Mango part dos

This book has inspired me to be spanish for the day, even though I don't speak any spanish what so ever. (well besides the common words such as hola, adios..etc..) So the second half of the book was pretty good. I liked this book, so far out of the three..its probably 2. Sorry, but montana comes before it. The reason i like this book is becuase its a very easy read, but it left room for the reader to analyze and put their own personal expeirecnes, and point of view on topics in place. In the section "Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark," when Esperanza sympathizes with her Father for the first time after her Grandpa's death, it connected to my personal experience when last year around this time, My dad's best friend died, and I saw him upset for the first time in my life. It was an experience that I would never forget, just like Esperanza wouldn't. I thought it was really cute when Esperanza brought up Sire, and how he stared her down, and she tried not to look,but then she found out that he had a girl friend, lois, so that crushed her dreams of ever having any type of relationship with him. I think that her use of nature and comparing herself to the "skinny trees" shows that she is stuck where she is, and has no way of getting out until she dies. But that condradicts itself at the begging, and end of the bok (full circle endingg!) where she says that they didn't live at mango street forever, that they did live somehwere else, and that one day she was going to have her own home. The next couple of short chapters, Esperanza talks a lot about beauty, and the beautiful people in her appartment building. She talks about Rafaela, and she talks about Sally. Those two people do have different beauties though. Rafaela, is really pretty, and her husband locks her up when he goes out becuase he's afraid that she's going to escape. It also shows that people are really stuck not only at mango street, but in their own lifes. They have no where else to turn, and they can't express their real emotions, and personality traits becuase they are trapped inside these specific boudaries. Sally, which is the next section, talks about how this girl is really pretty becuase she wears a lot of makeup, and short skirts. Once again anoter high school, cookie-cutter, stereotype of a "pretty girl" I absolutlely hate this sterotype becuase I think people can be really pretty without wearing a lot of makeup, and wearing the shortest skirts. Now a days, people are too into the outside, and don't really get to know people on the inside, and that really buggss me, but whatever. Back to mangos. These few sections about the women show what Esperanza's fate is going to be if she stays on Mango street. This shows that she needs to leave, so she can persue her dreams and become a writer, but in order to do that, she must leave Mango street. Through the rest of the book Esperanza goes through what every teenage girl goes through. She feels she's unattractive, and that no one will every marry her. She talks about how she wants to be the damsal in distress (hmm...Catherine much?) and have every boy fall in love with her. I think this book hits many important subjects. It talks about stererotypes, and being yourself and not being able to change it. It talks about how many people are trapped inside themselves, and feel like they can't express themselves, becuase if they do they won't be accepted into the community, and it talks about more physical topics, like abusive parents, and rape, and death, many subjects that people do not like to talk, or even relise that it is happening to them. This book was pretty good..and I think that its going to definetly be on my list of favorites.
next book: The Bell Jar.