Beta Reading

1.    I think that the abundance of dialogue contributes to this story because it allows the reader to follow on better. It helps the reader feel like they are part of the story. since it makes it easier for them to visualize what is happening. However, I thought that the dialogue where Adrian talked about Filipino folklore became a little bit lifeless. The dialogue went back and forth, and got a little bland. I think that section needs a little bit more emotion, especially from Dorothy.
2.    I thought that the in-depth details about Filipino folklore was pretty interesting. I felt like I learned something new, but I do not think it is really significant in the story. I thought it was kind of excessive, and weird for a teenager to talk about. I find that pretty unfitting seeing how a regular teenager at a lively party would not normally talk about folklore. They would be talking about something less dull like their feelings.
3.    As I said before, I thought that Dorothy needed a little bit more emotion in the story when Adrian talked about Filipino folklore. She sounded bored, which makes sense considering she is a teenager, but she also seemed interested in the details, which contradicts her being uninterested. I think it would be more appropriate if she acted more attentive, or just completely disinterested.
4.    The cultural elements didn’t feel forced at first when Adrian talked about his family in the Philippines, but when he got to talking about the moon, it felt a little bit unnatural especially since it was tied in due to the corny idea of gazing at the moon by the lake.
6.    I don’t think Adrian is too compelling. He isn’t overloading Dorothy with his background information. Just enough so that she is included in the conversation. Plus, he did not seem very demanding. He was a gentleman when he respected what Dorothy said and when he helped her in and out of the car to her door.
In the end, I think that this story is pretty interesting and modern. I think that the problems, like the Filipino folklore conversation, I saw would be resolved if I knew more about the overall story.
 

A Parent's Attitude Towards Different Genders

In the novel “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza lives in a neighborhood filled with different types of families. These families have different ways to raise their kids, but I have two in particular that have caught my eye, the Vargas family and Sally’s family. These two families show that both boys and girls need a lot of attention from their parents, but girls need a little bit more of it.

“But Sally doesn’t tell about that time he hit her with his hands just like a dog, she said, like if I was an animal. He thinks I’m going to run away like his sisters who made the family ashamed. Just because I’m a daughter, and then she doesn’t say. Sally was going to get permission to stay with us a little... Until one day Sally’s father catches her talking to a bad and the next day she doesn’t come to school. And the next. Until the way Sally tells it, he just went crazy... (93-94).

This quote shows how girls generally need more attention than boys. Especially girls like Sally, are prone to trouble, so a parent of a girl like this should keep a watch on them even more attentively than Sally’s dad did. Also, the parent needs to show more love and support towards their daughter since girls are usually the ones that are pressured more in tough situations. This is mostly because girls are put as the lower gender in society, and have a harder time becoming more strong and independent as men do. With the necessary love and support a parent could give to their daughter, she will have more pride in herself, therefore reducing her chances of being in unacceptable situations like skipping school.

“The kids bend trees and bounce between cars and dangle upside down from knees and almost break like fancy museum vases you can’t replace. They think it’s funny. They are without respect for all things living, including themselves” (29).

Though girls may need a little bit more attention, both boys and girls still need an ample supply of it altogether. They need their parents because it is through them that they learn how to act properly not only at home, but also anywhere else in the world. Without it, the kids would turn out like the Vargases, rude and destructive.

Esperanza Giving Back to Mango Street

In the novel “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza is told to come back to Mango Street even though she is finally leaving. Esperanza really hates Mango Street and want nothing to do with it, but hints show me that in the future, she will try to help out Mango Street.

“No, Alicia says. Like it or not you are Mango Street, and one day you’ll come back too. Not me. Not until somebody makes it better. Who’s going to do it? The mayor? And the though of the mayor coming to Mango Street makes me laugh out loud. Who’s going to do it? Not the mayor” (107).

Esperanza knows no one will come to help make Mango Street better, so when she ever comes back, she would be that person that helps Mango Street become better. I think that she will want to help make Mango Street better because she does not want anyone else live the life she lived, a life of loneliness and insecurity. She knows how left out a person can feel in an unwelcoming environment, so she will want the next person who moves into Mango Street feeling less isolated.

By the end of the book, she gets what she wanted, a house, which hints that what she does next might be what I think is how she is helping make Mango Street better.

“I make a story for my life... I like to tell stories. I am going to tell you a story about a girl who didn’t want to belong” (109).

This shows the next step to her plan. She is writing “The House on Mango Street” to show other children that are unfortunate like her, are not alone. This story of a lonely, left out girl would boost the moral of kids living in rough neighborhoods like the one on Mango Street. This is her way to give back to the place she grew up at, a present of a story to comfort the unlucky and isolated children of the streets.

Born as an Aussie

Table of Contents:

1. Victor Tao Liang
2. Street Dancers
3. Meow Meow
4. California

Victor Tao Liang

My first name, Victor, was given to be by my father. It means “winner”, something my father wants me to be. My middle name, Tao, means large waves. It is also my Chinese name, and is pronounced tou in Cantonese. There isn't much behind my father giving it to me for he gave it to me just as randomly as he gave my first name to me. He was stuck on it like a fly is stuck on a spider's web since it had a nice tone to it. My last name, Liang, was passed down to me by my father. I am not really proud of it since every Liang above my generation has a problem of being overly stubborn.

All of my father's siblings are different in many ways, yet the same as a whole with each other. My father, the oldest sibling, has as much pride as a lion does. He will never back down no matter how wrong he is. He does not take medication for his high blood pressure all because he doesn't want to rely on medication like other people do. The second uncle has a problem of blurting out everything on his mind. He would continue to defend determinedly whatever offensive things he says, even when he might realize how wrong he is. No matter how much anger is directed to what he says, he will not change or fix what he did wrong in the first place, just like the fly that persistently runs into the glass window, hoping to get through. Next up is my third uncle, who is so careless about everything stretching from his family's feelings to his money. He would fly back and forth from California back to his wife and daughter in China whenever he wants even though he barely has enough money to feed himself. When he flies back to America, he begs for food and shelter without apologizing to my next topic, my aunt. She is a single mother that works really hard. She has a lot of money saved under her bed, but the only thing she will spend it on is food. She will be so generous towards what she buys to eat, but will never spend another penny on her trash can that is broken and is so contaminated, it looks like a blob covered with layers of gunk from an old garbage container.

Unlike the old generations of Liangs, my siblings, my cousins, and I all realize our parent's flaws and have learned to behave unlike them. The main reason I am positive and caring towards others is because my father, a lot of times, isn't like that towards me, which I know makes me unhappy and left out in the world.

Street Dancers

It was a day on sunshine where my father, mother, brother, and I went to visit the Sydney Opera House. As we were looking at the glistening water near the Opera House, we saw a colossal crowd of people gathering behind us. My family went to see what was happening together. As we walked closer, we saw that it was a group of street dancers doing their amazing moves. I was memorized by their awesome tricks and flips that I crawled closer and closer to them. After they were finished with their routine, I looked around to find my family. To my shock, they had walked away some time ago, leaving me behind. My whole body froze as my eyes widened. I got tense and I started to panic. I ran around the area searching for my family. There were so many people that resembled skyscrapers that I couldn't break free from the crowd. My eyes started to water as I felt the need to collapse. I thought that my whole life would end right then and there. I picked myself up from the ground, and started yelling out to my parents. I cried and cried while I started to lose hope. Not one adult bothered to help me. They just glanced at me in a sorry way, and just walked by. A few more seconds of me weeping went by until I finally saw my worried parents running towards me. The second I wiped my eyes to see them, my whole body relaxed. It felt like I was finally at peace after being tortured. This whole sequence happened in about a few minutes, but it felt like a lifetime to me. This little event has changed my life in that I have learned the value of never being in an unknown place without someone who does know the area, and for the rest of that day, I held onto my mother leg or hand to feel secure.

Meow Meow

I lived on Sheffield Street, a street crawling with cats a dogs. A street where every single cat lived outdoors in daylight, sneaking outside the fences of the house. There were also many stray cats living on the street. One day, I was jumping around, pretending to be a swordsman equipped with a branch of a sword in my backyard when I spot a stray black cat sitting under my house's rain water tank that was made to save rain water to feed the plants. Frightened, I quickly ran inside my house, calling for my brother Raymond. As my brother comes out of his room, so does my cousin Adrian who has lived with my family ever since he moved from Hong Kong. They ask me what is the problem, and I tell him about the cat. They are surprised, and quickly follow me to look at the cat. It sat silently under the tank, staring at us with its sparkling eyes. We called for it by saying, “meow meow, meow meow”, like the cat actually spoke meow. It didn't move an inch, so we went to Plan B. My father loves to fish, so he always has fish bait inside the refrigerator. We quickly took a fish, and ran back to offer it to the cat. We continued to call for it, “meow meow, meow meow”. It slowly crept towards us. We knew he wanted the fish, so we dropped it close to it. It slowly ate it while we watched it as if we were watching the last seconds of a tied basketball game. When it was finished, it crawled back under the water tank like a turtle climbing back into its shell. We quickly got a few more fish, and fed the cat them. It ate it happily, and politely left after it was full. Adrian, Raymond, and I felt accomplished. The next day, I was in the backyard again, helping my mom shovel soil in her garden. I glanced under the tank, and to my surprise, the same stray cat was there. We fed it fish as usual, and when it was finished, it left as usual. We would still call to it, “meow meow, meow meow”. It came every day after that, eating all of the fish we offered it. Every single time, the cat would become more confident with us.

After all of the fish my father had stocked was gone, we fed it milk. We took a metal dish, and poured pure and white milk into it. The cat would drink it just as happily. As it was drinking, we would go near it to pet it. At first, it would hesitate and stare at us with a look of warning, but it got used to us walking up and petting it. It got used to us to the point where it would come inside the house. Raymond and I would ask our parents if we could keep the pet, and they would hesitantly agree. It was officially our pet after it met everyone in the family. We put a collar on it, but it still didn't have a name. We fathomed it for a long time, but we couldn't think of anything but “Meow Meow”. It was short, easy, and most importantly, the cat responded to it.

California

Ever since I was in primary school in Australia, I have always been surrounded by immature, but catchy phrases. One of them being a rude answer to a question of where something is. It is “up your butt around the corner, all the way to California”, and it would be said all the inside and outside of school. I didn't know much about the Earth until I studied geography in the United States. I always thought that the Earth was just a ball that had patches of land that were separated by which color of the rainbow it was since the closest thing I saw of the Earth was a rainbow-colored globe that had tiny words that told the country and capitals. I never knew what California was. I imagined it to be one of those words that is made up to rhyme stuff with. It was either that or it was a made up land that was talked about, like Fairyland. When I found out that I was moving there, I was completely confused. My father was the one to tell me that we were moving there, and I found it weird for him to joke around since he was always rigid and serious. I later talked to my brother, Raymond, about the land of California.

“I thought California was made up!”

“No. Haha. It is in America, and we are moving there.”

“I know that, but I thought it was made up in the “up your butt around the corner, all the way to California”.” He just laughs and ends our conversation right there.

As we crept closer and closer to moving, I would be constantly asked by my friends, “Where are you moving to?”.

“America”

“Which state in America?”

“Um, I don't know. What is a state?”

Even when I lived in California, I didn't understand what California really is, what a state is, why California is a state, and what is the United States of America. All I knew was that I was from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The House on Mango Street

In the novel “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza narrates important events in her life that have changed her views. She does this through many symbols, and one of them is trees. Trees are constantly seen throughout the book as being forced to stay in one spot.

“The kids bend trees and bounce between cars and dangle upside down from knees and almost break like fancy museum vases u can’t replace. They think it’s funny. They are without respect for all things living, including themselves” (Page 29)

This quote shows how the Vargases are bad kids and break the rules. They do not follow the enforced rules, and do whatever they want, including bending trees. Bending trees in this case symbolize breaking free from the rules that have been set. These kids do not care what society says.

“Four skinny trees... who do not belong here but are here. Four raggedy excuses planted by the city” (Page 74).

This is another quote that directly exemplifies that trees represent being stuck in one spot. Esperanza compares herself to a tree by saying that she was planted in Chicago. This furthermore proves how trees represents being suppressed. Esperanza thinks that she is forced into Chicago, and is being restricted from leaving even though she doesn’t feel like she belongs there.

“And then I don’t know why but I had to run away. I had to hide myself at the other end of the garden, in the jungle part, under a tree that wouldn’t mind if I lay down and cried a long time” (Page 97).

This quote continues to demonstrate that trees are used when a character feels trapped. Esperanza felt left out, but still felt the need to stay in the monkey garden. She felt that she didn’t belong in Chicago, but can’t leave because she is binded there. She does not feel like she belongs in Chicago because she acts completely different from the people there. She is sad and confused at the same time, so all she can do is cry to herself.

The House on Mango Street

I think that windows in “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros represent the escape to freedom.

“She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got...”(Page 11). 

This quote shows evidence to how windows symbolize a free way of life. This is because of how she looks out of her window her whole life. This also means that she followed her dreams her whole life, which is also proved when Esperanza says that she got the most of what she could get. Also, it proves that her grandma was a free and independent woman that did whatever she wanted to do.

“She sits all day by the window and plays the Spanish radio show and sings all the homesick songs about her country...”(Page 77). 

This quote also exemplifies how the window symbolizes a door to being independent while looking through it means experiencing independence first hand. This is because of how she is sad and longing something she misses, but even though she misses it a lot, she is stuck living inside her house.

“And then Rafaela, who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much, gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at”(Page 79). 

This quote shows how the window is a doorway to freedom. Rafaela leans out too much of it, which means that she abuses her freedom too much. This is seen when Esperanza says that Rafaela’s husband is scared she will run away because she is leaning out of the window too much. He is also locking Rafaela because she is leaning out of the window all the time, which also helps explain how the window is her gateway to freedom. Plus, this quote says that Rafaela is growing old because of leaning out of the window so much. This means that Rafaela is growing up and maturing more when she explores the outside world.