Cisneros, Sandra (Vol. 193) - Julian Olivares (essay date 1996)
Julian Olivares (essay date 1996)
SOURCE: Olivares, Julian. “Entering The House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros).” In Teaching American Ethnic Literatures: Nineteen Essays, edited by John R. Maitino and David R. Peck, pp. 209-35. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996.
[In the following essay, Olivares provides analysis of central themes within The House on Mango Street, and suggests some possible approaches to teaching the work.]
A. ANALYSIS OF THEMES AND FORMS
Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street1 is a book about Esperanza Cordero, a Chicana girl who lives in the barrio, or ghetto, of a large city.2 Through forty-four brief lyrical narratives, or vignettes, as Cisneros has called them (“Softly Insistent Voice,” 14-15), ranging from one-half to three pages, the girl recounts her growth from puberty to adolescence within the sociopolitical frame of poverty,...
[The entire page is 12576 words long]
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