Here is my take on Esperanza's video blog, which centers on the main issue is pages 75-90: Esperanza's issue with love and marriage. In these pages, she is grappling with what it means to be a woman and how having a husband and marriage itself can take away a woman's freedom. She is hearing a lot about what it means to be "beautiful" and to be a "woman" in her neighborhood, including wearing make-up, high heeled shoes, finding a man to marry and having kids. It is clear, to me, that Esperanza does not want this kind of life and she doesn't feel like she fits into this role. The V-log I composed represents her viewpoint on this.
Here is the actual diary that I wrote before recording the v-log:
So, what I don’t understand is why everyone is so concerned with being beautiful so that they can catch a husband. There’s Sally, who wears short, black skirts and blue eye makeup and tall black shoes. I wonder what she’s thinking. I wonder how bad those heels hurt and how messy it is to wash that make-up off everyday. I think this kind of thinking sets me apart from the rest of the girls in the neighborhood. Mom says I’m the ugly daughter, that I am the one that nobody comes for. Nenny says she doesn’t want to wait for her husband to come and whisk her away, because we’ve all seen how well that has worked out for Minerva, who is now left alone with her babies and no man in sight. Well you know what? I don’t want that life! I want to be like those women in movies who wear the bright red lipstick and are beautiful, but can hold their own. They don’t need a man to make them happy. That’s who I want to be.
Here is the V-log in which I am pretending to be Esperanza. Feel free to respond in the voice of another character to my diary if you'd like!
Brooke-
ReplyDeleteI wasn't able to play your video :(
But I am responding to the text version.
I think you are so right when you say that Esperanza doesn't want to be like all of the other girls who try to look good for the guys and go off and get married. I think one of the greatest reasons this is is because of how she sees everyone else's lives turning out. Her mother laments that she could have been someone. Minerva, as you wrote, is left at home with all the babies. Sally isn't allowed to go out and have her own life - she has to stay in the apartment. And (I'm pretty sure it was this character) Ruthie ends up staying at her mother's house more than her own. None of these marriages lead to anything positive, so why would a young girl want to rush ahead into them? Esperanza's goal is to make it up out of Mango Street, but she knows marriage is not the answer for her, just as it wasn't the answer for all of her friends, family, and neighbors.
Your journal response sort of reminded me of our reading on women for this week in 512 - especially the article that compared the Muslim woman's life to the American woman's life.
-Hannah