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Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros. A House as Quiet as Snow. Growing Up in Chicago. Born in the Hispanic Quarter of Chicago in 1954 Mexican-American (Chicana) She was the only girl in a family of seven, and grew up in poverty Her parents emphasized education

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Sandra Cisneros

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  1. Sandra Cisneros A House as Quiet as Snow

  2. Growing Up in Chicago • Born in the Hispanic Quarter of Chicago in 1954 • Mexican-American (Chicana) • She was the only girl in a family of seven, and grew up in poverty • Her parents emphasized education • Her family moved often; she was shy and introverted, but connected with her community privately through writing • http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/chh/bio/cisneros_s.htm • http://www.sandracisneros.com/html/about/bio.html

  3. Becoming a Writer • Attended Loyola University in Chicago as an English major • Decided to become a writer • Attended the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, a graduate school for young writers • Was afraid her unprivileged background would put her at a disadvantage in the literary world • However, her heritage gave her the unique voice that shaped her career • http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/chh/bio/cisneros_s.htm • http://www.sandracisneros.com/html/about/bio.html

  4. Books by Sandra Cisneros • Bad Boys, Mango Press: San Jose, California, 1980 • The House on Mango Street , (Arte Publico Press: Houston, Texas, l984), Vintage: New York, 1991. • Woman Hollering Creek, Random House: New York, 1991 • My Wicked Wicked Ways, (Third Woman Press: Berkeley, California, l987), Random House: New York, 1992 • La Casa En Mango Street, translated by Elena Poniatowska, Vintage Español, New York, 1994. • Loose Woman, Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1994. • Hairs/Pelitos, Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1994. Spanish translation by Liliana Valenzuela. • Caramelo, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2002. Spanish edition translated by Liliana Valenzuela. • Vintage Cisneros, Vintage, New York, 2004. • http://www.sandracisneros.com/html/about/publications.html

  5. The House on Mango Street: Narrator • The work is narrated by Esperanza Cordero, thirteen, a Chicana girl in Chicago. • Although told in the voice of a young girl, it addresses mature subject matter. • In English, Esperanza means hope, and also, waiting. • This choice of name is significant in the novel: the character and her independence represent a way out of the slums. • As she watches her neighborhood, she decides that she will not become like the women she knows, trapped and powerless in a man’s world.

  6. The House on Mango Street: Setting • Mango Street symbolizes both Esperanza’s ball and chain and her inspiration. • In the beginning of the novel, she is disappointed with the house on Mango Street. • She finds that she is not like the other residents of Mango, that she can and will find the strength to leave her life there. • She realizes that Mango is a part of her, and where she comes from is as important as where she’s going. • She knows she must come back, to help the others who are trapped there. • Cisneros’s writing is very imagistic. She makes unexpected comparisons between things to give connotations to what she describes.

  7. The House on Mango Street: Structure • The novel is told as a series of vignettes, 1-4 pages each • There is no real chronological plot, but a series of insights into Esperanza’s thoughts and feelings. • The vignettes show the trends in behavior in the community and provide a contrast between strength and weakness, between freedom and bondage. • The novel is dedicated A Las Mujeres, To the Women.

  8. The House on Mango Street: Characters • Alicia, the medical student who is still bound to her old fears. • Marin, who waits. • Beautiful Rafaela, the modern-day Rapunzel. • Rosa Vargas, with too many children, crying for the husband who left. • Mamacita, who dreams of the pink house she left behind and refuses to speak English. • Sally, the subject of abuse until she marries, to escape, before eighth grade, and moves from Mango Street into into another sort of trap. • And then there is Esperanza, who is like the skinny trees outside her tiny window, who longs for a house all her own, who starts her own quiet war.

  9. The House on Mango Street: Significance • This is Cisneros’s first novel. • It is a way to relate her cultural identity to her life and the lives of others. • Cisneros seeks to break the cycle of defeats that women suffered due to social and religious stereotypes. • Esperanza is an outlet for the author’s views on the perceptions of women in her milieu. • http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/chh/bio/cisneros_s.htm

  10. Further Research • For more biographical information: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/cisneros/bio.htm • For more analysis of The House on Mango Street: http://www.bookrags.com/notes/hms/BIO.htm • To buy books by Sandra Cisneros: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/102-7635974-7540935 • Teaching resources for Cisneros’s works: http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/cisneros.htm

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