars", "pillow-like clouds", "rabbits" "Feet as tender as ears", "Madame Butterfly", "Narrow-eyed Stars", the author uses these vivid and vivid images to construct the fairy tale kingdom on Mango Street in his memory. Sandra Cisneros adopts a special narrative perspective, using children's feelings and thoughts as the narrator to show the real world in children's eyes.

Children’s clear eyes can see the “authentic” world that is difficult to see through the eyes of adults who have been baptized by time. The contradictions, disadvantages and prejudices from adult society can always be reflected in the words of Esperanza and her friends. "There are brown people everywhere, and we are safe. But when we drive into a neighborhood with another color, our knees shake and we roll up the windows tightly." "She sits there all day long. Listening to a Spanish radio program at the window, singing various homesick songs about her country, "Don't Speak English, Don't Speak English," and then bursting into tears, the reader can "hear" the inner voice of the children and "see" it. Children long to walk freely through the streets of the city. Children will not hide in closed cars with fear because of their different skin colors. Children are eager to fly freely like birds.

When children observe the world with clear eyes and a simple childlike innocence, they will omit the complexity, ugliness, hatred, malice, scheming, conspiracy, strife and intrigue. As a result, there are many vivid images in the article and female characters with similar fates to the protagonists in fairy tales. These are a kind of comfort to the soul of the little protagonist Esperanza.

2. Female Narrative Perspective and the “Warm Kingdom of Daughters”

On Mango Street, there are groups of women of all colors: their hair is like “little rosettes” , the "Mother" who smells like "bread to be baked" and has a "warm fragrance"; the "Cat Queen Cathy" who is a distant cousin of the Queen of France; Marlene who is always "waiting for someone to change her life"; there are many The child's Rosa Fargas; Alicia who "saw the mouse"; Ilenita, the "fortune teller"; the "tall skinny beauty" Luoer; who was locked away by her husband all day long because she was too beautiful Rafina in the room; Sally with "Egyptian eye circles"; Mamacita who refuses to speak English, etc., are like a small "daughter country" full of exotic Mexican customs.

There are many female characters living under the "patriarchy" on Mango Street. Rafina was locked in a room by her husband because of her beauty.

Rafina hopes that she can have long hair like Princess Rapunzel and can leave the hut to dance in the bar. She longs for the day when the clothesline can turn into a silver rope to let her escape. Rafina just jumped from a wooden cage into another exquisite iron cage. The papaya juice every Tuesday is her longing and waiting for a better life. "So Rafina, who grew old because she leaned against the window for too long at a young age" will always have an iron chain of patriarchy that cannot be removed.

In the section "The House of Little Feet", after Esperanza and her friends put on high heels, they all became "Cinderella", regardless of the wishes of the grocer Mr. Binney. Warned, they took to the streets, walking "like a trick rope" under the watchful eyes of men. In the praise of the poor boys and the jealousy of the women in front of the laundry, their self-confidence instantly "swelled" and they decided never to wear other shoes again. Esperanza suggested walking down the street so arrogantly that men couldn't take their eyes off us. They tried to use their bodies to attract men and use this method to gain a short-term "dominance" status. However, when a drunken scoundrel wanted to exchange a dollar for Rachel's kiss, they felt the danger approaching and began to fear, " Our high heels carried us all the way down the street, around the block, onto Mango Street and back, just in case." Apparently they feel that Mango Street is the safest, just like they feel safe walking on the street without wearing high heels.

In order to seek liberation from this oppressive and unequal relationship, women living under the "patriarchal system" began to struggle and resist, and their path of resistance was also deeply influenced by Mexico. The influence of two women in traditional culture - La Malinche and Our Lady of Guadalupe. In "The House on Mango Street", Cisneros fragmented the characteristics of two archetypal characters, recombined and blended these characteristics, thereby creating a woman who highlighted the individuality and heterogeneity of women. Groups and the female kingdom. Whether it is "Mama", Rosa Fargas, Marlene, Rafina or Luer, they are all extensions and rebirths of these two archetypal characters in real life.

The young protagonist Esperanza constantly adjusts her value orientation and makes choices in her contacts with these women with different temperaments and life experiences. She is neither like her mother, grandmother, Rosa Fargas, Egret, or Minerva, who complains but still submits, endures humiliation, and follows the "Virgin of Guadalupe style" respected by the traditional patriarchal society. They did not use their body as a weapon of resistance like Marlene, Rafina and Sally. This was also their only weapon. Then they repeated the mistakes of La Malinche. Under the strong patriarchal rule, they The resistance is so insignificant.

Esperanza refuses to be simply Our Lady of Guadalupe or La Malinche. In the poem she reads to Aunt Guadalupe, there are vague seeds of seeking independence and freedom: " I want to be the waves in the sea and the clouds in the wind, but I am still just a little me. One day I will jump out of my body and shake the sky like a hundred violins." The aunt said to her: "Remember you have to keep writing, Esperanza, you must keep writing, it will make you free." The aunt who has the same name as Our Lady of Guadalupe seems to be using her own personal experience Warning the little protagonist not to follow the same path as her, she seems to have seen a road leading to an independent and free kingdom, but unfortunately she is already dying. Her aunt's words gave Esperanza the direction, so in "Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes", the little protagonist packed bags of books and paper into her bag, secretly determined that when she was strong enough, she would Leave Mango Street. Only in this way can Esperanza have the house she wants, not her father's, nor any man's, but completely her own.

Esperanza explores a feasible path and relies on knowledge to change her destiny. Little Esperanza did not leave Mango Street just for personal development. She knew very well that she left in order to return in the future. Esperanza found a path of growth that could accommodate her true female self-worth and self-awareness in the binary opposition principles and thinking of black-white, good-bad traditional Mexican culture. While achieving self-reinvention, we must not forget to inspire thousands of Mexican women to step out bravely, let the white mainstream society listen to their voices, and beat the drum and shout to change the living conditions of the entire ethnic group.

3. Cultural Narrative Perspective and the Cultural "Grand Courtyard"

Thinking about "self-identity" is one of the focuses of Sandra Cisneros. Imposed restrictions on freedom are a reality of life for Chicano women. Due to the unique cultural background of Mexican women, their stylistic style reflects a kind of hybridity and randomness, that is, they often use "code switching" between English and Spanish to express a cross-cultural identity.

One of the moving aspects of "The House on Mango Street" is that in the seemingly immature words, in the small space of personal experience, there are multiple cultures "intertwined". The "name" of the little protagonist Esperanza has completely different meanings in English and Spanish is a good example: "In English, my name means hope. In Spanish, it means too much." In school, they said my name was funny, the syllables seemed to be made of iron and hurt the roof of my mouth, but in Spanish, my name was made of something softer, like silver. "Hope and waiting", "iron and silver", this contrast makes the two cultures vividly reflected in Esperanza's name. The cultural differences bring her a sense of lack of identity. She didn't know what to do with her name.

Amidst the rejection of mainstream culture, Esperanza once wanted to change her name to cater to the needs of mainstream culture. She hoped that her name would be Cassandra, or Alexis - as long as If it’s not Esperanza, any name will do - it embodies the specific manifestation of Mexican Americans wandering between mainstream culture and their own culture, not knowing where to go.

Poetic novel

The poetic characteristics of "The House on Mango Street" are three: perspective, music and lyricism. These three poetic characteristics interpret the author Cisneros' inner poetic world in a unique way and guide readers to appreciate the charm of her poetic language. Poetic novels reflect the diversity of the novel genre. They not only have the general characteristics of novels, but also have the artistic beauty of poetry. "The so-called poetic novels do not use the rhythm of poetry or the external form of poetry (such as line arrangement) to write novels, but use the perspective of poetry, the skills of poetry, and the language of poetry to write novels." The inner meaning of this kind of poeticization This method integrates the beauty of poetry into the novel. Cisneros, the author of "The House on Mango Street", has been known for writing poetry before.

The author Cisneros’ unique sensitivity and fluency of language are immersed in the novels she creates. In addition, the author also embellishes the traditional Mexican culture in his own blood between the lines of the text, which makes the work more poetic and exotic in Mexican style.

Perspective

“Perspective in poetic novels is impersonal. The author Cisneros mostly focuses on the fate of mankind in his works, rather than the fate of a certain person. "The House on Mango Street" is not just about the Esperanza family, but reflects the living conditions of immigrant families across the United States through this Mexican-American immigrant family. Little Esperanza's family, who was born in the United States, had to move to Mango Street, where ethnic minorities live, because of poverty. In the fantasy, the mumbling little girl had a big house of her own, a house "with a basement and at least three bathrooms." However, the reality is cruel. When a nun passed by their house and asked the little girl about her real home, the disappointed tone of little Esperanza, who was full of dreams of a decent big house, reflected the current situation of the lives of ethnic minorities in the United States. The feeling of helplessness. "I had to look where she was pointing - on the third floor, where the walls were stained and there were a few wooden bars across the windows. Dad nailed them up so that we wouldn't fall out. Where do you live? She The way he spoke made me feel like I was nothing."

Just as "poetry is a highly condensed art, it is the art of seeing the big from the small." Cisneros wrote about her childhood feelings about housing. In the works, although there is no external form of poetry, the essence of poetry runs through it. A few horizontal strips bear witness to the embarrassment of life. The author does not examine the housing situation from an adult's perspective, but writes his inner feelings with the sensitivity and fear of a child. Even children feel that their lives are unsatisfactory, which shows how well adults understand their situation. And all of this is closely related to the immigration background of the United States at that time.

The house that the heroine Esperanza is looking for in "The House on Mango Street" is actually a search for her own identity. The theme of identity search often appears in the works of ethnic minority literature.

Based on her own experience growing up as a Mexican-American minority, Cisneros sheds light on the theme of identity seeking throughout minority literature. The entire search process also reflects the long-term search and identification of self-identity by ethnic minorities in the United States in the face of white culture, and whether to choose to accept or escape from the unsatisfactory living conditions. Esperanza's fate is not only personal, but also reflects the complex social class of Westerners in the entire society. "The House on Mango Street" is a pair of eyes that see through the world. With the help of these searching eyes, readers can taste the bitterness and helplessness of life, the beauty of ideals and the cruelty of reality, and show different life classes through multi-layered descriptions. The author transforms the things he longed for as a child into little Esperanza's inner needs one by one, and looks at the world through the eyes of children, showing the perspective beauty of poetic language.

Musicality

The musicality of poetic novels uniquely integrates music and novels. Similar to poetry, poetic novels also have rhythm and plain rhyme. The novel does not rigidly follow the stylistic form of poetry, but appropriately integrates rhyme and rhythm. At this time, the reader of the novel no longer only reads the text, but also becomes an audience listening to the beautiful melody of the poetic novel.

In the novel Esperanza saw a music box in a corner store owned by a black man. The moment the old man promised to open it, the box immediately emitted a beautiful melody. This music box opens a series of unpredictable adventures, adding a romantic melody to the childhood lives of two innocent and romantic little girls. The novel describes it this way: "It was just an old wooden box. There was a big brass recording inside with some small holes in it. Then he started it, and suddenly thousands of sounds sounded. It seemed that he was Suddenly, a million moths flew out from the dusty furniture, from the swan-neck shadow, and from our bones, like a drop of water or a xylophone. Plucking the strings makes a sound like fingers sliding across the teeth of a metal comb.”

The sound produced by the music box is very rhythmic like a xylophone. "It makes a sound like fingers sliding across the teeth of a metal comb" brings the reader from the words in front of them into the world of sound, as if someone is holding a metal-toothed comb in their ears, and the fingertips are moving from front to back, and the notes will jump. out. The sound of the xylophone-like music box is calm and natural, carrying the soul back to the depths of music to find the pure land of the spirit. The characteristics of musicality in poetic novels will help readers enhance their understanding and perception of the novel, and to a certain extent, stimulate their interest in reading. Books with black and white text suddenly have tone and melody under the background of music. After reading it, it seems that "the lingering sound lingers for three days".

Lyricity

Poets often express their feelings directly, and poetic novels also do not hesitate to express their feelings. "The most subtle inner feelings of the characters... can be vividly conveyed bit by bit in the lyrical monologue." "The House on Mango Street" confronts the heroine Esperanza's desire for a stable house in her childhood. The sadness of frustration, the troubles of growing up and the realization of one's own female identity are vividly and vividly depicted.

The four thin trees next to Esperanza’s house became a symbol of the writer’s perseverance in the face of difficulties. "Their power is a secret" is just like the heroine, whose small body carries too much weight.

Facing reality, Esperanza fantasizes about a big house that can be shown to others in pain, and one day she can live in her parents' "promised land" and realize her dream. When all the difficulties and sufferings came to her, the author expressed his sympathy and affirmation for the little girl. No matter how many setbacks she encounters, little Esperanza will cling to the soil with their whiskered toes like four slender trees and bite the sky with their fierce teeth.

"The House on Mango Street" touches people's hearts precisely because of its lyricism, and precisely because of the author's passionate and sincere dreams that awaken people's long-hidden fighting spirit. Without the overflow of emotions between the lines, there would be no success of "The House on Mango Street". The most important thing in poetic novels is lyricism, which is the soul of the whole novel. Lyricity embodies the connotation of the entire novel. Through lyricism, "The House on Mango Street" comes to life. Whether the topic is identity search or feminism, it is the true emotions expressed that make the article touch people's hearts. Esperanza, the name means hope in English; in Spanish it means sadness and waiting.