Blogs
The House on Mango Street
||
In The House on Mango Street (Nanjing: Yilin Press, 2006), Sandra Cisneros, the Mexican-American author, gives us a vivid, poetic recollection of her childhood. Cisneros, a teacher, poet, short story writer as well as a novelist, is well-known for fantasies and dreams in her published works, especially in The House on Mango Street. As the first popular novel of her own, The House on Mango Street did really arouse the readers’ interest and curiosity, and surprisingly it won the American Book Award in 1985.
The House on Mango Street covers a year in the life of a little girl called Esperanza, who is always moving among poor, noisy, crowded slums. The whole book consists of 44 short passages, each of which encircling different topics. The story is set in a “sad red house” (281) on Mango Street, and also ends with it, indicating that she will belong to “A house all my own.”(279), “One day I will say goodbye to Mango.”(281), “One day I will go away.”(281).And the major part of the story seems to have been written randomly, informal essays describing the surroundings, the neighborhood and the trifles happening on the protagonist——Esperanza. According to her description, we can learn the hardship and the bitterness of her growth; we can understand the happiness and sorrow of her childhood; what’s more, we can get much closer to the cruel life of the Chicanos.
I am impressed with Cisneros’s diction, that is to say, the use of language. The word is pure and sweet, as if the author herself was who she used to be decades ago, when she was only twelve years old. For instance, “Cathy who is queen of cats has cats and cats and cats.”(162) “There was a family. All were little.”(193) “Maybe the sky didn’t look the day she fell down. Maybe God was busy.”(218)In general, only children can narrate their experiences like this. Nevertheless, Cisneros imitates the tone of children fairly naturally. As a matter of fact, behind these childlike behavior and words is the hidden feeling which Cisneros really wants to convey to us. To this degree, she maintains a good balance of simplicity and sophistication.
I also react strongly to the descriptions of injustices suffered by the Chicanos. The hair, the old shoes and even the name of Cisneros is ever mentioned being ridiculed. Similarly, the people around Esperanza are also enduring the same tough life. Her Papa “crumbles like a coat and cries.” (215); her aunt Lupe is “sick from the diseases that would not go.” (217) and “then she died.”(222); the beautiful girl Ruthie “sees lovely things everywhere.”(231) and actually is blind; Mamacita who lives in a pink world never comes down, afraid of the acceptance of the indifferent outside. We cannot help ourselves showing sympathy for those innocent victims.
Fortunately, the misfortune of such people listed or not listed above does not cast a shadow on little Esperanza. She is not fragile but brave. What impresses me the most is her poem, “I want to be like the waves on the sea, like the clouds in the wind, but I’m me. One day I’ll jump out of my skin. I’ll shake the sky like a hundred violins.” After reviewing the book, we can easily come to the conclusion that Esperanza is the girl whose life is the most colorful, consistent with “In English my name means hope.”(159)And that’s the spiritual values the book leaves us.
Above all, The House on Mango Street is a book worthy of memorizing. Thank Cisneros for bringing us into her well-built dreamy world. And wish her dream will come true in one day. “Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem.”(279) Finally, let us bear in mind, “You can’t forget who you are.” “You must remember always to come back.”(276)
芒果街上的小屋
