Racial Stereotypes In The House On Mango Street And Black Boy

The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, and Black Boy, by Richard Wright, both exhibit hardships of a child 's life growing up around racism and racial stereotypes. The characters in The House on Mango street and the characters in Black Boy actions were shaped by their social conditions and their institutions. The events that these children went through definitely influenced how these children’s actions turned out throught the book. The House on Mango Street exhibited a lot of stereotypes. Being that the story was told in the perspective of a child, they didn’t really know any better. The main character Esperanza, who is telling the story didn’t really understand why guys would whistle after her and her sister, or why she couldn’t …show more content…
Esperanza wanted to get a job and she went out to get one although she was really young. She had to lie about her age to get it. Later in the story one of her family members passed away and she had to take on the responsibility of taking care of her younger siblings. Esperanza had to grow up quickly. She didn’t really have much of a childhood. Her ambition when she was little was to always live in a house with stairs and a pretty front yard. One may say that the events she went through as a child shaped her to how she was in the end of the …show more content…
Black Boy is a story about a little boy named Richard from Natchez, Mississippi who always seems to get in trouble. Richard lives with his younger brother, mom and dad, and grandmother who is bedridden. In chapter 1, Richard’s mom told Richard and his brother to not make any noise while they played so they wouldn’t disturb their grandmother. Out of boredom, Richard started playing with the fireplace and ended up setting the house on fire. Richard ran put his house and hid outside and when his family found him he got a severe beating that ending up giving him some delirious sickness. From then on, Richard and his family had to move and they continued moving different places throughout the book. Richard’s dad later leaves his life and leaves Richard, his younger brother, and his mom to fend for himself. Richard’s dad was responsible for bringing the food into the house and when he left they were basically left to starve. Richard, his mom, and younger brother, moved to live with his mother’s sister in Arkansas. Richard was afraid that he wouldn’t have enough food, so he would hide bread in his pocket in case there was no food the next day. The main character named Richard, was a little boy who didn’t know anything about racism, or why he couldn 't do certain things the whites could. The little boy would always ask questions about the white people and she would try to explain the best she could and often times she