The House on Mango Street 芒果街上的小屋读后感

Leave to Come Back“You can never have too much sky. You can fall asle ep and wake up drunk on sky, and sky can keep you safe when you are sad. Here there is too much sadness and not enough sky. Butterflies too are few and so are flowers and most thin gs that are beautiful. Still we take what we can get and make the best of it.”These words are extracted from The House on Mango Street and caught my eyes from the first sight. Sandra Cisneros, author of the book, is a renowned Mexican-American contemporary poet. The protagonist is a little girl called Esperanza who was born and brought up in a poor Hispanic community. She tells stories about a person, a trivial matter, a dream, some clouds, a few trees, pieces of thoughts and feelings. These littles things constitutes a clear world and varied lives of people. All the stories and tellings themselves originally and finally comes to a core -- a girl, with the sympathy of the deprived ones, whose name symbols “hope” in Hispanic is dreaming of having a house of her own, finding her soul in writing and acquiring the ability and freedom to help others.I think those are the most sweet words that I’ve ever read from a foreign language. Just like, when you’ve read Tang poem Song jambic verse, you would find yourself falling in love with ancient Chinese; when you’ve experienced Zhao hua xi shi, you would be keen to the vernacular. The initial encounter with those lovely words made me adore the auth or’s remarkable intell igence of wielding words. But then, I could not help immersing myself into the world it creates, recapturing what I have lost and comprehended on the trip of growing-up. This is a dramatic experience where you can have a tiny touch of the pain and beauty of life through a little girl’s eyes. Those bitter sweet feelings travel beyond time barrier and echo in my mind, and settle down gently.Many readers hailed this book as a “fantastic collection of fairytales”. But is it?I would rather call it a “dairy”. I am not sure which age group it is in tended for. Stories of this girl is so trivial and mundane that they may not seem to befascinating. However, these stories have the magic which allure readers to sketch a remote place, a vivid little girl, and a passage of sensitive but colorful childhood.I am so into stories about little girls -- Esperanza as well as girls in cartoons produced by Mr. Miyazaki. In their stories, once can see time’s slight footprint on the paper. Some impressions like cool breeze in summer, turning the dairy page by page. Through this exquisite dairy, readers may see Esperanza with silk-like black hair and large bright eyes blinking at them. She would tell you her little harvest, petty worries, tiny happiness; how desperate she is dreaming of a house of her own; the adventure trip with Renee -- experiences resemble ours when we are a child. We played with our best friends, simple and carefree; we picked flowers without considering whether they may feel the pain; we loved origami and couldn’t fall asleep without the company o f dolls. Every girl was once Esperanza with Esperanzas around. She lives in the depth of your heart. In those sedate days of sunshine, she might come out, basking in the sun. She is neither Little Prince nor Peter Pan. She is natural and real and touches r eader’s soft heart. Following her to this magic world, surprisingly, you will find this book is exactly your forgotten dairy locked in the bookcase.However, what I’ve talked about is not the book all about. The point is not “poetic and fresh flavor”, but the background of the author Sandra Cisneros, Mexican-American -- prototype of Esperanza. She is migrant and colored-race. She has all her childhood spent on Mango Street where the condition is bad and poor families huddled up. Little girl as she is, she knows all sorrow, discrimination and equality that people who live here suffer from. But she once said, "I know then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn't it. The house on Mango Street isn't it. For the time being. Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go.” She knows it all to well and she is decided not to accept as it. Yes, she want maturity and independence. Not enough. House symbols social status. The house on Mango Street stables her little fragile heart by representing her depressing pedigree. What she pursues is acceptance and pride. There is a chapter in the book titled“No Speaking English”. In my point of view, it is the most sorrowful story concerning migrant issues."No speak English, she says to the child who is singing in the language that sounds like tin. No speak English, no speak English, and bubbles into tears. No, no,no, as if she can't believe her ears."Exotic culture is mighty and aggressive that what left for a migrant to do is not attack, all but attack. Then what about defend? But how to defend? Your pathetic land is destined to be invaded and occupied. You husband would be involved in the mainstream because he has to find a job. Then he would turn around and urge you to join in. You child, you thought you could educate and protect him from that impeccable foreign culture. Maybe he would stay with you and your vulnerable culture forever. However, what would you feel when you hear him singing American advertising songs when he could barely count from one to ten?“No English. No integration. Go back. Can I ?”“No, you can’t.”At this moment, you feel desperate.And you, trapped in the house on the Mango Street, helplessly looks at it as it happens.Yes, this is the crude and cold blood aspect of life, the real life. Everything happens as it is. This book does not only tell fairytales, it tells truth. Sometimes, if readers put themselves into the same shoes as Esperanza, they may feel it is a journey of b eauty, innocent play, blue sky, mom’s rosettes-like hair... But sometimes, pain can overwhelm you -- poverty and discrimination really hurts people like knives.Esperanza lives in a small red shabby house on the Mango Street.“ I like to tell sto ries. I make a story for my life, for each step my brown shoes takes--So she trudged up the wooden stairs, her sad brown shoes taking her to the house she never liked.” This is what she thinks about --she hope the day would finally come when he feet can walk her out of the Mango Street to a place much far away. Maybe one day she could stop in front of a house, abeautiful one, which has big windows and gardens of vibrant flowers. She can have a gentle push of the window, then, floods in the blue sky. There is no place for bitter memory in this house. It is a house which she is always dreaming of and she finally belongs to. Readers, me included, are in pursuit of that house too.In the chapter “The Three Sisters”, Esperanza made a wish. A wish for acknowledgement and leaving the Mango Street. But someone told her:"When you leave you must remember to come back for the others. A circle, understand? You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street. You can't erase what you know. You can't forget what you are."Yes, she was told that she is a Mexican, once and forever. This is not disgrace but the real you. So the last words in the book are as follows:"I like to tell stories. I am going to tell you a story about a girl who didn't want to belong.""One day I will pack my bags of books and paper. One day I will say goodbye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever.""They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out."True. All for coming back.This is the progress of literature. This is the power in the blossom of wild flower, tiny but astounding. And that’s why it stays among the top of Dangdang and Amazon best seller list for years on end.。