Journal six

After tread this book I did learn how to describe a scene and it brought me back to my childhood. Some stories it talks about which did similar happen around me. Such as, the first job, chanclas, and some more, and so on. This book has two strengths. Each time the main character got problem finally they got fix it and have experience that is the first strength. Such as the story name “The Family of Little Feet”. The other strength of this book is the love in their family for example “Papa Who wakes Up tired in the Dark”. I gave me a shock, and let me thought about the scene when my grandmother died. Though it is a really short story, all the sentences have their feeling. This book has lots of stories however some of these stories are boring. In my opinion it is the weakness of this book. I would like every stories are interesting so that I can keep enthusiastic from the being to the end. But in the other hand I can think the boring stories can let the good stories become more interesting. Let readers feel like claiming mountains, sometimes goes up sometimes goes down.
My favorite story is “The family of Little Feet”. Girls curiosity to the heel. But they are the the age to wear that shoes. I think they just try to pretend an adult, however they do not understand these shoes should be wore in special place. Somebody warned them on page 41 “You girls too young to be wearing shoes like that. Take them shoes off before I call the cops, but we just run.” “Do you like these shoes?” this sentence appear 3 times in page 41, in my opinion they really like the shoes and try to get all peoples' attention. Eventually they got flirt with a Bum man. I like this story because it is let me understand I should pay attention to others warning.

The house on Mango Street.

This book was a really nice book. It more creative than anything else. She used many figurative language in the book. She described things so well and made them jump out of the book. She gave many objects characteristics that they didn't have and made sure it made sense. She was very detailed in. She has many themes and she just jump around from story to story. She talks about realistic situations that she has experienced that you can relate to.

The House on Mango Street

The House on Mango Street was a little different than other books. Some scenes were hard to understand because how the author, Cisneros, used grammars. I liked her unique writing styles where she did not use quotation marks at all. All the short stories were interesting and had a lot of details.By reading this book, I found the new writing skills. I learned that the main character, Esperanza, did not like the house on mango street, however, she had the most memorable moments with her friends and neighbors. The strengths in this story were how Esperanza did not complain about the house to her parents because she knew that they could not afford. And also how she had problems about the friends and family and find a way to solve them.
My favorite story in this book was “A Smart Cookie.” This is my favorite story because I could tell that Esperanza’s mother cares about Esperanza. She does not want Esperanza to experience the same like how she dropped school because of not having nice clothes. My favorite quote from this story is “I could’ve been somebody, you know? Esperanza, you go to school” (Cisneros, 91)

Journal Six

I learnt a lot of writing skills after reading the House on Mango Street. Ciseneros does really good on narration and characterization, she made the people and places come to life. She also used a lot of similes and metaphors which make the stories much more interesting to read. The sequence of the stories in the book is well organized; it showed me how the children in the Mango Street grow up and what they have to go through as a kid in a poor neighborhood. The stories are short but they just inspired us to think more about the in-depth meaning conveyed from each stories. The weakness of the book is that there are a lot of grammatical problems and it’s sometimes confusing to read; Ciseneros narrates stories with a lot of dialogues but she does not clearly indicate who the speaker is most of the time.

My favorite story is “Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes” which is the last story in the book. She says, “They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out.” In the previous stories, Ciseneros actually showed how much Esperanza doesn’t want to stay in Mango Street and choose her own way of life. She was ashamed to be poor and she wants to escape from the poor neighborhood. However, although she left the Mango Street at last, she just didn’t forget who she really is and she come back to the Mango Street to help the others who got stuck there.

Mango response

I enjoyed the story of House on Mango Street for several reasons.
First of all, It kind of reminds me of my own life. Before I moved to Ohio, I lived in Brownsville where there were many young girls like Esperanza. Since I met some of them while they were working in restaurans or gas stations, we kind of became friends and they told me stories similar to what happened to Esperanza.
I liked the story for other reasons too. In the first place, it portraits the dark side of American life. People from outside US might think that here there is no poverty and everybody is driving at least a Cadillac. Besides, this story has a strong message for poor people all over the world that it is possible not to break down the pressure of poverty. Esperanza shows us that by engaging our mind in useful activities such as writing, we can not only tolerate the pressure of life but also move on in our life successfully. And finally, I liked the fact that although Esperanza was determined to leave that street, She still felt responsible and sympathetic about the older women living there. I like her desire for thinking it is emotional and deep. My favorite story is MANGO SAYS GOODBYE SOMETIMES, the way she takes a risk and freedom in writing and she knows a beauty in herself, and she has a dream in her mind that she wants to bring it to this world. It has wonderful ending for the book very soft and sensitive but powerful.

Journal Six

After reading The House on Mango Street, I have to say this book has become one of my favorites. Even though the stories were short, I enjoyed reading them. I think when people read this book they become fascinated with the amount of meaning each story has. Cisneros does a very good job at explaining details very much and making sure the reader does not get confused or anything like that. I learned a lot from this book. I learned that no matter how happy a person seems, some are just putting that smiley face as a cover to hide what’s really going through their lives. I didn’t find any weaknesses because over all I liked the book. Some of the strengths of the book were that most stories were about the struggle of the people and things that happened behind closed doors when nobody knew anything about it.
One story that stood out to be the most was “A House of My Own.” I thought this story has the most meaning out of all the other stories. And also it is the shortest story in the book. But at the same time, when you read it, you instantly become amazed at how a short story can have such a meaning. She describes how she wants a place of her own and to basically start something new. She states “Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem” (Cisneros 108). Even though she is still a young person, she understands life more than anyone else.

Journal Six: Thoughts on Mango Street

Overall, I liked the book. It was an easy read and a hard read. It was easy because it was composed of short stories. It was hard because it was her life. It told about the good times and the bad times. It dealt with how she struggled through it. I would say its weaknesses is that it was somewhat hard to follow because it was composed of short stories. I had a hard time tieing it all together at first. The strengths were that her creative writing made it seem real to the reader. It made you feel like you were there by the way she described things. I learned from this book to definitely appreciate what we have. I also learned that you should always remember where you came from. Some people may not like their past, but that is what made them who they are. If they forget where they came from, they could forget who they are.

My favorite story was "A House of My Own". I liked this story because all her life she wanted to live in a house. A real house. " Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a man's house. Not a daddy's. A house all my own. With my porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias. My books and my stories. My two shoes waiting beside the bed. Nobody's garbage to pick up after." She wants it to be just hers and she doesnt want to have it because a man gave it to her. She doesn't want to be like Sally whose husband won't let her out of the house. She is independent and this much reminds me of myself and how I want to have a place of my own. She wants to be happy and on her own in her house.