- “after all, what’s a life, anyway? we’re born, we live a little while, we die.” – charlotte’s web, e.b. white
- “you pierce my soul. i am half agony, half hope. tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.” – persuasion, jane austen
- “that is love, son of thorns. we welcome its cruelest blows and when we bleed from them, we whisper our thanks.” – lord of shadows, cassandra clare
- “you are part of my existence, part of myself. you have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. you have been in every prospect i have ever seen since- on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. you have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with.” – great expectations, charles dickens
- “‘if you will thank me,’ he replied, ‘let it be for yourself alone. that the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on, i shall not attempt to deny. but your family owe me nothing. much as i respect them, i believe i thought only of you.’” – pride and prejudice, jane austen
- “we are bound together, emma, bound together- i breathe when you breathe, i bleed when you bleed, i’m yours and you’re mine, you’ve always been mine, and i have always, always belonged to you!” – lady midnight, cassandra clare
- “i could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; i would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. i would know him in death, at the end of the world.” – the song of achilles, madeline miller
favorite quotes in literature: part i
- “for you, a thousand times over.” – the kite runner, khaled hosseini
- “he caught her by the wrist, brought her hand to his bare chest. splayed her fingers over his heart. it beat against her palm, like a fist punching its way through his sternum. ‘break my heart,’ he said. ‘break it in pieces. i give you permission.” – lord of shadows, cassandra clare
- “if i loved you less, i might be able to talk about it more.” – emma, jane austen
- “that’s the worst of growing up, and i’m beginning to realize it. the things you wanted so much when you were a child don’t seem half so wonderful to you when you get them.” – anne of green gables, l.m. montgomery
- “my dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. and if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.” – alice in wonderland, lewis carroll
- “so after, when he whispers, ‘you love me. real or not real?’ i tell him, ‘real.’” – mockingjay, suzanne collins
- “he showed me his scars, and in return he let me pretend that i had none.” – circe, madeline miller
- “if all else perished, and he remained, i should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.” – wuthering heights, emily brontë
- “you said I killed you– haunt me, then!” – wuthering heights, emily brontë
- “vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. a person may be proud without being vain. pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.” – pride and prejudice, jane austen
- “i’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, to die upon the hand I love so well.” – a midsummer night’s dream, william shakespeare
- “i care for myself. the more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained i am, the more i will respect myself.” – jane eyre, charlotte brontë
- “i have as much soul as you — and full as much heart! and if god had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, i should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you.” – jane eyre, charlotte brontë
the house on mango street
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
rating: ★★★★ / 5
“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.”
the house on mango street follows esperanza, a young chicana girl living in the latino section of chicago. each chapter is a vignette portraying her and her chicanx neighbors’ lives: cathy, whose family quickly leaves the neighborhood as chicanxs start to move in; lucy and rachel, two mexican-american sisters who live across the street from esperanza; and sally, who marries at thirteen to escape from her abusive father, just to land with another abusive relationship with her husband.
like sally’s, these descriptions about esperanza’s neighbors shed light on the problems of male dominance. most of the female characters in house on mango street are oppressed and abused in one way or another. rafaela’s husband does not let her out of the house because she is ‘too beautiful’; alicia has to stay up all night studying because of her father, who forces her to take the place of their deceased mother; sally is objectified and sexualized by older boys and men, who take advantage of her– she is also beaten by her father because he fears her eloping with a man and ‘shaming’ their family as her sisters did; esperanza is sexually assaulted by a group of boys, which completely strips her of her innocence.
towards the end, the story returns to esperanza as she envisions chasing her dreams as a writer and leaving mango street behind—a physical embodiment of the restrictions placed upon her since early life, due to her social caste and ethnicity. but ultimately, she realizes that she cannot erase mango street from her completely. it has become a part of her, like everything it embodies has. she also realizes that she has to come back for the ones who did not have the power to escape their oppressive environment on their own.
♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣
one of the reasons i enjoyed reading the house on mango street so much was the adeptness with which the house on mango street manages to convey large societal issues like male oppression, racism, and socioeconomic disparity, through the lenses of a young girl. the novel seamlessly merges these heavy social themes with the common themes of a buildongsroman– identity, belonging, and the slow waning of childhood innocence. in many books with a young narrator and mentions of societal problems, the narrator’s voice is distorted so that it feels too mature and defined. however, this isn’t the case with the house on mango street.
but the ultimate reason why i love the house on mango street for its universality. it is relatable to anyone who has experienced the plight of being placed in two different cultures and expected to uphold both values. the novel explores the duality of cultures through esperanza and her mexican-american heritage, which clashes with the foreign american environment she is thrown into. in this vein, i think the house on mango street is as much a classic as any hemingway or john steinback is.
emma's anthology 