The Future

In the book Manga Street by Sandra Cisneros the main character and narrator Esperanza goes through a story of her life. She begins as a child who knows nothing of the world and lives in a poor broke down house on Mango Street. As the story continues she grows up and goes through a bunch of changes mentally, physically, and . At the last 3 chapters/vignettes, she meets a bunch of old ladies who "predict her future." What is this future? 
In my opinion Sandra Cisneros is portraying herself as Esperanza in the book. Therefore, Esperanza's future can be shown as Sandra Cisneros future. On the last page of the last vignette, it says, 

"Friends and neighbors will say, What happened to Esperanza? Where did she go with all those books and paper? Why did she march so far away?

In this quote, I can draw many inferences. For one thing -all those books and paper- can mean that she went to get herself an education. An education can let her lead a better life and even -come back- to Mango street to     -help- all those who couldn't leave. If Esperanza really was Sandra Cisneros and went to get an education after leaving Mango Street, this story THOMS could be how she comes back to Mango street to help. This also explains 

In another quote on page 106, Esperanza talks with Alicia about "Mango Street,"
No, Alicia says. Like it or not you are Mango Street, and one day you'll come back too.

Esperanza really hates Mango Street, but she can't fight the fact that she's from there. She intends to leave and come back when things make it better, but nothing will. Therefore she has to either help other people leave Mango Street or help make Mango Street better. On page 105, three old mysterious ladies tell Esperanza's future from her hands. They say, 

"YOu must remember to come back. For the ones who canot leave as easily as you. You will remember? She asked as if she was telling me. Yes, yes, I said a litte confisued. 

In this quote, Esperanza's future is already given to her, she must remember to come back for the others.The only way to get this is for her to get an education. After she gets and education, she'll be able to return to Mango Street. I believe that Esperanza will leave Mango Street to seek her education and then she'll come back and help other who wish to have and education but cannot.
  

Sandra  Cisneros is a very peculiar person. In her book Manga Street, her feelings are spread out through the whole book. From what I can see and tell, Sandra Cisneros thinks that boys and girls should not be treated the same.

In the book Mango Street, the main character Esperanza encounters many people around her in little neighborhood of Mango Street. Everyone of them are different. Everyone of them is raised different. The way they are raised are all points of views from Sandra, her opinion of boys and girls are shown in Mango Street. In one of the quotes on page 8, “Since she comes right after me, she is my responsibility.” (8)  It shows here that Sandra wants girls to be treated more differently then boys She believes that parents should raise their girls to be more responsible. Esperanza shows this responsibility from her caring for her sister. Sandra believes that parents should raise girls to be more responsible then boys.

Another example of Sandra's feelings are showed on page 80 and 81. It states, “Her father says to be this beautiful is trouble. [...] She can’t go out. Sally I mean.” (81) “[...] and nobody could call that crazy.” (83) In this quote, Cisneros shows how families might raise girls differently because girls can more easily bring shame to the family. The implication is that this is unfair. This also shows how girls shouldn't be too beautiful because it might attract alot of guys. In conclusion Sandra shows that she thinks that girls shouldn't be too beautiful, and girls should be raised diffrerently for guy because girls can bring shame more easily than the guys in the family.

Most of what Sandra writes in her book symbolize something. In one of other paragraphs she shows tha girls are very different from boys. “Sally, make them stop. I couldn’t make them go away. [...] Please don’t make me tell it all.” (100) This quote shows that Esperanza can't defeat the boys. Which implies that boy can never step up ibn society and will always never be able to beat the boys. 

Sandra thinks that girl and boys should not be treated the same because they are different in responsibility wise, soceity wise, and shame wise.

My World

1. Fear

2. Confusion

3. Hair

4. My name

Vignette 1- Fear

It was cold, and dark. The phone rang like it was crazy as we spun in circles. Fear build-ed up in my heart, as I had no idea what was going to happen
Saturday, December 25 2009. It was the time for snow. My cousin invited me to Tahoe that year, because my parents couldn’t go. On Saturday he came to our house to pick me up.
“Hey come on let’s go,” David said.
“Alright hold on, let me get some stuff,”
“Kk, be in the car in 5 minutes,” david said.
I rushed to get my pack of stuff I wanted to bring to Tahoe, my ipod, psp, and goggles, etc. After I finished I rushed to the car like I was told.
“About time,” said Brian (one of my cousin’s friends)
“Shut up, I was getting ready’
“You guys hungry?” David asked.
“No, it’s cool I ate”
“I am, let’s stop by taco bell.”
“Ok, lets”
We drove to taco bell, and stopped to pick up some food. When we stopped, my cousin handed me his new phone.
“here, check this out, it’s a new phone I got called the Nexus One, google made. It’s not even in stores yet.”
I took the phone and and I turned it on. A funny looking robot appeared on the screen and it gave me this weird peculiar look. At the same moment, Brian bumped into me
“HEy , watch OUT!”
“sorry man, didn’t see ya there”
i glared at him, sending him a mind signal  that I knew that was on purpose.
“Never-mind,” i said, “lets’ go”
As we drove on the freeway, i played with my cousin’s phone. Every game I played, I lost. It was like the phone hated me. fortress game, fuitcutter, this fishing game, and some other games I can’t describe. After so many losses, I decided to listen to music instead. I gave my cousin his phone back and took out my ipod and earphones. I dozed off after a few minutes of listening to music.
…...
“Hooonnnkkk!!”
I jumped.
“Hey Watch Out stupid car”
“OH SHIT, OH WATCH OUT!!!!!”
My eyes closed as it happened.
“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEECH”
Everything was blurry, Nothing made sense. My world was upside down, left was right and horizontal was vertical. I was hung out.
“SCREEEEEEECH”
I tumbled onto the ground and something dropped into my right arm. I could feel the car doing exactly 2 perfect 360 degree spins and I could feel the tires underneath rejecting the snow: grasping for the road. My arms and legs were bracing around my head, my body cold and stiff. I could hear the cars in the back beep as if they were cheering at us like it was a show.  
-Silence-
“You... you guys alright?”
“ya... I’m o.k”
“Dang, I thought we were gonna die”
“Ya.. me too,” I said, “Ughhh, my back hurts”
When I got up from my seat, I remembered that I was still gripping something in my hand.
“...... dude, I got your phone.”

Vignette 2 = Confusion?

It all started on a fine Friday morning. I woke up drowsy, light headed, and extremely tired at 7:00 clock. At 7:02, I went to do the usual.After i brushed my teeth and washed my face, I started to eat a bowl of cereal on the kitchen table. At 7:30, my mom drove me too school and we arrived at 7:55.
….....
    After school, I stood outside to wait fro my mom. I was extremely tired and it just wasn’t my day. It was a long crucial wait. Time seemed to have lost all meaning, Seconds became minutes, and minutes became hours. The sun kept leaving the sky and the moon showed up after every dawn. My eyes rolled up and down, right and left, and my beard grew longer every second. Then it came. The time where everything didn't even make sense anymore. Cars flew in the air, birds drove around the road, and humans oh humans slithered on the ground like a snake struggling out of cast off skin.Suddenly a car appeared in front of me and beeped in my face. Everything returned back to normal. The cars were on the round parked into a space. Geese flew in the sky--- BEEP! Suddenly my mom's car appeared in front of me and beeped in my face. I got in and didn't even want to think if this was a dream. Sure enough this was reality. It was 3: 24, 14 minutes after i gotten out of school. My mom drove me home and left me with a key to open the doors. I walked up the each step and inserted the key into the door's keyhole. It didn't budge. I turned the key back and forth waiting for an opening sound but none came. Dashing down the steps i yelled for my mom's car just turned away from the street. I reached for into pocket and then I remembered, I had forgotten to bring my phone.

Vignette 3 = Hair
Everyone within my family has different types of hair. My mama’s hair is wavy. Her bangs are wavy, her sides are wavy, and her back is wavy. My papa’s hair is short and straight. His hair dosen’t need combing nor any special treatment. In fact, he barely has hair. And me, my hair is like my mom’s wavy and a slightly bit curly. Sometimes it gets into knots and really annoys me.
But my sister’s hair, my sister’s hair is special, like blackish brown threads, like dozens of black thin strings and pretty because it’s straight and always obeys her. Her hair is like my dad’s except her’s is longer. Her hair is a little straight and wavy, but mostly straight. Her hair needs some combing.

Vignette 4 = My Name
My name is Eric Lau. My name does not have alot meaning to it, but it has history. My first name “eric,” was given to me by my cousin. He was totally into this one baseball player and his name was “eric.” My name was then decided to be eric. Aside from it being my cousin’s little reason, there is no other.
My last name is different though. My last name “lau,” is actually not my true last name. My actual last name is “lu,” but my dad decided to change it when he came to America. My dad origninated in Vietnam. When he was young the Viet war was happening, so he had get away (one of the boy responsibilities I think..). He told me that he lived in the mountains for a few months before it became a battlefield. Before it got ugly in the mountains he stowed onto a ship. He left all his brothers and sisters and family members to do this. The ship, however, was then caught by pirates and he then had to jump overboard. Luckily they were pretty near shore so he got to China (somewhere). He then traveled to singapore and met my mom. Considering what my dad had to go through, I’m happy that I was avle to receive his last name.
From what I’ve heard, “Lau” also means angry guy or tyrant in some other language.

Windows

The story The Store on Mango street is a beautiful book that uses vignettes as symbolism in it. In there the author tries to portray her thoughts in a symbolic way for the readers to try and figure out as they read along the book. There are a number of vignettes in this book, but a good one is windows.

Windows in this book means a very symbolic thing. In my opinion, the windows reflect on who she is and who she becomes as the story progresses. In "My name," she talks about how her grandmother used to look our the window her whole life. I think that this means that she's looking back at her past self and she's sad that she had left it. On page 102, Esperanza narrates her friend Sally who got married before 18 and went off to live with her husband. Sally is described to be happy as a married women even though her husband can be a jerk. It is also mentioned that she was not allowed to look out the windows. I think that this means that she can't look back at her past, because she likes it the way she is now. In page 79, a girl called Rafaela leans out the windows and dreams her hair was like Rapunzel. I think that from this, the windows can also be who she wants to be. Past, Present, and Dreams. It also talks about how she's locked inside her house, so the windows symbolism could also mean that she looking at her past as well. In page 82, the windows symbolism doesn't really match what I had been thinking about. Instead it talks about how Esperanza dreams about how she had a house where there were big windows, and if you open the little window hatch and gave it a shove, all the sky would be visible. In my opinion, this somewhat is also talking about her dream, and I mentioned that the windows also had something to do with dreams so maybe the windows actually do have something to do with dreams.

In the end, after reading the few chapters with the windows symbolism in them, I really do think that the windows mean the past, present, and dreams. I have to say that I'm not sure how i can elaborate on that, and that this window's symbolism is pretty complicated.