House on Mango Street: Four Skinny Trees

The Trees of Hope and Courage In The House on Mango Street, the author Sandra Cisneros takes you into a completely different world through the eyes of a young, insecure Esperanza growing up in a poor section of Chicago. A vignette that especially stood out was Four Skinny Trees. In this vignette Esperanza is describing four close-fitting trees that be overlooked and underappreciated. Cisneros uses powerful personification techniques that non only make water vivid images just now trigger intense reactions. Her words trigger despair and hope, fear and fortitude, strength and weakness.Esperanza is attached to these trees on an emotional level because what she is imagining in these trees is what she sees in herself. The trees served as emotional guides teaching Esperanza to have confidence. Cisneros projects Esperanzas emotions onto these four skinny trees though powerful personification techniques. Esperanza sees a distinct parallel between her animation and the trees. Esperanza feels as if, They are the only ones who understand me. I am the only one who understands them (74).Esperanza sees herself in these trees, with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine (74). She sees these scrawny trees trapped in the concrete of Mango Street and can rival because she too is stuck in the concrete of Mango Street. Esperanza sees a parallel between her and the trees and imagines these trees with souls and emotions that reflect her own. She perceives the trees as rich of anger, They grow up and they grow down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the pitch with violent teeth and never quite their anger (74).It is apparent that these trees arent really angry but that Esperanza is embedding her hidden rage into these trees. Cisneros vivid personification makes the trees strong symbols of Esperanzas emotions, her anger, fear, inconsequence and also her hope, courage and importance. These trees are misplaced and misunderstood but yet they exert on growin g, keep on fighting. They continue to exist, not giving up, Four who grew despite concrete (75). The four scrawny, angry trees intend both hope and courage.To Esperanza these trees symbolize an emotional guide, they teach her she can trade despair for hope and fear for courage. The trees are teachers. The trees could very salutary surrender, theyd all droop like tulips in a glass, each with arms around the some other (75). But they dont they keep on growing despite that they do not belong. Esperanza takes courage from the trees to never give up. Esperanza has learned from these trees how to achieve a peace with who she is.These four skinny trees that were probably put by some city worker on a concrete slab are objects in which Esperanza has brought to demeanor with her own emotions. Because they too are misplaced like Esperanza but yet they continue to be and keep growing, they do not give up. They have taught her not to surrender to who she is but to accept it and keep growin g. unmatched day Esperanza will leave Mango Street but instead of living with despair time lag to escape she is living with hope for the future and the courage to be strong throughout the process.