“My grandmother's greatest gift was tolerance. Now, in the old days, Indians used to be forgiving of any kind of eccentricity. In fact, weird people were often celebrated. Epileptics were often shamans because people just assumed that God gave seizure-visions to the lucky ones. Gay people were seen as magical too.” ( Alexie 155)
By talking about his grandmother’s acceptance of ‘weird people’ it contrasts the characterization of her as a traditionalist who is stuck in their ways. While she represents the tradition of the tribe, she also shows her character in her accepting views toward gay people and others. While in other cultures people with epilepsy would have been shunned for being different, …show more content…
How did he know that her stepfather ran around the house naked? Why is it that he can come up with an insult like booze hound, but has to punctuate every other sentence with a goddam?
The House on Mango Street
“In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.” (Cisneros 10)
One particular part of this quote touches on another book by a similar name called ‘ A Mango Shaped-Space”, which is about a girl with synesthesia, basically meaning letters have certain colors, she can see sounds, sounds and people have colors. Certain songs she listens to have scents and colors, the imagery in this book mirror that the number nine a muddy color and songs like sobbing. This quote shows how hopeless Esperanza actually feels putting an ironic twist on the meaning of her name. The way she connotes her name with sadness along with herself adds to her characterization.
How do names mean different things in other languages shouldn't it just translate? What exactly makes a song like