Madeline Allison
English 1109 at 10:15, M-W
8/27/18
Journal Two: Our First Blog Post, From Madeline Allison
My name is Madeline Allison and I am a Communication Major from Delaware, Ohio. I am currently 18 years old and a freshman at the Ohio State Marion Campus. The Fun Fact I previously shared was that I started singing in bars when I was 15 years old. I love the environment as well as performing; and I hope to continue performing throughout my life. Also, I am a power lifter and am currently training to be a body bodybuilder. I Love having control over my body and meeting goals I set for myself. I am looking forward to class this semester.
I am thoroughly enjoying The House on Mango Street. Cisneros style is very interesting; especially her phrasing. For example, on page 4, she uses repetition in a unique manner. “We had to leave the flat on Loomis quick.” And then a sentence later, “We had to leave fast (Cisneros, 4).” Usually, authors use repetition to emphasize a point; however, I suspect in this case, she might be trying to tell readers something about her character. From what I’ve read so far, I think it relates to the underlying theme that Esperanza wants to reinvent herself, or find a new sense of self. On page 4 she’s talking about a previous home, so maybe the author is suggesting that moving around had a significant impact on Esperanza. Cisneros states this theme in a more direct manner on page 11. “I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees (Cisneros, 11).” Gender roles is a motif in which this theme is portrayed. Specifically, that she does not identify with the gender roles put in place by her culture. On page 10 she says, “[Grandmother] was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horse—which is supposed to be bad luck if you’re born female—but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don’t like their women strong (Cisneros, 10).” She later talks about wanting to deviate from her association with her grandmother; and that she wants to be her own person (Cisneros, 11). With all this in mind, I feel the way her culture represses her as a woman, as she states in the quote on page 10, plays a part in her own identity crisis.
This is a picture of me on vacation in Clearwater, Florida.
This is a picture of me on vacation in Clearwater, Florida.
I agree with your blog post so much! It was tough for me to decide whether or not the main theme was about Esperanza trying to reinvent herself, or if the theme was about family. I think both themes play off of each other, a lot of the reasons she wants to reinvent herself have to do with her family in one way or another.
ReplyDeleteI think it might be a combination of the two! According to sociology, (specifically Mead's theory on sense of self), our sense of self is heavily influenced by the people and environments we are exposed to, especially at a young age. However, I think as we start to see society at a larger scale, it is normal to want to become more independant. After all, that's how we learn to be functional members of society ourselves. So what esperanza is going through is, for now at least, a typical reaction to adolescence; but Cisneros does an incredible job at dictating exactly what emotions and sensory detail may be associated with such change. The House on Mango Street, to me, is an inspirational story of how we become mebers of society.
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