Summary Of The House On Mango Street

Improved Essays
This story is about mainly Brick and Maggie’s relationship, the way they interact with each other is not like any relationship. Brick treats Maggie like he’s not in love with her. The family doesn’t really know why Brick has this “lost love” for Maggie, it might be because he personally doubts himself for all the things he’s done wrong. Brick has a broken foot; he broke his foot on a high school track field while he was drunk. So now he walks around with a cast unable to move without a crunch, which makes him feel like less of a man. Maggie believes that this is the reason that he is now an alcoholic, but maybe it’s something else.

The story opens with Brick and Maggie (they discuss about each other’s relationship as stated in Paragraph 1)
…show more content…
As the family was greeting Big Daddy the doctor pulls Maggie over and tells her that Big Daddy had cancer. She is shocked and wants to tell Big Mama. The doctor quickly says don’t tell him yet because it would cause him disrest and increases his cancer and kill him faster. When they get to the house Big Mama and Big Daddy attempt to greet Brick but he stays in his bedroom drinking. Big Daddy meets Brick in his bedroom and talks about his self-doubt and why he drinks himself to sleep. Brick gets angry and demands his to leave. Big Mama embraces Brick and wants him to have a son for Big Daddy before he dies. Suddenly Maggie announces that she and Brick are to have a child. Mama leaves to tell Big Daddy. Mae accuses Maggie of lying. Maggie thanks Brick for saving her face. After this emotional outbreak by Maggie Brick and Big Daddy talk in his basement as he starts at all of his possessions. Big Daddy then explains that he wants better for him and for him to be better and well rounded rounded than he is. They then have an epiphany with each other and embrace each other. The story then ends with Big Daddy flying back home leaving Brick with his responsibilities. Big Daddy and the end seems to be happy to be alive and he cherishes live even though he does not have much of it

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    During the time of a town's massive dilemma, comes controversy. Almost everyone is pushed to a breaking point, either in a physical or emotional way. Consequently, the town of Tamassee suffers losses of their own people. The town eventually comes together as a whole to recollect and accept the power of the river, and how it holds their town together. By all means, controversy in the midst of a very difficult situation is not a thing to shame, but it should uplift and bring everyone together as a whole.…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the play she says that she thinks that Brick is in love with Skipper and that is why he is so depressed about his death, but in the movie this is not stated. If Brick was in fact in love with Skipper it would explain why he was taking his death so hard and why he feels like he cannot talk to anyone about it, but on the other hand if he just thought of Skipper as a friend, it seems like Brick feels like he has been cheated on and that is why he wants to leave Maggie. Big Daddy just wants his son back and Brick just wants to push him away. Maggie does not want Brick to push Big Daddy away though because she wants to get as much as she can from Big Daddy’s will as possible. Maggie feels like she cannot get much from him though because her and Brick do not have any children together and that they have been fighting so much.…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    1. “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin is a short story that starts in media res (in the middle of things) with the narrator, who is a high school algebra teacher in Harlem, New York, reading from a newspaper article that his seven years younger brother, Sonny, is arrested for using heroin. After some time, the narrator writes to Sonny after his two-year-old daughter, Grace, dies from polio. The narrator has a flashback to a time his mother was alive to tell him that he had an uncle, but the uncle was killed by a group of racist white men who were drunk. Sonny shut out his brother and lived with his friends whom he treated like his family.…

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In escaping her current life, Maggie also leaves behind her best friend Nell, a representation of self-confinement comparable to Maggie’s own unintended self-confinement that results from her misplaced compassion by marrying Edward Vardoe. Maggie doesn’t leave Nell entirely behind though, the two women share a strong commonality in their respective self-awareness’. Nell’s act of sending her beloved swamp angel to Maggie is emblematic of the duo’s departure from isolation; at once, Nell eliminates the final barrier between herself and her daughter and Maggie is reminded that one may let go of the substance but it is the essence that is and must remain eternal. The center of consciousness narrative, one of many utilized by Wilson in the novel, is…

    • 2168 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Big Daddy is also questioning Brick in why he is unable to live with mendacity in his life just like he has. Big Daddy tells Brick "I've lived with mendacity! Why cant you live with it? Hell, you got to live with it, there's nothing else to live with except mendacity, is there?"(Act 2, pg 111) Mendacity has become so accustomed to Big Daddy's life that he feels it is impossible to live without.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Soon after the occurrence, frank has the unfortunate experience of uncovering an affair that his mother is having with his dad’s friend. Frank then learns that his mother wants him to keep it a secret from his father, which she tries to do by paying him off. Frank then finds out that his parents are…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “You must keep writing. It will keep you free.” Art can be a powerful voice for people who can’t speak out about their own struggles, and Mango Street was written to show the harsh realities of life for chicanx and latinx people that are often overlooked. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a series of vignettes from the perspective of a young girl named Esperanza. The story follows her while she grows up in Chicago and has experiences that change her worldview and how she sees others.…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the story “Recitatif”, Maggie is a kitchen woman and a target for abuse. Maggie attracts the ire of the residents on St. Bonny’s due to her being mute, bowlegged, and wearing a childish hat. With a passing glance, one would think that Maggie is simply a side character who plays very little role in the story as a whole, but this cannot be further from the truth. Maggie is absolutely central to the conflict of the story, and she has a profound effect on the actions of other characters within the story and the story’s theme. Maggie’s effect on the actions of Twyla and Roberta is shown in how both remember Maggie and the event in the orchard in completely different ways.…

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In The Glass Castle, the author named Jeannette Walls thinks of a plan to aright a bended Joshua tree that she sees in the Desert. The tree that Jeannette discovers grows sideways due to the harsh weather conditions and struggles to survive every day. Jeannette’s mother tells her to leave the tree how it is because it is “the Joshua tree’s struggle that gives it its beauty” (Walls 45). Similarly, the tree symbolizes Jeannette’s life. Both of these living creatures are negatively impacted by their environment, face criticism, work hard regardless of what they are provided with and live an admirable life.…

    • 1508 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Esperanza lives in a small, rundown house on Mango Street. Throughout the story, Esperanza loses her innocence and matures. As the story begins, Esperanza is portrayed as innocent and young. She explains to the reader how the boys and the girls in her neighborhood seem to “live in separate worlds” (Cisneros 8). Esperanza does not seem to have an interest in the opposite sex.…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Every human being is born with a desire for a sense of belonging. Whether it is at their jobs, schools, or amongst their friends, people will always search for acceptance. The House on Mango Street, a novel beautifully crafted by author Sandra Cisneros depicts a young Latino girl's prolonged search for an identity. Cisneros portrays the young girl's evolution throughout the book by using ethnic and thematic elements. Through many hardships and life-changing experiences, Esperanza slowly blossoms from an innocent child into a mature young woman.…

    • 1171 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    When an individual is born they are brought into a world that they are unaware of. At a young age, individuals get accustomed to what is said and displayed to them. They continue to model what is around them until they step out of their environment. When stepping out of one’s environment individuals can gain an understanding that everyone’s way of life is different depending on how one is raised and the environment they are raised in. Unfortunately, some individuals are not given the opportunity to step out of their environment because of economic and social conditions that arise.…

    • 2000 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sandra Cisneros wrote the House on Mango Street. Sandra was born in Chicago on December 20, 1954. She is the third child in a family of seven children and is the only daughter. Her fathers name is Alfredo Cisneros de Moral, and her mothers name is Elvira Cardero Anguiano. Esperanza’s father was originally from Mexico, who was less dominant than the other father figures in the neighborhood.…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Have you ever ask what made you who you are? Life experiences is what forge our personality, builds our way of think, be and act. Anecdotes in life can change our way of living in a good way or in a bad way. In story “Everyday Use” by walker is about this daughter who returned from college feeling superior to her Mama and sister Maggie, just coming back for the purpose of take away their belongings. The character who impacted me is Maggie and what reflects what made her who she is.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Maggie, a girl of her own unfortunate environment In Stephen Crane’s “Maggie a Girl of the Streets” published in the year 1893, there is a very clear demonstration of naturalism. This particular piece of work by Stephen Crane was published during the time of the Industrial Revolution. Where the factory workers in the city were in the true since of the word treated like slaves who had no voice, yet they stayed because either you worked for basically nothing and tried to support your family or you died living in the slums and squalor of the over populated city. Ultimately the carters in “Maggie a Girl of the Streets” fall victim to their unfortunate environment as well as their mistreatment from there abusive father and alcoholic parents. “Maggie…

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays