Roses and Tuesdays

      In the book The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros writes a series of vignettes following the life of a girl named Esperanza. In the book, Cisnero uses quite a lot of symbolism, and she repeats her utilization of certain things like feet, windows, and the color red. She also uses roses as symbolism, and Tuesdays. The roses seem to represent moments of warmth and happiness whiles Tuesdays represent losing something. However, the loss that comes with this symbol isn't always a bad thing, as though Esperanza is starting new.

      On page six, when she is describing her family through their hair, she says,

"But my mother's hair, my mother's hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day..." (paragraph two) 

Here she describes the mother's hair as being like rosettes. Esperanza finds comfort and happiness in her mother, and one of the features that she likes the most is her hair. Then, on page 50, Esperanza is discussing hips with Nenny, Lucy, and Rachel.

"They bloom like roses, I continue, because it's obvious I'm the only one who can speak with any authority; I have science on my side," (paragraph four). 

She describes hips as blooming like roses because she feels comfortable with the subject, and comfort with the fact that she is being listened to.

      Roses may also be used to describe discomfort. On page 77, she describes the toes of Mamacita as being like "tiny rosebuds". Since the rest of the story is about discomfort and cutting herself off from the world, I believe that Esperanza uses this to explain that Mamacita tries to be comfortable with herself, but may fail at this. Then, on page 101, a chapter is titled "Linoleum Roses". The chapter in question is about Sally marrying a man who doesn't turn out to be the best husband. The chapter title symbolizes that Sally wanted to find comfort and happiness with her husband, and that she wanted to escape her home and her father, but that this happiness turned out very wrong. Like a gorgeous dress being made of sharp glass, these roses aren't natural- they're made of linoleum. Not silver, not copper, not any precious metal. Linoleum.

Now onto the topic of Tuesdays. I only have two quotes, and my idea isn't much more than that: an idea. A could-be.

 "You want a friend, she says. Okay, I'll be your friend. But only till next Tuesday," (page 13, paragraph two). 

Then, on page 42, it says,

"Lucy hides [the shoes] under a powerful bushel basket on the back porch, until one Tuesday her mother, who is very clean, throws them away. But no one complains."

 Cathy will be moving away on Tuesday, thus leaving Esperanza's life. However, Esperanza never really becomes her friend. They talk for a bit, but then Esperanza meets Rachel and Lucy and becomes friends with them instead. So she loses Cathy, but doesn't really care. And this happens on a Tuesday. Then, Lucy, Rachel, and Esperanza desperately don't want to have anything to do with the shoes because of what happened to them when they wore them. The shoes are gotten rid of on a Tuesday, but the girls probably feel relief more than anything else. Thus, Tuesday is a day of losing things in a good way.