A final symbol of the novel is that of play -- few adult women, except for the insane Ruthie, are seen enjoying themselves over the course of the novel. Girls can play at jump rope and look at clouds, but they worry about how the burdens and cares of an adult life -- like abusive or absent husbands, children, and money worries -- will weigh them down, as their bodies mature. Men are shown playing and...
Early on in the novel, Esperanza comments how even in her family the boys and the girls tend to separate as the play. Esperanza longs for a place where she can play, a place with a yard, so she can say good-bye to Mango Street and its confining notions of class, gender, and what her future should resemble as a Latina girl.
The frequency of window imagery in the novel highlights both the importance of expectancy ("Esperanza) and houses. Esperanza's namesake was said to always be looking out of a window, after she was 'carried off' by a man, symbolizing Esperanza's fears of maturity. Esperanza is ashamed when people point to her house through windows, like the nun at her school points at the house from a window to indicate why
The novel opens seven years after Gabo's mother, Ximena, was murdered by coyotes -- or paid traffickers -- during an attempt to cross the border. Her mutilated body was found, her organs gone -- sold most likely. Because of the fear surrounding this border town and the lure of the other side, all of the characters become consumed with finding Rafa. These people are neglected and abused. Like other fiction
Magical Realism in Ana Castillo's 'So Far From God' When looking for the magical realism in Ana Castillo's So Far From God, and for those readers who know her work and her cultural background, one of the ways in which the author employs magical realism is as a skilled fiction writer. Castillo is writing about Latinos, a family of women. Her first step in employing magical realism is to set aside
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