Vignette Response

I will respond to Victor Liang’s, Melissa Ma’s, and Billy Lau’s Vignette

As I was reading the very first vignette I noticed that they chose to talk about family first. I believe they did this because your family defines who you are more then anything else. For example, if your parents beat you, you will most likely become a violent person, on the other hand, if your parents are nice to you, you will grow up to be a nice person. This, of course is a very general example, but the point is how a family acts towards a child defines the future of the kid.
An example of being defined by your parents is in Victor’s blog. He writes
“Unlike the old generations of Liangs, my siblings, my cousins, and I all realize our parent's flaws and have learned to behave unlike them. The main reason I am positive and caring towards others is because my father, a lot of times, isn't like that towards me, which I know makes me unhappy and left out in the world.”
This is an example of how you can learn. A lot of people say that you learn more from mistakes then examples. Victor’s generation has learned from the mistakes of his parents. Because of how they were raised, there is a better chance that they will become better adults. Now, of course the older generation isn’t naturally strict, but as a child, they may have seen that kids without rules lead bad lifestyles. When we become parents, there will still be problems with us, and in order to fix that, our kids will learn from our mistakes and become better adults.
This theme of learning from your parent’s mistakes appears again in Melissa’s post. She says
“But she said that if I did live with her, I would see Mickey Mouse everyday. I realize now that Mickey Mouse can't trick me.”
Once again, a child identifies the mistakes of their parents. Because Melissa was misled like this she will become a great adult. Later on in life, if faced with the decision of lying, chances are she will choose to be truthful because she has experience on the other side of the situation. The point of learning is not what happens to you, but what you.
Finally, Billy simply talks about the differences between him and his family members. He tells us that differences shouldn’t be gotten rid of, they should be celebrated. The theme of family shows up in many of the vignettes and is an important symbol of growth.

Esperanza's Future

The future for Esperanza is Mango Street. I believe that after she left, she had to express everything that had happened, in order to help those she left behind. She overcame her problems, the things that held her back. On page 103, Esperanza talks about overcoming. “One night a dog cried, and the next day a yellow bird flew in through an open window.” (103) In a previous post, I talked about windows and what they symbolize. I discovered that windows symbolize being held back. In the whole story Esperanza is being held back because she lives on Mango Street. Here she says that she breaks away when she says a yellow bird flew in through an open window. Although Esperanza thinks that mango street held her back, I think it helped her future. She learned more about herself by living on Mango Street than anyone else. Others say Mango Street as who they were. Those people ended up “in alleys” as the book put it. Esperanza allowed Mango Street to define her, but not take her. She used it as a learning experience, and because she learned, she left. Someone who saves the world needs inspiration, if they grow up in a perfect family in a perfect house on a perfect street, they will think the whole world is perfect. Esperanza sees what is wrong with the world.

Now for the question what does Esperanza do in the future? There is a chapter that says a lot about this question. Author Cisneros writes in the voice of Esperanza “Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem.” (108) Esperanza later shares her ideas in the world. She says her house is clean as paper before the poem. This house in my opinion is a symbol. The symbol of a house also appears when she talks about her house on Mango Street. Houses, I think symbol growth. The house on Mango Street as been through much more, it has grown more than this new house. It has been shaped by Mango Street, it has inspiration. However this new perfect house hasn’t been shaped, it has a lack of inspiration, anyone growing up in it won’t change the world, they will grow up believing nothing needs to be changed. What Esperanza does in the future is she writes a book about everything that happens to her on Mango Street. She doesn’t write it for the others on Mango Street, she writes it for those who grow up in the houses that are quiet as snow. The ones who don’t see imperfection or problems. She writes to inspire those without inspiration. Esperanza realizes that living on Mango Street was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to her and her friends. In order to make the world a better place, she brings the one thing she always wanted to leave with her to the people of her future.

Raising boys and girls

On several different occasions in The House on Mango Street, a novel by Sandra Cisneros, the idea that boys should be raised differently then girls appears. She believes this because of the different forms of adversity each gender faces in the future, and their overall position in society.  In my opinion, girls and boys shouldn’t be raised the same because of a combination of these two reasons.  I believe that women are viewed as weaker by others, and that causes a whole set of problems that boys will never have to deal with.  Boys and girls need to be raised so they are prepared to meet the specific type of problems that their gender faces.  For example, men, if not raised properly, will take advantage of women.  This can get them into trouble with the law.  At the same time society thinks that women are weaker, and because of that, there is more pressure on them making it easier for them to crack.  After reading The House on Mango Street, I am sure that author Cisneros believes with me.  The idea that men take advantage of women appears strongly in a vignette titled Red Clowns.  After being sexually assaulted, main character Esperanza says,

           

“Sally, make him stop.  I couldn’t make them go away.  I couldn’t do anything but cry.  I don’t remember.  It was dark.  I don’t remember.  I don’t remember.  Please don’t make me tell it all.” (100)

This is what Cisneros believes will happen if boys are not raised like they should be.  She thinks that they will do what ever they want if not given guidelines.  This is true on some occasions, but I think Cisneros might be coming of as slightly extreme.  She seems to be giving readers the idea that almost all boys are like this, when in fact it is very few.  She is saying that if unpunished for anything, a boy will become a monster.  My opinion differs.  I think that something must be grounded into a child’s mind to make them like this.  People are not naturally abusive, but at a young age, their minds are in the hands of everything they see.

Overcoming Fear

Hungry Hungry Hippos

I looked at the hungry hippo standing on the water, it looked back at me.  It wanted to eat me, my eighteen month mind knew that much.  I was afraid, truly.  As my parents urged me to go stand next to it and I cried in resistance.  In the end they had managed to get me to stand on top of the crystal clear water right next to the animal.  Next they said to me “Climb into the hippo’s mouth.”  Were my parents crazy, I knew in the back of my mind that if I did, nothing would happen, but the fear overpowered my common scenes.  Of course my cousin (who was with us by the way) climbed right into the mouth like it was something he did every day.  I clearly wasn’t the brave one.  I was an unstable little child.  That did not change for a long long time.  

Rainbows and Unicorns and Six Year Olds

The first five or six years of my life I hid.  I hid from the other six year olds who were mean and wanted to hurt me.  Instead of surrounding myself with those abusive children, I surrounded myself with girly things like rainbows and unicorns.  Eventually I realized that what I wanted wasn’t to feel comfortable in the presence of stupid toys, it was to have real friends, so in the middle of my kindergarten year, I changed.  I purposely changed almost everything that was
wrong with me.  Instead of playing with unicorns, I played with action figures, instead of liking rainbows, I liked cool things like guns and war.  Although I had changed, those six year olds never did.  We were the same, but they didn’t treat me like it.  We swam in the same crystal clear water, but I was at the other end of the pool, the shallow end.   I was afraid of them, they didn’t see me as the same, they saw me as what I started out as.  In my mind, I was them, in theirs, I played with unicorns.

Mischievous Cats

I loved those stories.  About the cats. We all did.  It was what I remember when I think about second grade.  Almost every day we would anticipate a new story.  They seemed so exciting at the time, but now e the rants of an easily distracted teacher.  Even though I know they aren’t as amazing as they seemed, I would still go back to relive the innocence that allowed me to enjoy the unenjoyable.  The cats seemed to be so perfect as they stayed away from things they didn’t like, even the clear water waiting to bath them.  That was what I shared with everyone, it was what was so good about being children.  Now it is different, I have no time for the cats.  

Blow Silently

Seventh grade was the low point of my life.  I had forced myself into situations that I couldn’t handle.  I was terrified of one of my teachers.  It was band that was so bad.  I was a seventh grader in a whole class of eighth graders.  There was enough pressure already.  On top of that, the teacher was in-comforting.  He would literally have temper tantrums and throw instruments against the wall.  I, as a trumpet player had to empty the water build up in my instrument that after a few songs would appear.  To do this I had to open a little valve and blow through the instrument.  When the teacher grew angry, I still had to use this same process.  When he heard someone emptying the water, he would scream at them, so I had to blow out of my trumpet as quietly as possible.  I slowly would allow the clear water to leave the instrument, the water of the trumpet mixing with the sweat dripping from my for head.  I wanted nothing more then for the period to end.  When it did, I just went home scared not relieved.

Water and Fire

Water doesn’t always put out fire.  Sometimes the opposite happens.  I had stayed in the shallow end for to long.  It was time to end everything wrong with me, all the mistakes I had made in my child hood.  It was fear that kept me in the shallow end, nothing else.  It was all in my head.  What I did was simple.  I had to get rid of what I was scared of.  So I burned the water.  The fire easily drained the pool.  I saw the deep end, now it was all mine.  I started walking towards it.  It was so close.  This is what I had wanted my whole life.  One more step until I would be like everyone else.  Instead of making that last step, I tripped.  I was stuck on the declining slop between the two ends.  It was good enough, I wouldn't fight for a different place any more.

The Hippo’s Mouth

I was moving on to High school.  Because I decided to somehow be more then everyone else, I attended ASTI instead of a regular school.  I was more ready for this then anything else in my life.  I was so tired of trying to blend in and be unsuccessful, it was time to do something that would set me apart.  I was to good for any other system.  I remember that first morning.  I woke up had a glass of water, and got ready to leave.  On the way i was scared of course so I tried to think of other things like fire.  When I arrived I remember walking up that slope at the entrance of College of Alameda.  I didn’t trip.  I got to the campus, said hello to a few old friends and met some new ones.  When my phone told me it was time for class to start, I put my back pack on, climbed up the stairs, and walked directly into the hippo’s mouth.   

RED

In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is forced to be in many situations that she doesn’t want to be in because of other people’s decisions, not her own.  This is symbolized by the color red.  The first time readers can see this symbol is right away on page four.  Esperanza says when talking about her house “It’s small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath.”  The symbol red is in this quote because her house is red.  She of course doesn’t like her house.  It doesn’t fit her personality or her dreams and because of this it holds her back.  It wasn’t as if it was her decision to move there, it was her parents, it is because of them that she doesn’t have the house that she wants.  This symbol is shown again.  “Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor.” (9) This is a very obvious example of the meaning of the symbol red.  The balloon is of course red and it wants to fly away and be free, but it is held back by a rope tied to an anchor.  Just like Esperanza is “tied” to her house.  So far these are very similar to the symbol of windows.  Windows symbolized being forced into a life you don’t want.  The difference between these two symbols is displayed of page 99 when Esperanza is forcibly kissed (possibly more).  This happens at a carnival by a picture of a red clown.  It is almost an untimely leap in maturity that she was not at all prepared for.  This is also like the symbol of shoes, which represented sexuality and growing up, but the difference is that the shoes represented what is normal for everyone.  It isn’t uncommon to witness someone get hit on by a bum, or be asked to dance, or to have a friend let someone take advantage of them, but it is uncommon for someone to take advantage of you against your will.  Going back to what I said earlier, there is a difference between red and windows and that difference is that windows hold you back from a dream, while red holds you back from reality and what your life could and should actually be like.

Windows

In The House on Mango Street, Many symbols are used to show large concepts of life.  We already know shoes symbolize growing up and leaving childhood behind, but there is another large symbol is the book.  That symbol is windows.  Windows symbolize discrimination and being held back because of who you are, not what you have done.  The first example of this is on page 11.  Main character Esperanza writes “Until my great grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off.  Just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier.”  Directly after this quote, windows are mentioned.  Judging by this writing, the theme of gender discrimination can be observed.  Obviously some of the men Esperanza knows have no respect for females at all and choose to be with them for only their needs.  Already I predict that the whole book is about how children can be influenced when growing up.  I believe that exposure to inequality defiantly can influence how someone can turn out as an adult by causing them to fear others, in this case men.  Gender inequality isn’t the only thing windows symbolize, they also appear when talking about being held back because of where someone comes from, this is very close to racial discrimination.  Esperanza says “…I believe she doesn’t come out because she is afraid to speak English, and maybe this is so since she only knows eight English words.”(77) Unlike he last example, this displays someone holding themselves back.  Even though it may seem not as bad it still has the same effect on someone’s life and future.  This woman came from Mexico, and now she feels she doesn’t fit in in America, not even with other Mexicans including her husband.  She has the option to go out and socialize, but chooses to stay inside and eat.  Discrimination appears once again; in this case, a woman is forced to stay inside because her husband is scared another man will take her if she leaves. 

“And then Rafael, who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much, gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafael will run away because she is too beautiful to look at.”(79)

This is another example of how a person can be held back because of things they can’t control.  The recurring theme of discrimination coincides with the theme of windows.