A Study On Discrimination In The House On Mango Street

Sandra Cisneros is one of the most representative U.S. Latina writers holding an important place in Contemporary American literature. Her first and most acclaimed novel The House on Mango Street came out in 1984 and gained her a 1985 Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award. The House on Mango Street mainly portrays the survival situation of Latino Americans, especially the protagonist Esperanza’s living experience as a Latina girl who lives in the Mango Street — a Latino barrio in Chicago, where she observes and records her surroundings. The seemingly simple language of this novel, which renders it as a form of prose poetry, conveys hard truths about the authentic life of Latino Americans in the United States,which provides a point for the study of postmodern ethnic literature. Besides, with unique perspective and linguistic style, Cisneros has constructed a unique voice for Latinas.Since publication, The House on Mango Street has been studied by numerous researchers at home and abroad. Most previous studies focus on initiation characteristics, narrative techniques,psychoanalytic interpretation and so on. From a new perspective, the author of this thesis is committed to the study on discrimination suffered by Latino Americans in their Latino barrios.Through comprehensive analyses of representations of discrimination and oppression suffered by most Latinas and their solutions towards above discrimination, the author of this thesis, having internalized several theories and combining the methods of close reading and text analysis, tries to explore a more preferable and reasonable way for Latinas and ethnic minorities to a lager degree, to rid themselves out of the discrimination and oppression mentioned above.Firstly, through close reading and text analysis, the author finds out that two main representations of discrimination are racial discrimination and prejudice experienced by Latino Americans from the mainstream American society representative by Anglo-Americans and gender discrimination and oppression suffered by Latinas within their communities. Secondly,from perspective of sociology and history and combining with cultural factors, the author figures out the roots of discrimination towards Latino Americans —their relatively low socioeconomic status in American society, geographical factors of their residence, as well as the shackles of their stereotypical cultural values. After the examinations on the way-out of Latinas to address discrimination and oppression, the author concludes that conservative Latinas still adhere to their stereotypical traditional cultural values, keep silent faced with oppression and do not make any changes to their situations. While awakened Latinas observe their surroundings carefully and read their worlds with a critical eye; they dare to break the bounds of their stereotypical traditions to create a different lifestyle from the traditional ones with the means of education or writing.Based on the above analyses, the author has drawn enlightenment for the modern society:writing is a preferable means of self-construction, self-expression and self-empowerment and education is precondition of writing. For people of ethnic minority groups, only by learning and merging into mainstream culture can they be able to rid themselves from marginalization and make a better living in the mainstream society. Under the background of globalization, an inclusive and harmonious society is needed to be constructed for the harmonious coexistence of all human beings.