In Sula, Toni Morrison uses emotive language and humor to relate the struggles that most African Americans suffered in the 1920s. It was common for African Americans to be poorly treated in those days, however, women additionally endured mistreatment from their husbands and society in general.
The main characters are Nel and Sula. There are striking contrasts between the two families and their relationships. On the one hand, Nel’s family life is structured to a fault. Her mother Helene, is strict and tries to crush her daughter’s spirit early on, “Under Helene’s hand, the girl became obedient and polite. Any enthusiasms that little Nel showed were calmed by the mother until she drove her daughter’s imagination underground.”(Morrison 18) Sula’s …show more content…
A shared similitude is that they both deal with the importance of education. The poem “Senora X” describes a woman trying to learn how to write, “I carve my crooked name, and again at night until my hand and arm are sore, I carve my crooked name, my name.” (Mora 129) Likewise, in “A Smart Cookie,” the author relates how her mother is highly intelligent, yet is not able to ride the subway by herself. Esperanza’s mom is also sad because she was not able to stay in school, she tells her daughter, “I could’ve been somebody, you know? Esperanza, you go to school. Study hard.” (Cisneros 91) In like manner, both authors use simile in their writing. In “Senora X” we read, “...women who clutch notebooks and blush at their stiff lips resisting sounds that float gracefully as bubbles from their children’s mouths.” While Cisneros writes, “ She borrows opera records from the public library and sings with velvety lungs powerful as morning glories.” (Cisneros …show more content…
A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it. The house on Mango street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go.” (Cisneros 4) The cultural aspect for both stories is highly accurate, the Library Journal says about Sula, “Toni Morrison’s gifts are rare: the re-creation of the black experience in America with both artistry and authenticity.” I feel that I am qualified to give a personal experience regarding The House on Mango Street because it is the story a Mexican American family, and I am Mexican myself. Although this is a fictional book, the cultural aspect is extremely accurate. One of the paragraphs that struck me the most was, “My great-grandmother. I would’ve liked to have known her, a wild horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn’t marry. Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier. That’s the way he did it.” This is an absolutely true statement of how women were treated in Mexico. If a man liked a woman, he simply took her regardless of how she felt. Usually these were not even women, but girls, twelve or thirteen years old at
The main characters are Nel and Sula. There are striking contrasts between the two families and their relationships. On the one hand, Nel’s family life is structured to a fault. Her mother Helene, is strict and tries to crush her daughter’s spirit early on, “Under Helene’s hand, the girl became obedient and polite. Any enthusiasms that little Nel showed were calmed by the mother until she drove her daughter’s imagination underground.”(Morrison 18) Sula’s …show more content…
A shared similitude is that they both deal with the importance of education. The poem “Senora X” describes a woman trying to learn how to write, “I carve my crooked name, and again at night until my hand and arm are sore, I carve my crooked name, my name.” (Mora 129) Likewise, in “A Smart Cookie,” the author relates how her mother is highly intelligent, yet is not able to ride the subway by herself. Esperanza’s mom is also sad because she was not able to stay in school, she tells her daughter, “I could’ve been somebody, you know? Esperanza, you go to school. Study hard.” (Cisneros 91) In like manner, both authors use simile in their writing. In “Senora X” we read, “...women who clutch notebooks and blush at their stiff lips resisting sounds that float gracefully as bubbles from their children’s mouths.” While Cisneros writes, “ She borrows opera records from the public library and sings with velvety lungs powerful as morning glories.” (Cisneros …show more content…
A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it. The house on Mango street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go.” (Cisneros 4) The cultural aspect for both stories is highly accurate, the Library Journal says about Sula, “Toni Morrison’s gifts are rare: the re-creation of the black experience in America with both artistry and authenticity.” I feel that I am qualified to give a personal experience regarding The House on Mango Street because it is the story a Mexican American family, and I am Mexican myself. Although this is a fictional book, the cultural aspect is extremely accurate. One of the paragraphs that struck me the most was, “My great-grandmother. I would’ve liked to have known her, a wild horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn’t marry. Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier. That’s the way he did it.” This is an absolutely true statement of how women were treated in Mexico. If a man liked a woman, he simply took her regardless of how she felt. Usually these were not even women, but girls, twelve or thirteen years old at