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Esperanza. Esperanza. As a young girl, Esperanza is a young girl who looks at
life from experience of living in poverty, where many do not question their
experience. She is a shy, but very bright girl. She dreams of the perfect home,
with beautiful flowers and a room for everyone. When she moves to the house of
Mango Street, reality is so different than the dream. In this story, hope
(Esperanza) sustains tragedy. The house she dreamed of was another on. It was
one of her own. One where she did not have to share a bedroom with everyone.
That included her mother, father and two siblings. The run down tiny house has
bricks crumbling in places. The one she dreamed of had a great big yard, trees
and 'grass growing without a fence'. She did not want to abandon where she came
from, but she knew she wanted to be free of everything that life on Mango Street
brought. They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I have
left behind. She is committed to her roots on Mango Street. We witness Esperanza
blossoming from a innocent, shy girl to one who witnesses much, but all of this
makes her strong and clear about her desires for her life. What she sees is the
male domination (machismo), violence and rape. The violence in the home was
ordinary to those that lived there and Esperanza knew this. It didn't make Sally
stronger. Sally is abused by her father He never hit me hard, as her mom tends
to her wounds. Sally eventually leaves home and gets married at a young age. She
ends being abused, instead by the fist, by mind control. Her new husband treats
her like a prisoner in her home. She sits at become afraid to go outside. The
leave home, she would need permission. She evolves from a victim of child abuse
to a slave-like wife. Esperanza sees this despair throughout her story. In My
Name, She looked out the window her whole life, they way so many women sit, with
their sadness on an elbow. Abuse to Rafaela, again subtle because she does not
go out, in fear of husband. Poverty on Loomis, Keeler and Paulina; poverty is a
way of life. The impact is for all generations, the parents who cannot get out,
the children that see it and the little ones who cannot know any better. The
opportunities are limited in the barrio. Esperanza was embarrassed when she
pointed to her house there. There?, as if there was no place for a girl to live.
But survival is instinctive and there is a certain amount of barrio pride Those
who don't know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we are
dangerous. They think we will attack them with shiny knives. They are stupid
people who are lost and got here by mistake. The victim of being called a rice
sandwich. Hurt by the sister superior as she points to a row of ugly houses
reminding Esperanza of the sin of being poor. Machismo is something seen in the
domestic situations throughout Hispanic people.
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