Significance of Trees in The House on Mango Street

In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, there are many symbols scattered throughout the book. Last week we focused on windows, but another symbol i noticed in this book were trees. Trees were mentioned a couple of times in The House on Mango Street and it seems like they are used to represent Ezperanza's feelings of not fitting in and feeling like she doesn't belong.
In one of the vignettes, Esperanza describes the trees as being tall and skinny and not belonging where they are, but they're there anyways. She relates this back to herself and you can tell that she feels out of place in her society, where she's growing up and that she feels like she is just living there, but she doesn't really belong there, like the trees.
Esperanza also states, "I am the only one that understand them" and they are the only ones that understand me. This is another quote that shows that Esperanza feels like she doesn't belong because she is saying that nobody truly understands her besides the trees. This shows that she feels alone and that she can not exactly find anyone where she lives who can relate to her or make her feel like she is important or that she actually belongs.
She also makes a comment about her sister having no respect for the trees and not recognizing them and their significance. It isn't very clear or really mentioned in this vignette, but it makes me wonder if this is how she feels about herself. I wonder if she feels unnoticed and/or unappreciated by the people around her because she does mention how the trees are the only ones who understand her so, this makes me think that another commonality she may share with these long, skinny trees is that people don't recognize the significance in her, similarly to her sister not noticing the true beauty that Esperanza sees in the trees around her.

All in all, it seems to me that these trees mentioned throughout The House on Mango Street are used to symbolize the main character Esperanza's feelings of not belonging or fitting in in the society in which she lives in. I also infer that she may also feel unnoticed or unappreciated by the people around her, however I am not completely sure.

Significance in Windows - The House on Mango Street

In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, there are many different objects that are mentioned a significant amount of times throughout the book that are symbols/references to things the main character Esperanza experiences throughout her life. One of these symbols are windows, which are mentioned in a couple of vignettes in the book. Behind these windows, there always seems to be a women trapped on the other side of them for one reason or another.

For example, in the vignette "No Speak English," Esperanza talks about a woman known as Mamacita who is the wife of one of her neighbors that has worked very hard to bring her and her son from Mexico to the US. Mamacita never seems to come outside from her house and people have said that it is because she is too fat to fit through the door or doesn't want to walk down the stairs (No Speak English, pg.76). However, Esperanza comes to the conclusion that she doesn't want to come out side because she is afraid to since she can't speak English. She also describes how this woman is trapped behind the window of her house and longs for her old pink home back in Mexico. It seems as though this window holds her back from experiencing the world outside her new house.

Another example of a woman being trapped behind a window is in the vignette where Esperanza talks about the woman who is locked up in her  room by her husband because she is "too beautiful to look at". Unlike Mamacita who stays locked in the house by choice and fear, this woman is forced to stay inside. She is also described as sitting, staring out of the window looking at the world outside of her room. She also has to ask the children to run errands for her since she can not go out side. This is another example of a window keeping a woman from living her life in the world on the other side of the glass.

One final example of a female being trapped is in the vignette "Sally" (pg.81) In this part of the book, a girl named Sally is described as a very pretty girl, who all the boys like and the girls envy. However, Sally's father tells her that "being this beautiful is dangerous"(82). Esperanza also makes the observation that everyday after school, Sally rushes straight home with her eyes starring down at the ground.Her father is stopping her from exploring her own life for herself.

After analyzing these vignettes, it is obviously a reoccuring situation in which there is a woman trapped behind a window. These windows symbolize how a lot of woman in this area are held back from achieving there goals. Also, besides  the vignette about Mamacita, these woman/girls are also being held back by a man. For the woman who is "too beautiful to look at", it is her husband who traps her in the house; for Sally it's her father. So, based on these conclusions i've made, i believe that these windows represent a higher power or feeling that holds these women back.

The Color Purple: Nettie vs. Nettie Essay

In the book The Color Purple by Alice Walker, the lives of two sisters, Nettie and Celie, are followed through a series of letters written. Although these two are sisters, they both end up living separate lives, experiencing many different things. However, these events that they experience help shape their views on different topics of the world. Two of the main topics that each sister changes their views on is religion/spirituality and gender inequality.

For religion and spirituality, it seems like in the beginning of this book that Celie and Nettie have similar views on this topic. However, as they are separated and begin to live different lives from one another, it seems like this topic means more to one sister than it does the other. It seems like Celie goes through her life using God just as a figure to help herself.

“You better not never tell nobody but God. It'd kill your mammy.” (pg. 1)

The very first opening line in this book is a quote that Celie was told by her dad. While she was living at home with him he would rape her and she would end up having his children. He told her that she better not tell anyone but God about what happens and I think this is what begins her series of letters written to God. Celie gets married off at a very early age to a man who is much older than her. Unfortunately she faces many challenges throughout this marriage and is forbidden by her husband to keep in contact with the one person whom she is most close to- her sister Nettie. The writing of her letters addressed to God begin before this, but I think the reason why she continues writing to Him is because she probably feels like she has no one else to confide in besides Him. Since she is no longer allowed to contact her sister and her husband isn't very loving or caring at all to her, she feels like the only person she can tell everything to is God. However, later on in the book we discover that Celie begins to loose faith in God and realizes that she doesn’t really know who he is. Shug Avery explains to her that God doesn't have to be a he or a she or any race, He can just be referred to as an “It”.

However, the difference with Nettie is that she seems to use God and her spiritual and religious views to help other people. While Celie is living her life raising children and being a wife, Nettie gets an opportunity to travel all the way to Africa. While she is on her trip she serves as a missionary and helps the people there learn about faith and religion. She also seems to actually have a strong belief in God and higher powers and unlike Celie, she doesn't seem to ever really doubt weather there really is a God or not.

Another aspect that Celie and Nettie experience in their lives is gender inequality. Although these sisters grow up and live very different lives this is an aspect in which they experience similar experiences on. For Celie, it seems as though pretty much all her life she has struggled with being mistreated from men. Before she got married and was still living with her father, Celie was constantly put down by him and was told that she was ugly. He also completely disrespected her and her body my raping her while she lived with him. Once, she was forced by her father to marry Mr. ___. Celie is disrespected by him very similarly. She works very hard for him and takes care of his kids, but he still finds reasons to beat her.

“Harpo ast his daddy why he beat me. Mr. ____ say, Cause she my wife. Plus, she stubborn. All women good for—he don't finish... Remind me of Pa.” (pg. 22)

This quote shows how Mr.____ doesn't really seem to have an actual reason as to why he beats Celie. Besides saying that she is “stubborn” which she really isn't considering she does pretty much anything he asks her to do, he doesn't really seem to have an actual reason to explain why he beats Celie. When his son asks him this question his main reply is just “because she my wife.” This here shows that Mr.___ feels that because he is the man and because Celie is the women, he is automatically entitled to the right to do whatever he wants to do to her. Celie mentions how this reminds her of her father which shows how she has been dealing with this gender inequality for a very long time.

Since Celie and Nettie are sisters and share the same “father” , Nettie may have had some of these experiences in her home, but definitely not as much as Celie. Nettie was viewed as the prettier, smarter sister out of the two and therefor wasn't degraded as much as her father. However, as she grows older and when she travels as a missionary in Africa, she views a culture where women are pretty much viewed as nothing in society. It is somewhat similar in back in America during this time, but not as much considering that during this time most of the discrimination is racial. So, although these sisters face differences in views on religion and spiritual beliefs, they still share somewhat similar experiences with discrimination against being a female in their society although they experience it in two very different parts of the world.

Social Networking Rebuttle to Luis

In Luis' blog he writes how social newtworking websites, such as Facebook are benificial. In his post he mentions that it can help people learn about current events going on in the world, ask for help from friends, and Facebook's ultimate goal: to "unite the world." I do agree with his statement that social networking is good for staying in contact with friends, however there are some ways Luis could improve his debate. It would be helpful to include important quotes from these websites he placed links to because sometimes people may not want to read all of the three articles he used as his recorces. Also, another way he could improve his debate is by including some of his personal experiences with Facebook and other social networking sites. For example, I would write about how Facebook helps me stay in contact with a lot of old friends. I am friends with many people from middle school and Facebook is one of the ways that helps me stay in contact with them if i don't have their phone numbers. Also, I've even reconnected with a lot of people from elementry school. Even though you may not talk to everyone of your friends that you have on Facebook, it's still interesting to see how other people are doing and I also find in kind of interesting when I find out that two of my friends from different places know each other. Another reason why I agree with Luis and believe that social networking sites are benificial is because it is also a good way to plan events to meet up with multiple people, as he stated. Some of my friends post invitations and date reminders for parties or get togethers they may have and in my opinion, it is a lot simpler and easier  to post a group invitation of Facebook istead of going to every person personally and giving out a paper invitation. Also, i think this is a good way to make sure that people don't feel left out because you do have the possibility of fmaking you're events private.

For the most part I do agree with Luis and his views on the pros of social networking just for a few different reasons, but mostly for the same.

The Color Purple

In the book "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, Celie is a young girl who deals with many complications in her life. Her mother dies, she's had two children by her own father and she gets married off to a guy who loves her sister. This book is written as a diary/ a series of letters written to God. In my opinion i think that the reason Celie writes to God is because she feels like he is the only one she can confide in. Also, at the very beginning of the book, there is a quote from her father that says, "You better not never tell nobody but God. It'd kill your mammy." I'm pretty sure he was referring to the fact that he rapes Celie and I I'm sure that this had a major effect on why Celie titles each entry with "Dear God". Because her father told her this and she fears her Dad she probably had it stuck in her mind that the only one she could tell everything to is God. I also think Celie writes these letters to God because, although her mother already passed away, she doesn't really have anyone else to confide in her feelings. When she moves in with Mr._____ he isn't really a loving husband because he isn't really in love with her. Unfortunately he beats her repeatedly and she feels obligated to do everything he tells her to do because she is afraid of him. Also, Celie isn't really allowed to see her sister anymore according to Mr.____ and she was the one person she was closest to. Because she now just lives with Mr. ____ and his children, there isn't really anyone Celie can really talk to about her feelings and tell every single thing to. This is another reason i think she writes to God.

Should Young Stars Have to Be "Good" Role Models for Their Young Viewers

I chose to write about this question because it kind of made me think of another blog post I did in the past on Disney Channel and their stars. However, that time I was talking about the success of their stars' careers and now this topic is focusing on young stars in general and if they should be entitled to being a role model for their viewers.

In my opinion I think that they should be a good examples to the kids who watch their show if they are really young, but only to a certain extent. I think that if an actor is on Disney channel or Nickelodeon or some other kids TV channel, and they're around the age of 13-15 or 16 they should act their age and try to send a good message to their young viewers who may or may not look up to them. However, I really believe that when these actors hit the ages of 16-18 and older, they shouldn't constantly be attacked for doing certain things that kids 4 years younger than them shouldn't be doing.

For example, it seems like Miley Cyrus has been getting attacked by the media a lot lately for doing certain things that "aren't appropriate" in their eyes. Her new music videos are said to be too "inappropriate" and I agree that it is a big change from when she was on Hannah Montana singing about ice cream, but she's a lot older now. She started that show when she was 13 and it's been around four or five years since then. There's also a video of her smoking from a bong and everyone seems to be freaking out about that too. I mean it's not a great thing for her to be doing but come on, she's 18 and isn't even on Disney anymore! It's completely normal for people her age to party and experiment. I don't even think she was doing any hard core drugs.

In this article, it talks about how some parents need to understand that Miley Cyrus is growing up and isn't going to be a kids' TV star her whole life. It also mentions how stars like Brittney Spears and Christina Aguilara.

America has to get over the fact that Miley Cyrus won't be a teenager her whole life as the Disney star blossoms into young adulthood...

Cyrus is not alone in dealing with the double standard, as Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears also ran into the impossible "don't grow up" demand as their careers matured

There are some people who are her age and were on kids shows who aren't doing that stuff, but not everyone can be a perfect goody too shoes. What comes into my mind when I think this is Selena Gomez. It doesn't seen like she's made any mistakes and shes staying true to her squeaky clean Disney Girl image, which isn't a bad thing, it's just that not everyone can be this way and some people want to grow up.

What I'm saying is that young actors should be good role models for their viewers when they are at a certain age. They should act their age and shouldn't be going out partying and smoking when they're 14, but when they hit their late teen years they shouldn't be criticized so much for growing up and doing what many other kids their age are doing.

I Want To Move :(

Not that I really have anything against Alameda or the Bay, but I really want to move. I don't know when this stated, but lately I've just really been having the feeling that I want to pack up and move somewhere totally different. Not that I wouldn't want to stay in California, but maybe southern California... I don't know, a place with a beach seems nice. My cousin that lives in Hawaii really wants to move here and I can understand why. Pretty much our whole family lives here and she's been there all her life which I guess is why she's wanting to leave Hawaii, but the life style there just seems so nice. I guess she sees living here the same way. Not Alameda, but living really close to San Francisco is also what she likes about living here. But, like when I look at her pictures on Facebook it just seems like it would be so cool to just live there and go surfing and hang out at the beach after school.

However, I wouldn't want to live in Hawaii because I would definitely get sick of the weather there. I don't mind it being hot, but I think everyday would just be too much for me. But I wouldn't mind living in SoCal, even though some people there can be kind of irritating and fake.. but not everyone is like that, you get those people everywhere.  I don't know i've also been seeing all these pictures of people who live in Australia and other places and it just looks so fun! Seriously I am so jealous of those people who can like ride their bikes or skateboards with their friends to the beach. I mean you can do that now, but kids don't really do that because the beach is too freezing to actually be active and have fun there. Not saying that I'd want to move anywhere as far as Australia or anything, but change is good and I really feel like I need change right now.

Unfortunately I know that this is not going to happen anytime soon as long as I am controlled by my parents. But this is one of the reasons I am looking forward to college because then I can go to school somewhere far away. I can't wait until I'm old enough to drive somewhere and make my own decisions on where I live. O well. a couple more years...