Topic > A Comparative Analysis of The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes and House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

The House on Mango Street History repeats itself in more ways than one, and this statement is true in almost every way of life and this is especially true with war. Again and again we see promises of reparation and destruction and then, many decades later, another war emerges with the same carnage and promises. The most famous example of this would be Napoleon's invasion of Russia and Hitler's invasion of Russia, and the result was the same for both men and armies. However, the most widespread and weakened or discarded repetition is the treatment of people and in particular minorities. The treatment of minorities and people of darker color is so extravagant and is seen all over the world in countries and the entire continent of Africa that faced brutal imperialism and the slave trade a couple of centuries ago. This quote worn on a t-shirt by famous rapper and Outkast member André 3000 says: “In all cultures, darker people suffer more. Why?" This quote reiterates the idea that darker-skinned people face more scrutiny and have difficulty in life than those with lighter skin. America is home to thousands of nationalities and ethnicities from all over the world, but it is harder for immigrants and minorities to find their identity and make something of themselves while being happy and different while maintaining their roots from other countries but still be proud to be American. These struggles are no longer prevalent and no more accurate than in the novel “House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros and the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes. These two bodies of work detail the lives of African Americans in the United States and about a young Latina woman in the United States and their struggles with finding themselves and knowing where they come from while still moving forward in life and dealing with their struggles. In one of the external sources, entitled "Straddling Boundaries, identity, culture and school", he talks about kids struggling to find themselves and talks about the ability to find themselves in places like school where they learn their history and their past. The other article "In search of identity in Cisneros' The House on Mango Street" focuses on the life of the protagonist Esparanza in America and everything she has to face, in addition to being a pre-adolescent woman but struggling with problems and unfair obstacles that life has to offer and she has difficulty finding herself and identifying herself and who she is in this world that can often be unforgiving. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay These two texts on the topic of searching for identity have similar narratives but are set in different times. “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is about the struggle of African Americans as a whole and how lost they are in some cases due to the fact that they were taken away from their homeland and given new identities and new names that they don't have. familiar and not theirs. Langston Hughes reminds us of this and who African Americans are and where they come from and that they are not just slaves but much much more. “In House on Mango Street” is about Esperanza's life and her relationship with life and with people who don't understand her, particularly because she is a woman and does not have the same freedoms as men and also because she is not rich and lives in a terrible neighborhood even people don't understand her. Being Hispanic in a tough neighborhood doesn't allow her to have the same opportunities as white people in the neighborhoodsrich or good and states that they look down on her when they look at her. He spends the entire novel contemplating the idea of ​​leaving home to find himself elsewhere because his barrio isn't meant for that. Identity is a huge partMinorities also have a culture, but as you can see many minorities have difficulty finding their identity in America, the land of mixed cultures. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” author Langston Hughes tries to make a comparison with the Negro of his time in the 1920s and the ancestors who were the first to begin civilization in the first thousand years of modern civilization in Africa. He wants African Americans to reconnect with their roots. People were almost tricked into forgetting where they came from and their greatness by building the pyramids and creating monuments that millions of people around the world marveled at. The denial of this and the act of taking away the truth and discriminating against African Americans is the racism that some say is America's original sin and what Langston Hughes is fighting against in his poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". Its purpose is to uplift African Americans and show them that they are worth more than what they were told they were, during the time of segregation and Jim Crow laws they still have a voice and a past to be proud of. In the poem Langston speaks from the voice of an ancestor saying that he knows it too. Although he has never been to Africa, he talks as if he is from there and this is the new way of writing because Hughes as a black man now has a voice and can say whatever he wants, just as the way of writing has changed to a more simple form but still resonates with not only super rich people and those who can read. In this poem the first three lines reiterate the characteristics of Africa. "I have known rivers: I have known rivers as old as the world and older than the flow of human blood and veins. My soul has grown as deep as the rivers. I have bathed on the Euphrates when the dawns were young. I have built my hut near the Congo and put me to sleep.”Hughes is talking about the Nile River and he is saying that it is as old as the earth and that it is rooted in us in our body and we are the earth. He said that his soul has grown deeper and this means that he feels as if he is attached to the earth and is a part of it. Another river is the Euphrates which has given birth to many people used for bathing, sailing and fishing but it has also been here for a long time. What he means by this phrase is that he, along with Africans, has been on earth for a long time. The last line talks about having a house in the Congo and he fell asleep to the sound of the river. I looked at the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the song of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went to New Orleans, and I saw his muddy breast turn all gold in the sunset. I have known rivers: ancient and dark rivers; my soul has become as deep as the rivers. Hughes goes on to talk about the Nile and how it raised people and it was such an influence on the lives of the Egyptians at the time that they used it for every aspect of life and it was a catalyst for their ability to thrive without which they would not have been capable of building pyramids. Hughes then makes a comparison to moving up the Mississippi from Abraham Lincoln to New Orleans and how from having a muddy breast to being a golden sunset that could note the transition from slavery to being freed with the Emancipation Proclamation. Hughes ends the poem by saying he knows these rivers, the old rivers and the ones that are dark, his soul being an African American male has a history and runs deep like the rivers. "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros tells the story of a young girl who is struggling to make it in America with obstacles that.