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Xinyu Zhou
Ms. Shaffer
English 1 GATE
20, September 2016
The Definition of Self
As a process of growing up, everyone in the world has went through the struggles of
defining themselves, it might be important as a life change, or small like a daily decision, it
might be joyful, dull or difficult. In the book The House on Mango Street, the author, Sandra
Cisneros, wrote with lots of literary and figurative language that indicates the reflection of
Cisneros's teenage life; the main character, Esperanza, an ordinary Latina girl, is created as the
shadow of the young author. This book has well presented the struggles of defining ones self
during the process of growing up, it shows how the obstructs can change a persons passion,
dream and life, it cost courage to fight over it.
A name is something that everyone has, weather we like it or not, we have to give our
acceptance to it, it is a part of ourselves, it is the words that melts to our soul. The name plays an
important part in The House on Mango Street. In the story, Esperanza says, In English my name
means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like
the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings
when he is shaving, songs like sobbing. (10) This quote expresses that Esperanza does not like
her name very much, it means sadness and waiting to her. An examination of this quote reveals
that Esperanza put her name in its original meanings, and she also gives the name the new
meaning, for example, too many letters is how the name is written, and the meaning waiting
came from the Spanish verb esperar. This shows that she does not like the name but she

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accepts the name in the meaning which she has understood in, this also foreshadowed
Esperanzas creativity, stronged Esperanzas position as a young writer later in the story. She
does not want to define herself like the meaning of her name, a woman who does not have
freedom, but she accepts it because there she know that name it is one of the things that she can
not change.
Name is not the only thing that we can not change, heredity is another thing that can
affect our view to ourselves. Another evidence is that the author claims, She looked out the
window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she
made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldnt be all the things she
wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I dont want to inherit her place by the
window. (10) This quote expresses that Esperanza does not want to be a woman without
freedom, she want things that she can decide on her own. This quote highlights that Esperanza
wants to become a strong woman, unlike her grandmother, or any woman we see in the story that
got locked in the chains of marriage or family. She likes that her grandmother, who is also named
Esperanza, who would also defines herself as a strong woman, but Esperanza does not like her
grandmothers result. To be a person with personalities she can decide on her own is more like a
dream for Esperanza, for many families on Mango Street, women and children would always
follow the rule of the household, there is always a role for everybody to play, but Esperanza
defines herself different, she start to grow up, and as a strong woman in the future, she got her
own characteristics. She also thinks different, she have down lots things that other girls wont do,
anything that she thinks Esperanza would do.
Same as our lives, there are always struggles that can confuse our decisions on which
direction to go and what kind of person we want to become, Esperanza too. In the story, Sandra

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Cisneros writes, They are the only ones who understand me. I am the only one who understands
them. Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong
here but are here. (74) The author made a comparison between the skinny trees and Esperanza
herself, the quote reveals that in Esperanzas opinion, the skinny trees could understand her, they
does not belong to Mango Street but somewhere else that they fit in, as if the four trees were a
reflection of herself. This point is noteworthy because it shows that Esperanza uses the trees to
describe herself, as skinny and weak as the trees, which made her see the opposite of what she
want to become. The trees also can be recognized as Esperanzas struggle on defining herself,
she senses that she does not belong to where she has lived, she wants to escape, at the same time,
she is afraid of the future and outcome, this is one reason why some people give up their dream
and did not end up as the one they wished to be.
Our life is affected by many elements around her, family, friends, culture and outsiders,
just like how Esperanza sees her name as a part of fate, how she thinks her grandmothers
experience can be pass to her along with her name and how she relate the environment to herself.
Esperanzas thoughts of being a free woman has shifting between the time she saw the women
who did not have freedom and when she thought about herself. She is a reflection of the process
of growing up, her childhood will eventually fade along the past of time, she have to give
acceptance to anything she own no matter is it the things she wanted or not. We are just like
Esperanza, we start to find the our true selves, and dream about our path to future. There will be
always struggles and issues, they can change our fate in the speed of light. Are we brave enough
to overcome it and hold our destiny in our hands? Or give up and seek for another way?
Ourselves are the only ones that knows the answer.

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Rubric rating submitted on: 10/2/2016, 12:29:07 PM by ashley.shaffer@salinasuhsd.org

2

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Your score: 0
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Comments:
M.U.G.: 6/10
Rubric rating submitted on: 10/13/2016, 4:37:44 PM by ashley.shaffer@salinasuhsd.org
2

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Topic Sentence 3
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Comments:
M.U.G.: 7/10