It was this perspective that drove Cisneros to dedicate The House on Mango Street to "A las Mujeres/ To the Women" because she felt "indebted for having stolen their stories" (1). ... Although these stories were based on real people, as a creative writer, the women in the vignettes were figments of Cisneros' imagination. That is why Cisneros is able to relay the stories of these women with such accuracy. ... Both Cisneros and Esperanza's mother wanted their daughters to be something more in life than just adopting their position in the kitchen so they placed a gre...

• Word Count: 2834
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In her words, the aim is not to rescue the humanist Chaucer, but to see in what ways his stories might enlarge our perceptions of human life and its possibilities, even though they were written during and for a very different historical context (xviii). ... How she chooses to travel is a minor aspect of crossing the lines of cultural gender expectations. ...

• Word Count: 2959
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography

She subtly bemoans these tendencies and offers hopes to "[transcend] outworn or oppressive forms, or [dare] to break with normal pleasurable expectations in order to conceive a new language of desire....

• Word Count: 4301
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Lessing starts off the story with a description of three men at work on the roof during the week of the hot sun. ... the heat of Nature and the heat/stress/pressure imposed upon them by the male-dominated culture, social expectations and lifestyle. ...

• Word Count: 4111
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School