The House on Mango Street Cultural Values :: House Mango Street

The House on Mango Street Cultural Values Sandra Cisneros rigid cultural value greatly influence The House on Mango Street. Esperanzas life is the forte that Cisneros uses to bring the Latin community to her audience. The novel deals with the Catholic Church and its redact in the Latin community. The deep family connection within the barrio also plays an central role in the novel. Esperanzas struggle to become a part of the field outside of Mango Street represents the desire many Chicanos have to p atomic number 18nt beyond their neighborhoods. Religion holds a powerful position in the lives of Latinos. It provides a built in censor of right and wrong in the clear of extreme guilt feelings (Aranda 150). The chapter "A Rice Sandwich" divulges the way guilt is established. Here Esperanza wants to eat at the canteen for lunch, but the nuns just diss her, and this makes her cry. She says they were "...pointing to a row of three ugly flats, the one the raggedy men are ashamed to go into. Yes...though I knew that wasnt my house" (Cisneros 45). The fact that her victimizers were nuns made her point more embarrassed about where she lived than she already was. Family can either be a brick of foundation or a wrecking ball in the Chicano world. Cisneros says, "Were very family centered, and that family extends to the whole Raza" (Aranda 150). Throughout Mango Street Esperanzas family is a brick of foundation. Esperanzas better(p) friend is her sister. She also has fun at her aunts expense, and she inherits her grandmothers first name. This inheritance symbolizes the strong family bond of Latinos in their effort to keep the family names alive. Esperanza dreams of someday having a satisfying life. She doesnt want her path of freedom to be cleared by having a baby or finding a husband. She has no desires to turn in back into the trap of dependency. As the author writes, "Her power is her own. She will not give it away" ( Cisneros 89).