House on Mango St.: falling stars

                 In the book The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros I noticed a pattern that had to do with stars. I found three parts of the book (could be more) that talked about stars. At first I was trying to write about how “falling” was a symbol, but then I read some more and the whole thing about stars caught my attention. Okay so I think stars symbolize tranquility in a person’s life. It can be a symbol of peace. In one vignette, it meant change.

               The first vignette I found about stars is called Marin. It is basically about this girl named Martin who pretty much lives on her own. It is like she is emotionally isolated from the people she once cared about. She was living with Louie’s parents, but now they are sending her back to her single mother because she is “too much trouble”. Here is a quote from this chapter, “Marin, under the streetlight, dancing by herself, is singing the same song somewhere. I know. Is waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life.” In this quote, stars symbolize the change that will make Marin’s life happier. Marin is just waiting for her problems to resolve themselves…..wait no. She is hoping for someone or something that can give her an extra “push” to make the changes she wants in her life that will finally give her serenity she has been looking for. Yeah that sounds about right.

               There’s another vignette called There Was an Old Woman She Had So Many Children She Didn’t Know What to Do that also mentioned falling stars but I’m not going to talk about that one because I have no idea what it means. Sooo instead I’ll talk about this other one called Bums in the Attic. This one is basically Esperanza talking about how she wants to live in a house on the hills. Here is a quote, “People who live on hills sleep so close to the stars they forget those of us who live too much on earth. They don’t look down at all except to be content to live on hills. They have nothing to do with last week’s garbage or fear of rats. Night comes. Nothing wakes them up but the wind.” I think what she is trying to say here is that she wants to live in the hills because the people who live in the hills never have to worry about anything. They’re so high off of tranquility and peace that nothing really bothers them. They don’t have to worry about “last week’s garbage” or their “fear of rats” because all they’re really in to is their peaceful lives on the hills, which is what Esperanza wants.