Jennifer Carnes

The House on Mango Street and

the writing style of Sandra Cisneros

Clearly, Sandra Cisneros’ writing style is one representative of a minority voice. Her amazing style allows her readers to take an active part in the minority experience. For this reason, I believe Cisneros has had a lot of influence and success in the status of minority writers, especially in the canon of what is read and taught in schools today. But, more than anything, Cisneros has shown that liberation can come through creativity and literature, and not just through geographical excursion.

Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street is a novel about the importance of not forgetting where you come from. Esperanza, a young Latino girl and the story’s main character, wants to adopt a different name and to move far away from Mango Street. Esperanza wants to get away from the neighborhood surrounding Mango Street and play a greater role in a new society. But, at the same time, she is knows that "You can’t forget who you are" (Cisneros 105). Because of this statement, and others like it, The House on Mango Street is very much about maintaining a sense of self-identity. These themes are also present in some of Cisneros’ short stories, like "Never Marry a Mexican," "Barbie-Q," and "Only Daughter." It is because of the success of stories like these that have helped Cisneros’ audience share the minority experience.

The House on Mango Street illustrates how Esperanza wants to leave Mango Street, but at the same time she knows that at the present moment she cannot. The young girl understands that even though she will one day "say goodbye to Mango," it is a place that was and will always be part of her and who she is. (Cisneros 110). As critic Julian Olivares has noted, "on the higher plane of art, then, Esperanza transcends her condition, finding another house which is the space of literature" (240). In other words, Esperanza comes to understand that identity is very much beyond where one’s house is located. It may even be connected to art. In examining these profound themes, Cisneros has been able to achieve a significant amount of influence and success in the role and status of minority writers.

As stated previously, Cisneros’ style in The House on Mango Street suggests to us that liberation can be achieved through an art form, rather than physically picking up and moving your residence. Esperanza overcomes her condition by creating the realm of literature, rather than the physical reality of another house in another time and place. In this way, she is able to distance herself from her community and family. But all the while, still holding on to her heritage and ethnicity. By affirming her own artistic ability, Esperanza is able to blend all of her dreams. Because of this we come to understand that one can achieve self-discovery and even independence through something so remote as literature. This is where I find Cisneros’ influence the most powerful. I believe she is stressing a theme here, not just for Hispanics, but for all minorities as well. She lets them know that liberation can be achieved within several realms of the human experience.

I believe that Cisneros demonstrates that individual values can and usually are socially constructed. As critic Ellen McKracken writes, "the volume’s simple, poetic language, with its insistence that the individuals develop within a social community rather than isolation, distances it from many accepted ideological texts" (64). Because of this, I believe that this novel is revolutionary in the sense that it breaks certain boundaries which are built and enforced by dominant elites. I enjoy Cisneros’ work because she challenges these elites, and as a result of that, her work has been able to give great prominence to other minority writers who also work to fight the status quo.

I think overall that Esperanza represents the struggling Hispanic female. Throughout her story, we see that she must grow up and ultimately realize that in order to have her own house someday, she must work hard in developing herself as a writer (Oliveras 239-240). A very important reality here is that Esperanza’s poverty is the biggest barrier keeping her from leaving Mango Street. But also, a key point to make is that she does not let that keep her from having hopes and dreams. Again, Cisneros’ powerful writing style so eloquently makes us realize that the oppressed minority can in fact be liberated by the imagination.

We see in this novel that Esperanza begins to free herself through her writing. While she mentally frees herself, she is still able to maintain her commitment to her roots on Mango Street. Esperanza’s main dilemma is that she longs to escape poverty, but at the same she yearns to keep her roots. Thusly, through her artistic abilities she is able to transgress poverty, but remains fixed on Mango Street. In this manner, Cisneros’ style is representative of a profound minority voice. Once again, it is the intelligence of Cisneros’ style that ultimately leads her audience in sharing the minority experience.

To a large extent, much of the realities that Cisneros discusses are about the false consciousness that is imposed upon the poor and the downtrodden, and about the real life oppression that exists among Latino women in inner cities. McKracken notes, "Besides the double marginalization that stems from gender and ethnicity, Cisneros transgresses the dominant discourse of canonical standards ideologically and linguistically" (65). What McKracken means here is that the author herself has transcended the parameters that the dominant culture has tried to trap her in. This is precisely why Cisneros has had such enormous influence and great success in the status of minority writers. It is my belief that because of Sandra Cisneros’ writing, in terms of what is read and taught in schools across America and especially Texas, other minority writers have benefited and received much more status.

What remains significant is that young Esperanza is not alone in her naïve state and inexperience. Of course she thinks she is alone, but more than likely, all poor Hispanic girls her age suffer from the same ailment. So Esperanza’s image of herself is not really a true reflection of reality. To illustrate this, in several places Esperanza says that she sees herself as estranged, unattractive, unintelligent, and insignificant. But all of us know that these fears are pretty much universal among all adolescent persons. But sadly, I think it may safely be said that the dominant culture does try to impose some form of self-hatred on minorities.

It would appear that Esperanza is trapped on Mango Street. And as we have said, she hopes to leave, yet when she considers leaving, it is most interesting to see that she plans to never forget those who cannot leave. Cisneros writes:

One can interpret this line to mean that Esperanza is referring to a part of herself, while she thinks she is talking about other people. Again there is the idea that she knows a part of herself will never be able to leave.

Another interesting theme that Cisneros develops is symbolized by Esperanza’s friendship with Sally. At one point, she wishes passionately to return to the past, saying that, "I wanted to go back with the other kids who were still jumping on cars, still chasing each other through the garden, but Sally had her own game" (Cisneros 96). In this theme, Cisneros touches on a new motif… a very powerful nostalgia for the lost past.

Throughout Esperanza’s story-telling, her audience gradually learns what kind of person the young girl is. Clearly we see her views on life, how she sees herself, and even how her poverty and her gender affect her life. We see all of this unfold, of course, within her aspiration to leave her physical surroundings. Esperanza’s dream is symbolized by her dream of a new home. For she says, "They always told us one day we would move into a house, a real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn’t have to move each year. (Cisneros 4 ). From early on in the novel, I soon became aware that this new house might be symbolic of a social liberation as well.

In conclusion, I believe it is evident that Cisneros’ work is very much a depiction of her own life. She was clearly expected to take on traditional female roles, and this is plainly reflected in the feminist strains of much of her writing (Sagel 74). Overall, in The House on Mango Street, Esperanza remains the heroine, for she continually dreams of independence. So too does Cisneros. Unquestionably, Cisneros’ writing style tells us that even if we feel lost, ugly, oppressed physically, spiritually, ethnically or even because of our gender, we can always liberate ourselves through the power of literature and the wonderment of the imagination.

WORKS CITED

Cisneros, Sandra. "Never Marry A Mexican," Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. New York: Random House, 1991: 68-83.

Cisneros, Sandra. "Only Daughter," Mascaras. Ed. Lucha Corpi. Berkeley, Ca.: Third Woman, 1997: 120-23.

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.

McKracken, Ellen. "Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street: Community-Oriented Introspection and the Demystification of Patriarchal Violence," Breaking Boundaries: Latina Writing and Critical Readings. Eds. Delgado Horne et al. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989: 62-71.

Olivares, Julian. "Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, and the Poetics of Space," Chicana Creativity and Criticism: New Frontiers in American Literature. Ed. Helena Viramontes. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996: 233-44.

Sagel, Jim. "Sandra Cisneros." Publishers Weekly March 29, 1991: 74-75.