Mango Street Post: Due Monday at 7:00

If Mango Street is a novel, and the protagonist is Esperanza. Given what Esperanza heard from the nun about her original dwelling, what she sees happening to the women around her throughout her childhood, and her desire to get out of the barrio or neighborhood, followed by her success at doing so, we can conclude that she is prejudiced against the men of her own culture and the oppression they impose upon the women and that she carries some overall shame about aspects of her Mango Street past along with some pleasant memories. It does feel like the burden of shame is heavier, however, by comparison. Therefore, my question, to all of you is: What is the central insight of this novel? What is Cisneros trying to teach her reader by having written it? Please explain. I look forward to hearing your viewpoints, and some justification/support for your ideas please.

Nye's Poetry and Identity

Aside from the poem "Kindness" in which Nye shockingly but candidly (and I think wonderfully) connects all readers with the Indian on the side of the road who could be any one of us, find at least two other specific quotations from poems in the volume Words Under the Words in which Nye attempts to connect the reader to someone or a group of people Western culture has usually deemed as Other (in Said's terms --- i.e., Oriental, Asian, Eastern, on the margins, etc.). Please quote the passage and include the line numbers and the title of the poem, and interpret the lines. Thank you. Due date: Wednesday by 4:30 p.m.