Comparing the Minority Experience in Baby of the Family, and House on M

Women Minority Experience in Baby of the Family, and House on Mango Street  Ã‚      The two novels Baby of the Family, and House on Mango Street expose the minority experience through the perspective of a child, struggling to find an identity in their own unique views of the cultures they are growing up in. The life of Lena's family, one of an upper class African American family in the southern part of the United States, appeals to the ideal of the New American as her family blends the dominant culture with their minority background in their everyday life experiences. Esperanza is a Hispanic youth, growing up in a barrio, where there is not much to offer the Hispanic locals. She ultimately feels the profile the of the New American in her view of attaining a better life, and escaping the suffocating prescence of the barrio, while still remembering her ethnic roots. Both these characters apply to the classification of the Double Minority in the obvious aspect of being females, and of course their relationship of being in a minority culture. In Baby of the Family, author Tina Ansa exposes the reader to the perspective of a child living in a dominant culture oriented household, that is trying to latch on to some very important traditional aspects of their minority background. Esperanza in House on Mango Street struggles to find her identity in a society discriminating against her not only as a minority, but her genders hinders her advancement also. The authors of these two minority novels corelate these ideals and explore the hardships these two character face as struggling to become the New American while being classified ultimately as Double Minorities. A few of the common apects shared by the two novels include the common... ...alls these children experience. These two children take the ideal of the "New American" and expose it as they find ways to live in a world in which they walk a fine line between the two clashing cultures. The "Double Minority" role plays an important and attempt to overcome the barriers in their own cultures. The cultures ultimately take on a new definition as time progresses, because there is truly not a definite distinction anymore. Works Cited Ansa, Tina McElroy. Baby of the Family. Harcourt Press; San Diego, 1989. Blicksilver, Edith. The Ethnic American Woman. Kenall/Hunt Publishing; Iowa, 1978. Cecil, Andrew R. The Meaning of the Family in Society. University of Texas; Dallas, 1991. Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. Vintage Contemporaries; New York, 1991. Murray, Alma. Black Perspectives. Scholastic Books; New York, 1971.