Example Of Juxtaposing 'and The Earth Did Not Devour Him' And 'the House On Mango Street Critical Thinking

The aim of this paper is to compare and contrast two beautifully rendered pieces of literature; The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and ‘And the earth did not devour him by Tomas Rivera. Both the novels will be discussed in juxtaposition to each other to aid the process of drawing out similarities and highlighting points of comparison. To commence, it must be noted that both the authors are chicane identity wise and hence much of their work is set in the same background. Both the authors are successful in launching their plots’ owing to their knowledge of the familiarized chicana background that adds color to every line of their novels. Hence it is obvious that the overarching aim of the two authors in their respective novels is to highlight their rich cultural background and the modern day threats posed to it. Both the authors ‘biculturalism and bilingualism are also very important aspects’ (Sandra Cisneros - Wikipedia ) of their writing. The structure of the novels is enriched by the childhood of hybridism and ethnic differences that these two authors have faced growing up, which is further role played by the protagonists. Tomás Rivera was a Chicano author, poet, and educator. He was born in Texas to migrant farm workers, and worked in the fields as a young boy. ("Tomás Rivera," 2013) The harsh life of migrant agricultural workers in the United States, its sense of realism, that had previously not been a part of Chicano literature, and its innovative literary form have now become part of it hence. Rivera was himself the son of migrant workers and a migrant worker himself until he completed junior college. Drawing on his background and own experiences, he explores many aspects of this lifestyle and how it affects those directly involved in his novel ‘And the earth did not devour him’. (Literary Themes for Students: The American Dream - Articles: And the Earth Did Not Devour Him TOMÁS RIVERA 1971,’’ 2007)
While Cisnero in her novel, The house on mango street, bases most of the work on her experiences of being ‘raised in many neighborhoods of many colors, but an influential period, the period The House on Mango Street is based on, took place in a predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood’. (Sandra Cisneros, 2012)
It is safe to mention at this point therefore that both the novels treat the subject of a largely marginalized class and attempt to redeem its position in different localities. Cisneros's work deals with the formation of Chicana identity, exploring the challenges of being caught between Mexican and Anglo-American cultures, facing the misogynist attitudes present in both these cultures, and experiencing poverty. (Sandra Cisneros – Wikipedia) Its protagonist, Esperanza, a girl of Mexican- American heritage growing up in Chicago, is portrayed over the course of a few years as she moves from late childhood into young adulthood. As Esperanza becomes more aware of the meanings of her surroundings, she learns to recognize discrimination based on gender, ethnicity and class standing, the three most crucial complicators in her development. Cisneros’s artistic treatment of Esperanza’s responses to issues of otherness or difference provokes reconsideration of the ways that these factors have been constructed in terms of literary theory. ( Marek, 173) Similarly Rivera’s work, And the earth did not devour him, focuses on the story of a migrant boy, who is referred to by this name throughout the novel. This novel touches upon his family and society’s plight, with the father catching sunstroke and other members falling ill in succession, the kids being shot by land owners as they helped in the fields just because they yearned to drink from the tank they had been forbidden to drink from. The ruthlessness and cruelness of the society is explored in contrast to the pitiful position of the Chicana community. Rivera describes the imagery in the mind of the shooting landowner at the water incident in cold words; ‘’and the child didn’t even jump like a deer does. He just stayed in the water like a dirty rag and the water began to turn bloody.’’ (Rivera & Olivares, 65-66) Both the novels describe the feeling of utmost guilt and hopelessness by the protagonists by not being able to do anything to alter their miserable condition. This frustration runs in both the novels, characterizing the community exposed to discrimination. ‘’He became angry because he was unable to do anything against anyone.’’ (Rivera & Olivares, p. 85) and at another instance’’ Dad, Mom, and my little brother here, what are they guilty of?’’ (Rivera & Olivares, p. 88) Such statements depict the seething anger of the whole society at its subjucation. The helplessness of the society can be felt in the boy’s mother’s sad statement ; ‘’that’s how it is, m’ijo. Only death brings us rest.’’ (Rivera & Olivares, p. 87). Similarly the character of Esperanza moves from early dissatisfaction with her identity and life situation through a series of experiences that reveal the nexus of pressures on her, including sex role expectations, racism and ethnic identity. Class discriminationthese factors underlie the main themes in Esperanza’s development: desire for a satisfying home, questioning about personal identity and gender roles, and specially the search for a good friend who can provide understanding. ( Marek, 179) The theme of prejudice becomes more pronounced in the chapter titled ‘’Those who don’t’’, in which Esperanza mocks people who are afraid to come into their neighbourhood: they think we’re dangerous.They think we will attack them with our shiny knives.’’ (28)..knowing the individuals in her neighbourhood are ‘’all brown all around,we are safe.’’ (Marek,180)
A recurring theme in both the novels is that of hope and hopelessness. In Sandra Cisneros's "House on Mango Street," there is a recurring theme of the characters indirectly getting a glimpse of belonging to a higher class. The first incident is in "Gil's Furniture Bought & Sold" . Esperanza hears a music box for the first time, describing its music to be "like drops of water.Furthermore..in "Louie, His Cousin & His Other Cousin" (23), Esperanza and her family experience what it's like to drive around in a luxurious car with rugs and leather seats. Even in this scenario, she only gets to do so because Louie's cousin stole the car, not because she knew anyone associated with the upper classThe car crashes into a lamppost showing the consequences of stepping out of socioeconomic bounds. These two different but connected vignettes illustrate the illusion of achievement and hope in Esperanza's family. Even more broadly applying to the neighborhood, (Marin puts on expensive make up products when she really gets them for free from Avon) there is a sense of false hope and sadness among the residents. (No mind, just move, 2010). Esperanza refuses to comply to the subjugation of patriarchy in her neighborhood and vows to leave it one day, by writing if she has to. Alongside she aches for the other women who will be stuck in this pitiful life. She yearns to achieve independence and a sense of a promising future somehow and considers the purchase of an up class new house to be equivalent to having been liberated from the shackles of misery. ‘’It is Esperanza’s hope that gives her the best opportunity of actually leaving the barrio one day and not living up to the stereotype of her neighborhood.’’ (BookCaps, 2012)
There is an importance in both the novels regarding the value of education for the marginalized class, without which they can’t aspire to end the vicious cycle of poverty. This links to the theme of hope aforementioned. Rivera mentions this theme in the chapter titled ‘Hand in his pocket’ and justifies the boy continuing to live with Don Laíto and Doña Bone for three weeks for the mere purpose of getting done with the school year. ‘’ All my parents wanted was for me to finish school so I could find me some job that wasn’t so hard’’(Rivera & Olivares, p. 78) The fourth vignette of the book focuses exclusively on school in similar terms. In a dialogue between two young Latinos, one asks the other the reason for his or her regular attendance at school. The reply underscores education as an opening: "My Dad says it's to prepare us. He says that someday there's an opportunity, maybe they'll give it to us."( And the Earth Did Not Devour Him Themes | BookRags.com) The theme of education is present in ‘the house on mango street’ too, in the same context. The protagonist’s sister, Alicia is shown to be attending school for the mere purpose of a chance at an improved lifestyle. There is a sad element to this aspect, for her dream can’t be fully realized until she stays at home, cowering in fright from the kitchen mice.
Both the novels have a sad dependence on the loss of innocence of their protagonists as the story unfolds. Esperanza is forced to get a taste of sexuality before she is even aware of it fully and is not even ready for it when she is raped, kissed by the Asian man and even her friend Sally ends up in an early age marriage to a man the age of her father. This and the constant abuse she sees in the domestic life of her neighboring women makes her loose her innocence earlier on in life sadly and Cisneros beautifully documents her coming to age. Male violence is so common that rape cases are not even reported now; they are such a commonality. While this novel sheds light on the patriarchal aspect and the violence injected by the husbands, Riveras novel focuses more on the loss of violence of the boy at the hands of Don Laíto and Doña Bone and criminal sights he is exposed to.
There is highlighting of certain religious elements in both the novels. While fortune tellers or the ‘witch woman’ are highlighted in the house on mango street, ‘And the earth did not devour him’ focuses more on the spirits that would come drink water from under the boy’s bed as per the mother’s belief. Both these references indicate a strongly superstitious chicana society, elements of which both the authors have shown in underlying implications. There is an increasingly popular on using the devil and evil as punishment sources to discipline the children and one can see that Esperanza is petrified when she copies her aunt Lupe in the game of charades, not knowing she would die the next day. This leads to a strong internalization of the belief that’s he would go to hell for this wrong act. Whereas in Rivera’s work one can say there is a twist to the situation whereby the children are sick of their parent’s lamentations and constant reference to the devil and spirits. We see that the ‘Mother had placed a picture of hell at the head of the bed and.. the walls of the rooms were papered with images of the devil.’ (Rivera & Olivares, p. 90). This implies that the mother was indoctrinating a fear from the devil in the children’s heart, making it visible to them in the room. While the boy questions this presence by pondering aloud ‘But what if there is no devil neither is thereNo, there’s no devil. There isn’t.’’ (Rivera & Olivares, p. 83).
There are also certain differences regarding the structure of the essay. While Cisneros depicts the story as a narrative, Rivera does not resort to the more conventional of way of writing; that is the one gradually leading to the point of climax. His novel, on the surface, seems comprising of multi-faceted bits and pieces of information, depicted in the boy’s monologue like memories. However some have critiqued his work to come across as too fragmented with pools of information being thrown around at the reader and without a proper structure in place that is more aligned with the conventional norms of writing. In response Rivera can be given credit for depicting the bewildered mind set of the chicana workers and their children.The structure of the novel seeks to mimic the way in which memory works and to present the feelings of disorientation––of feeling lost––experienced by many of the migrant workers as they struggle to make sense of a culture that is sometimes very different from their own. (Rivera, Study Guide)
Lastly one can quite obviously draw the biggest parallel in both the novels; they rely on narrating the plot via children’s eyes. The simplicity of this childhood observation adds immensely to the empathy invoked in the readers in relation to the plight of the chicana society depicted by both the protagonists. Both the children, muse often to themselves and these tit bits of monologue though provide a different thought process entirely, they are indicative of important features of the storyline.
- And the Earth Did Not Devour Him Themes | BookRags.com. (n.d.). BookRags.com | Homework Help, Book Summaries, Study Guides, Essays, Lesson Plans, & Educational Resources. Retrieved March 8, 2013, from http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-and-the-earth-did-not-devour-him/themes.html
- BookCaps. (n.d.). The House on Mango Street: BookCaps Study Guide - BookCaps, BookCaps Study Guides Staff - Google Books. Google Books. Retrieved March 8, 2013, from http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=Q_uh2GL5x-UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+house+on+the+mango+street+ebook&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0s85UYP0MpSN7Ab3uYGIDw&ved=0CEsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false
- No mind, just move: Recurring Theme in "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros . (2010, October 16). no mind, just move. Retrieved March 8, 2013, from http://nomindjustmove.blogspot.com/2012/10/recurring-theme-in-house-on-mango.html
- Marek, J. E. (1996). DIFFERENCE, IDENTITY, AND SANDRA CISNEROS'S "THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET". JSTOR, 2(1), 173-187 . Retrieved March 8, 2013, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41273924?&Search=yes&searchText=street&searchText=mango&searchText=house&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dthe%2Bhouse%2Bon%2Bmango%2Bstreet%26Search%3DSearch%26gw%3Djtx%26prq%3Dthe%2Bearth%2Bdidnot%2Bdevour%2Bhim%2Bby%2B%2Btomas%2Brivera%26hp%3D25%26acc%3Don%26aori%3Da%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff&prevSearch=&item=4&ttl=2052&returnArticleService=showFullText
- Rivera, T. Study Guide for And the Earth Did Not Devour Him. A T HE GLENCOE L ITERATURE L IBRARY, n.d., 10. Retrieved August 3, 2013, from http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/pdf/earth_did_not_devour.pdf
- Rivera, T., & Olivares, J. (n.d.). Tomás Rivera: The Complete Works - Tomás Rivera, Julián Olivares - Google Books. Google Books. Retrieved March 8, 2013, from http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=oXF3g3i_OecC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=the+earth+did+not+devour+him+tomas+rivera&source=bl&ots=3mC3Je0xRV&sig=VA8uUrTq6ti3yMk7sjk_pL-jEXs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=A645Uf68C4bk4QTa2oDgBQ&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=was%20unable%20to%20do
- Sandra Cisneros - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 8, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Cisneros
- Sandra Cisneros. (2012, August 29). Sandra Cisneros. Retrieved March 8, 2013, from http://www.sandracisneros.com/
- "Tomás Rivera." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 July 2013. Web. 08 Mar. 2013. .
- "Literary Themes for Students: The American Dream - Articles: And the Earth Did Not Devour Him TOMÁS RIVERA 1971." Encyclopedia.com. N.p., Jan. 2007. Web. 2013. http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-2895300017/and-earth-did-not.html