Journal Four - Brooke

In the chapter, “Minerva Writes Poems” of The House on Mango Street, the theme that stood out to me is personal hardships. Esperanza clues us in on the hardship Minerva is going through as well as how she is dealing with it. Minerva has two kids and is raising them while her husband comes and goes. It’s a continuous cycle of him leaving, then apologizing and Minerva letting him back in each time. She doesn’t give herself a chance to heal and be happy without him. She continues the same self destructive-like behavior and getting herself hurt by him. He comes back because he knows she will be there, she is letting him manipulate her instead of putting her foot down and standing up for herself and her family. It’s not good for the kids to grow up with a father who is there for a week and gone for the next. To add to that, Esperanza is someone who truly cares about people and for her to see Minerva in such pain and he feeling like there’s nothing she can do to help her, I think, is really upsetting Esperanza. After talking about Minerva’s family and introducing her poems, Cisneros writes, “She is always sad like a house on fire—always something wrong,” (Cisneros 84). This sentence really stood out to me, not only for the great metaphor, but mostly because I feel like I can very much relate to it. Recently, life has thrown many things at me and my family. While trying to deal with the first unfortunate event, we were interrupted by a few more, which goes back to the “always something wrong” part of the sentence. I understand, to a certain extent, why Minerva keeps letting him back in. I think she is trying to go back to the happiness she once had, because I know that once someone you love is gone, you’d do anything to have them back.

My grandmother had a huge impact on my life. I always admired her. She was born in Forino-Avelino, Italy. When she immigrated to the United States, she was just 17. She struggled for a while because her english wasn’t great but she continued to learn and pushed herself to accomplish whatever she set her mind to. Growing up, my grandmother was my idol. She taught me how to be comfortable with myself. She always told me stories of my mother and my uncle when they were kids, one of them including her chasing my mom’s not-so-nice boyfriend down the street with a broom yelling at him with her thick Italian accent. Other people may think that story makes he sound crazy, but I wish I stood up for myself the way she stood up to protect my mom. When I was young, I payed such close attention to they way she folded laundry or washed dishes and listened carefully to the lessons she taught me. In January of 2017, my grandmother was diagnosed with brain cancer. Watching her fade away was really difficult, she used to be so full of life and energy. Her and my brother used to have debates over different issues and it was just fun to listen to. On August 31st, my grandmother passed away. While in Connecticut for the services we shared different stories about her.  Her soul may have left her body behind, but she will live through me forever.

This is from my 18th birthday this summer, it's the last picture I have of my grandmother.