The Symbolic Meaning of House in The House on Mango Street英语专业毕业论文.doc

The Symbolic Meaning of House in The House on Mango StreetAbstractAs a classic in contemporary American ethnic literature，the novel The House On the Mango Street has brought Sandra Cisneros international fameThe House on Mango Street records the struggling history of Mexican immigrants in AmericaApproaching the life of immigrants, the novel discloses the dilemma of minority communities in American society from the perspective of a little female protagonist EsperansaThe novel also portrays the growth of Esperansa，reflecting Esperansas and other Mexican womens marginal status in American society and their subordinate reality from their fathers or oppression by their husbands after marriage，through which the work lays bare those Mexican womens physical and spiritual pursuit of social equality，racial and gender identity This thesis will analyze Esperansas narrating of her ordinary life to explore the symbolic meaning of “house” in The House on Mango Street. It consists of five parts. Chapter One introduces the genre and themes of the House on Mango Street. Chapter Two defines the meaning of the house. Chapter Three discusses about how people on Mango Street pursue class equality. It also talks about the birth of the novel. In Chapter Four, the lower-class Latinos fight for equal racial identity. Chapter Five introduces the male chauvinism and how the women try to win an equal gender status.Keywords：House；Pursue ;Class Identity; Racial Identity； Gender Identity内容摘要作为美国当代族裔文学经典之作，小说 芒果街上的小屋为美国女作家桑德拉 ·希斯内罗丝赢得国际声誉。芒果街上的小屋描述了墨西哥移民在美国辛酸的奋斗史。小说从主人公-一个小女孩埃斯佩朗莎 ·科德罗的视角书写芒果街的移民生活，尤其是社区中少数族裔女性在夹缝中的生存状态，呈现美国社会少数族裔社区的困境。小说讲述了主人公埃斯佩朗莎 ·科德罗的成长经历，反映埃斯佩朗莎以及其它少数族裔女性在美国社会的弱势地位以及在家庭受男性压迫的现实，折射出以埃斯佩朗莎为代表的墨西哥裔女性对象征阶级、种族和性别平等的一所完全属于自己的房子不懈追寻的心声。本论文通过分析主人公埃斯佩朗莎 ·科德罗讲述她的日常生活来探讨房子在芒果街上的小屋一书中的象征意义。本文包括五个部分：第一章介绍该小说的流派和主题。第二章讨论了房子的定义。第三章介绍了在芒果街上的人是如何追求阶级的平等，包括介绍这部小说是如何诞生的。第四章写了社会下层的墨西哥裔的人们为了平等的少数民族地位是如何奋斗的。第五章介绍了在芒果街上的大男子主义现象和那些女人是如何争取性别平等的地位。关键词：房子；追寻；阶级身份；种族身份；性别身份OutlineThesis Statement: This thesis is talking about the symbolic meaning of house in The House on Mango Street.1 Introduction1.1 Genre 1.2 Themes2 The Definition of House 3 House: Pursuing of Equal Class Identity3.1 Pursuing of Equal Class Identity3.2 Background Information4 House: Pursuing Equal Racial Identity5 House: Pursuing Equal Gender Identity5.1 Male Chauvinism5.2 Pursuing Equal Gender Identity6 Conclusion Table of Contents1 Introduction.11.1 Genre.21.2 Themes .22 The Definition of House .43 House: Pursuing of Equal Class Identity.63.1 Pursuing of Equal Class Identity63.2 Background Information94 House: Pursuing Equal Racial Identity115 House: Pursuing Equal Gender Identity.135.1 Male Chauvinism.135.2 Pursuing Equal Gender Identity.156 Conclusion .16Notes .17Bibliography .191. IntroductionVirginia Woolf, regarded as one of the forerunners of British feminist writers of the 20th century, once said 'a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction1. Woolf noted that women have been kept from writing because of their relative poverty, and financial freedom will bring women the freedom to write.2 It is obvious that woman has to become independent not only in space but also in economy in order to have the scope for her particular talents of literary and artistic creation and achieve the independent and equal status in a world dominated by men. The subsequent feminists, however, found out that the obstacles they met with were far more than they had thought on the way to pursue independence and equality. One of the outstanding American Jewish writers Tillie Olsen who struggled for a living dissects deeply that women will be confronted with big barriers in social status and gender equality when they are writing or doing other things in literary and artistic creation. Likewise, an outstanding Afro-American woman writer Alice Walker called the defender of the black race and black women sharply scolds that sex and racial discrimination are obstruction in the emergence of the sense of the black females. Like Alice Walker, Sandra Cisneros a female Chicana writer in contemporary America has gathered criticism, social status and gender discrimination in her master piece The House on Mango Street. It probes a Mexican-American female Esperansa in the marginal status of the lowest caste, minority and subordinate reality makes a sustained effort for her own house which is a symbol of class, race and sex of Mexican-American. So some authors say 'Three books by Alice Walker, Sandra Cisneros, and Adrienne Rich exemplify the examination of women's personal identities from a communal perspective.Cisneros' The House on Mango Street covers Hispanic identity."31.1 GenreThe House on Mango Street is a coming-of-age novel by the Mexican-American writer Sandra Cisneros, published in 1984. It won The American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1985. Almost immediately after publication, people started to take notice of Sandra Cisneross The House on Mango Street. The House on Mango Street is consisted of vignettes that are not quite poems and not quite full stories. Esperanza narrates these vignettes in first-person present tense, focusing on her day-to-day activities and her view of herself within the community where she resides, in addition to an examination of her neighbors, but sometimes narrating sections are just a series of observations. So the vignettes are not connected to one another closely, although they often mention characters introduced in earlier sections. Each vignette can stand as an independent mini-story. They can be as short as two or three paragraphs long and sometimes contain internal rhymes. In The Family of Little Feet for example, Esperanza says:"Their arms were little, and their hands were little, and their height was not tall, and their feet very small;”4,1931.2 Themes Cisneros paints a picture of an oppressive Latino patriarchal community where women are expected to conform to traditional female roles; however, Esperanza rejects those roles and forges her own path, thereby inventing her own definition of what it means to come of age as a Chicana. It is also through these short literary sketches that Cisneros explores the struggles of the women in her neighborhood. The work, in fact, is dedicated to “A las Mujeres,” translated as “To the Women.” 4,151The collection of vignettes explores many topics including sexism, racism, classism, domestic violence, power of language, hope, pride, poverty, coming of age, empowerment, independence, identity, and sexuality. The examination of these topics demonstrates to the reader that Esperanza develops into an empowered character. Nothing can hold her back to the oppressive community.Many of the past critical articles use feminist and cultural lenses to focus on the topic of women as second-class citizens. Through these explorations, they show how Esperanzas forced position as a second-class citizen within her community relates to her development and self-identity when compared to others in the neighborhood.Additionally, several critics draw attention to peoples lives as second-class citizens. It explores the hard life the Mexican-Americans led. Through discussing the meaning of house in The House on Mango Street, two points of views will be adopted. Within The House on Mango Street, Cisneros weaves several subtle literary allusions, mostly from fairy tales including the house, into many of her vignettes. These subtle allusions help Cisneros create a portrait of expected feminine roles within the patriarchal community, which, when juxtaposed with Esperanzas ideals for herself, help distinguish her as different from those around her. Because she is different and stronger than other women in her community, Esperanza will be able to reject the other female role models presented by both the women in her community and the women in her dream she has been inundated with her entire life. She includes allusions to the house to teach Esperanza how not to be one like other women in her community. The rejection of the models that have been presented to her will allow her to create her own story instead where she will be able to “live happily ever after” on her own terms and not to rely on waiting for someone else to save her. Esperanza says “Not a flat. Not an apartment in black. Not a mans house. Not a daddys. A house all my own.”4, 279Esperanza is desirous of a house on her own. Only by owing a house of her own, can she escape from the patriarchal community and poverty. As the novel says”One day I will go awayThey will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out. ”4, 281 Her escape will allow her to finally escape poverty and the oppression of her community, but will also give her the strength to return to save other women from similar trappings, thereby becoming their figurative Prince Charming.2. The Definition of House The concepts of “space” and “house” are the central themes of The House on Mango Street. The narrator, Esperanza, attempts to find a house on her own while in the process of maturing and searching for her identity by looking for a place that will define her individuality. The house should be both a physical and a psychological place. It should be a place where one feels comfortable: the shape and the content of the house should accord with the owners identity. Thus this “house” can serve as a foundation for cultural identity.First of all, what is the definition of the “house”? Gaston Bachelard in the “The Poetic of Space” defines the term as something that “constitutes a body of images that give mankind proofs or illusions of stability”. 5A house means stability and roots. “ In both the East and the West mystics use images of the house; more frequently, the body is figured as the house of the soul” 5. A house has something to do with the human soul. The English Romantic poet John Keats compared life to “a large mansion of apartments” and described the development of the human thought process as a journey through the variations of consciousness, just like a big mansion with different apartments. On the other hand, the image of a decaying house has been employed as a symbol of political or social instability and decline by writers like Virgina Woolf. Virgina Woolfs famous feminist book, A Room of Ones Own declared that a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction and if she wants to write.1In the book, Esperanza wants a house of her own. Why does she want a house? There are several reasons for this. (1) A poor house symbolizes poor status. Instead of being labeled as “poor”, everyone likes to be rich. The house on the Mango Street does not match the image that she has given of herself. It is the pursuit of equal social status. (2) Sense of belonging. In immigration literature of Afro-American, Asian American and Latino culture, house is an important image that means somewhere one belongs to. Esperanza has no sense of belonging to her house on Mango Street. Belonging is a term which is generally known as the feeling of acceptance by others and having a place in the world to call ones own. However, Esperanza who feels that without a house of her own, she has or owns no place in the world. The house on the Mango Street which may protect her from being discriminated is not the house she thought she deserves. (3) Esperanzas ideal house is not one house with a dominant male power. Cisneros once claimed that she has seven fathers, her father and her six brothers. The situation is the same in Esperanzas house, the males power is always stronger than the females power. A house on her own could help her get rid of the patriarchal community.So the symbol of House in The House on Mango Street is the dreams of Esperanza-leaving from slum to get rid of poverty; winning equity in the atmosphere of racial discrimination; realizing her value in the patriarchal community. It is plain to see that house of her own actually means physical and spiritual pursuit of equality of class，racial and gender identity3. House: Pursuing of Equal Class Identity3.1 Pursuing of Equal Class IdentityAs shown in the title, the house is the central image which resulted in a variety of interpretations. As William Lloyd Warner, the pioneering anthropologist noted for applying the techniques of his discipline to contemporary American culture, says, “We are proud of those facts of American life that fit the pattern we are taught but somehow we are often ashamed of those equally important social facts which demonstrate the presence of social class. Consequently, we tend to deny them, or worse, denounce them and by doing so we tend to deny their existence and magically make them disappear from consciousness.” 7The Americans should have equal status. However, class discrimination does exist in the whole society, not only in the United States. McCracken Ellen pointed out that the house seems to be a perception, an objective concrete event independent from Esperanza, is instead the materialization of her own inner emotions, energy, and mental environment. 7From the very beginning of the novel, there is the counterpart between the house and the social status of Esperanza. Esperanza finds this scheme of equating self with the physical construct of ones home more difficult. The difficulty arises not only because of her familys financial inability to get the big white house. The problem lies more in the calculation of the house being both symbolic of social status and of personal identity; such an equation identity does not rest well with Esperanza. She learns this early on while living in a third-floor apartment. While playing out front, she is asked by a nun from school where she lives. At that time the families of Esperanza were living on the Loomis. One day, a nun from Esperanzas school passed by her home and asked Esperanza where she lived. “There, I said pointing out to the third floorYou live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing”. 4,153Suddenly, Esperanza sees how home can equal social status, and she is aware of how she is perceived because of her home. She becomes “like nothing” in the eyes of the nun, even Esperanzas own by pointing out her home, where moments before she was not nothing. The house becomes a sort of status symbol of the master of the house. The mottled wall which