Journal 4 Chanclas Alia Eddauod

 

Journal 4 Chanclas

 

          My favorite chapter in the book The House on Mango St by Cisneros was chapter chanclas. The reason I like this chapter is the author talks about a feeling that anyone can relate to, a feeling of embarrassment, she also talks about the proud feeling that you get when you accomplish something you didn't think you could do. She talks about going to her cousins baptism at the church where all her family will be dancing and having fun. She is so excited to go and wear her new dress her mother bought her, a pretty dress pink and white stripes ,but her mother forgot to buy new shoes . Esperanza  is so consumed with how ugly her shoes are she wants to hide them under the chair. She feels her feet are growing bigger and bigger meaning all she can do is think about her shoes and nothing else. Uncle Nacho doesn't want her to feel bad and forces her to dance with him she feels she will die of embarrassment because how ugly her shoes are but she goes with him reluctantly scraping her feet across the linoleum like plungers. Uncle Nacho gets her to enjoy herself and she does, she has so much fun. She forgets all about the ugly shoes and realizes nobody else notices the shoes anyway only her at the end of the dance. She realized how proud her mother was of her. They danced like in the movies.

 

            My favorite sentence in the chapter is Cisneros (1984) “everybody laughing except me, because i'm wearing the new dress, pink and white with stripes, an new underclothes and new socks and the old saddle shoes I wear to school, brown and white, the kind I get every September because they last long and they do.” (p.47). I like this sentence because it shows a style of writing that is very descriptive she describes the clothes in great detail down to the color and even the underclothes and the contrast between the new clothes and the old shoes describing the shoes as ordinary and basic not pretty like the dress .Uncle Nacho was a good mentor to her helping her to overcome her fears and be proud of herself 

            My art teacher in 9th grade misses Sarah was very inspirational to me the same way uncle Nacho was inspirational to Esperanza. I always enjoyed art it ran in my family; I was surrounded by a family of artists and felt a little intimidated by their talent. I followed in their footsteps however I was always critical of my own work and embarrassed to show it in class Miss Sarah said beauty is in the eye of the beholder. At the time I was not really sure what she meant but I can apply that to many different aspects in my life, not just art and it meant a lot to me that someone who I thought of as an expert in art could think of my work as being appreciated by others. She always encouraged me to do more and keep trying to take on more difficult projects. Art is a very personal thing Miss Sarah always said it is a way of expressing feelings and I was surprised that others could enjoy my artwork as well making me feel proud of myself. I always remember Miss Sarah’s advice to not be so critical of myself, similarly the way Esperanza should not critic herself.

One of my paintings. inspired by Van Gogh