Sandra Cisneros

In Marge Piercy’s narrative poem, “Barbie Doll”, the story of a young girl is told from the viewpoint of an outside speaker watching her grow up around the norms of society and ultimately ends her life because of it. Throughout each stanza, a new important piece of information is expressed to the readers to contribute to both the theme and tone of the poem. Piercy is able to cultivate the idea that inward beauty is not valued in today’s society, and that artificial perfection can only be…

This short novel is The house on Mango Street. By Sandra Cisneros.This book is about a girl named Esperanza. She’s a young girl who isn’t confident about where she lives. Later she is getting confident about where she lives and she notices changes about her body. Last of all, she starts making her own choices in her life. In the beginning of the novel, Esperanza is a young insecure child who is insecure about her new life on Mango Street. The first time we see Esperanza’s insecurity is when…

A Book Review of Where is the Mango Princess and the Effects of Traumatic Brain Injury Where is the Mango Princess is a tragic, heart wrenching, and deeply personal account of how traumatic brain injury affected the life of, author, Cathy Crimmins (2000) and the lives of her entire family. Crimmins wrote this account in order to share her experience of living and caring for a person with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to help those in the same position as her to cope with the myriad of…

Sandra Cisneros’ short prose poem “Barbie-Q” follows a narrator as she discusses her and her companion's enthusiasm for Barbie dolls. Cisneros infers, through the narrator’s account, that the characters are both young ladies, both of whom possess only one Barbie. On a Sunday, the young girls are at a market and spot a cheap new Barbie lying on a table. Glancing around, they notice there are numerous dolls and outfits, including a "'Career Gal'" outfit (291). Evidently, a close-by toy factory…

“If you give me five dollars I will be your friend forever.” This section of the vignette Our Good Day, page 14, is an example of subjunctive mood. This is when Esperanza is listening the two girls, Rachel and Lucy, when they are persuading someone to help buy the bike that they would eventually share. Cisnero’s use of the subjunctive mood helps reveal Esperanza’s inner wishes to have friends. Esperanza then says that the prices is cheap, since she only has one friend, Cathy, and she will only…

The short story, “Barbie-Q”, was written by Sandra Cisneros. This story is about two sisters growing up in a lower-class family. It is told in second person by one of the sisters. This provides the reader with undertones of naivety. We see in “Barbie-Q” that even the simplest of things can bring joy to an innocent child’s life. The story starts off with the narrator explaining her and her sister’s Barbie dolls. The author did not give any of the characters names, instead she uses “you” and…

Sandra Cisneros writes "Eleven" to tell a story about a girl named Rachel. Today is Rachel's eleventh birthday. In class, Rachel if forced to claim an ugly red sweater that isn't hers. Sandra Cisneros uses language, images, and organization to characterize Rachel. Throughout the story, she uses language to show how stressed the red sweater makes Rachel. She writes that Rachel bites "down on" her "teeth real hard". Rachel is not only stressed about the red sweater but she is also stressed about…

and expressions in people's faces. In stories, authors use imagery in their writing to create a mental image, similar to one in a movie to form a particular effect. In “Barbie-Q,” Cisneros uses imagery in a detailed way when talking about the Barbies in order to show how much the little girl desires to be a Barbie. Cisneros writes about how perfect these Barbies are to an extent from their clothing to their packaging to create a an effect on the reader. In “The Flowers,” Walker uses imagery when…

Journeys to Safety and Healing The books The Bite of the Mango and A Long Way Gone are both used to illustrate the theme of journeys. The Bite of the Mango is narrated by a young girl named Mariatu Kamara who has grown up in a small town called Magborou all her life. But, when she is twelve the civil war that is raging in her country reaches her town and her hands are cut off by the rebel forces. After her encounter with the rebels, she walks through the brush for many days. She finally reaches…

the most. Esperanza does not realize that she affected Mango Street, because she was privileged to not have an abusive male in the family. She was the hope for Mango Street. “Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a man’s house. Not Daddy’s” (Cisneros 108). This portrays that Esperanza has successfully moved away from the dreaded Mango Street, and now she gets the…