The environment a child grows up in can influence the way they view the world. The supervision a child receives from his parents also has a substantial influence on a child. A child lacking either of these will have a harder time as he or she reaches their adult lives. In the book The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros Esperanza is forced to grow up in a bad environment. In The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Pecola is raised by two individuals that have unfit parenting styles. The Negative environment in Esperanza's life and the lack of parental influence in Pecola's life has the potential of leading both characters in negative directions for their adult lives.
The environment a child grows up in influences each child's aspirations for the future differently. A child who grows up in a high-class neighborhood has higher expectations for themselves than a child in a low-class neighborhood. .
And our house would have running water and pipes that worked. And inside it would have real stairs, not hallway stairs, but stairs inside like the houses on TV. And we"d have a basement and at least three washrooms so when we took a bath we wouldn't have to tell everybody. Our house would be white with trees around it, a great big yard and grass growing without a fence. (The House on Mango Street Pg. 4).
A child that grows up in a better environment dreams of a more extravagant house. Esperanza's dream of a "better" house isn't what most people would think of as a dream house. If Esperanza had grown up in a house all her life she would be dreaming of a mansion type house. .
A parent has the most influence over a child than any other person in their life. Pecola's father is a drunk who rapes her and Pecola's mother doesn't care for her at all. .
Cholly Breedlove, then, a renting black, having put his family outdoors, had catapulted himself beyond the reaches of human consideration. He had joined the animals: was, indeed, an old dog, a snake, a ratty nigger.
