E+Connection+to+American+Literature

__**The Old Man and the Sea:**__
** The Old Man and the Sea : Despite the book be ing set in Cuba, the story is about the hard living conditions of people and how they try to live their daily lives in order to make ends meat. This is similar to the poorer class of Americans who are working hard in low paying jobs at Wal-Mart. Santiago is constantly talking about baseball and the Great DiMaggio, which reflects the American culture in their love for sports. In the book, Santiago's life is no  greater than basic, and luxurious comfort s are absent. This can be compared to the Great Depression of America, where the people were trying to find work, but could not. They had trouble feeding themselves and people lost faith in the American dream. This is similar to Santiago, who was defeated and realized life is hard. **

__The House On Mango Street:__
In __The House On Mango Street__, a Mexican family moves into a Mexican-American neighborhood in Chicago. The book shows the inner workings of ethic communities in America and how they are different from the typical white American one. There is a p ortion of the book where the main character Esperanza says how the rest of America thinks that her neighborhood is dangerous, despite Esperanza thinking that it is safe. In other p ortions, the women of Mango Street want American men to marry them and take them away from this poor Mexican neighborhood.  Esperanza simply wants to fly away because she feels there is no future in the red brick house where she lives. She wants to be unique, unlike the Mexicans she lives around who are already labeled with disillusioned stereotypes. There is  as well an idea of equal rights and feministic freedom in the book. Esperanza,  unlike American feminists, felt beauty w as a sign that she was a deserved women. Esperanza, herself, wanted hips. However, like the equal  or civil rights movements for women, she to wanted to be treated <span class="author-g-miex9o5e8nccrgdr" style="background-color: #dcccff; cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px;">with the same respect given to men. They did not want to fit into their stereotypical <span class="author-g-miex9o5e8nccrgdr" style="background-color: #dcccff; cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px;">, gender roles. Esperanza sees how the Mexican community hold <span class="author-g-miex9o5e8nccrgdr" style="background-color: #dcccff; cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px;">s women to low expectations and wants to get away from it <span class="author-g-miex9o5e8nccrgdr" style="background-color: #dcccff; cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px;">. This reflects the American feminism movement.