The House On Mango Street: the Struggle of Mexican-American Women in the 20th Century
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 The Book “The House on Mango Street”
1.1.1 Summary
The House on Mango Street is a semi-autobiographical story from a Mexican-American girl’s eyes, whose name is Esperanza, which is hope in English. Through 44 separated but related stories, the author depicts a whole picture of the life of the Mexican-American women in the 20th century in an impoverished neighborhood, named Mango Street, in Chicago[1]. It’s a mixture of joy and sorrow, hope and fear; it’s a story telling about growing-up, as well as the racial discrimination, patriarchy, poverty and other difficulties in education, employment, family, social relationships facing the Mexican-American women at that time in general.
1.1.2 Achievements
This book has received quite a lot achievements and praises from the date of its publishment, that is in the year of 1984. It has been translated into various languages and been taught in schools across the United States and Canada as a coming-of-age novel. The book also won Sandra Cisneros, the author, the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1985.
1.1.3 Other information about This Book
The reference of this thesis is the bilingual version of The House on Mango Street[2], translated by Pa Pan, published by Yilin Press in 2006 and reprint in 2009.
1.2 The Author of Book
Sandra Cisneros is the author of The House on Mango Street, which is her first novel. Born in 1954, Sandra Cisneros is an American writer, and is regarded as a key figure in Chicana literature. In her early life, the experiences that she was the only daughter in a family of six brothers, which often made her feel isolated, and that her family often migrated between Mexico and the USA, which instilled in her the sense of "always straddling two countries ... but not belonging to either culture." In most of her works, Chicana[3]...