"The House On Mango Street"

Struggling is a way people learn to survive their temporary situation.  Sandra Cisneros's "The House on Mango Street," Esperanza is a girl that lives in mexico that is constantly moving with her family.  "They (her parents) always told us that one day we would move not a house, a real house that would be ours always so we would't have to move each year" (317).  She was also promised that one day she can have her own room and to not have to share it with anybody.  After moving in and out of many apartments, her parents finally bought a house on the other side of town on Mango Street.  Esperanza is proud to finally have a house that she can a least some what call home, but she did not receive her other promise which was her own bedroom.  This house also is not in the greatest shape, but it is a home.  This is a story that comes from true events that Cisneros had went through when she was younger. 


 Michael Lewis'"The Blindside"  had a similar story to the "The House on Mango Street".  Michael Oher's childhood had a lot to do with being poor like Esperanza, but his mother is a hardcore drug addict that neglected and abandoned Michael and 11 other siblings to live on their own early.  Being one of the older children, he had the responsibly of not only care of himself, but having to take care of his other siblings as well.  He was in a dangerous town full of gangs and drugs.  He was sleeping in parks, streets, and alleys and sometimes even a school.  Once he got older, he found a temporary home, but he did not seem to want to live their forever, but he was offered the warmed and love he never received. This lead him to go to Catholic School and eventually meet the Tuohy family who changed his life forever.  People just need to look at everything positively because people never know when a bad situation can go good.   




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKWMRGD_PM0


Cisneros, Sandra. Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama.
     N.p.: X.J. Kennedy, 2008 and 2010. Print.