Leave to come back——A review
英文实在退步的太厉害，所以就借着读书的机会，强迫自己试着恢复一下～然鹅，语法和表达也都是非常基本的了……（羞愧）
The book tells a story about a Mexican girl living in America from the author’s own memories. The author introduces the protagonist Esperanza and the life around her in the child’s way, which makes the writing lively and limpid. At the same time, the novel reveals the ugly and cruel side of the adult world more forcefully, which has deeply impressed me. Maybe that is the reason why the little girl is eager for her own house and brand-new life，and also explains why she will ultimately come back home.
Esperanza lives in a tumbledown house on a remote street. The denizens there are of different sort of colors and customs, most of whom are Mexicans. Mongo street is just a settlement for the immigrants in America. They lead a life of poverty and convention. This melting-pot is filed with racial and sexual discriminations, which are either obvious or subtle in her innocent narration.
In the English version of this novel, following the title there writes“to the women”. And the book indeed portrays many females. Here are playmates of the same age, such as Rachel and Lucy. The sisters are “raggedy as rats”, explaining why a white girl dislikes them. Esperanza is also acquainted with beautiful young ladies——Marin and Sally. They design their lives based on marrying a man. As a result, one lost the lover without his last name and the other attained “ball and chain”, staying at home alone and waiting for her bad-tempered husband all day. Here are the middle-aged women, such as Aunt Lupe、Ruthie and even Esperanza’s mother. They all lead a miserable life through used to dream of being somebody with the realization of self-value at a young age. Now the old dreams have been drowned in an ocean of life bagatelle or painful illness or endless quarrels. Last but not least, the girl’s great-grandmother also named Esperanza, wild like a horse，finally was forced to become a wife and she looked out the window for her whole life. People want their women tame and obedient，and people say their place is sleeping so they can wake up early to make tortilla for the family. Although they accept all these arrangements, they still can’t receive own happiness. The girl’s guesswork “maybe the sky didn’t look the day she fell down” sounds so naive but bitter.
The males in this novel seem to be villains, they are not supposed to talk with girls while they enjoy molesting them and making indecent suggestions. They are in duty to protect families while they take it granted to assault and abuse against their wife and daughters. They prohibit them to go out of the house just because they’re pretty，treating them like livestock instead of human. But luckily this is not all. Esperanza also writes down the family bond between her and her father, as well as the encouragement from kind Uncle Nacho, who danced with a shy and self-abased girl. These trivial but moving descriptions make the book less critical but with more warmth.
Esperanza grows up in such a living environment. There are a lot of displeasures as well as a few precious delights. As a Latin student, she even doesn’t have the right to eat at the school canteen, though her house is not close to the school. As a teenager, she begins to pay attention to dressing up and associating with boys. But when she and other girls put on those fancy shoes, they just got a bum’s harassment and parents’ warning. Luckily Esperanza enjoys the pleasure of literature. She always borrows books from library and reads them to everyone she knows. I believe books give her power and courage as well as the chance to change. When she read The Waterbabies to Aunt Lupe, she told her just remember to keep writing. When Esperanza’s mother complains about her fate, she didn’t forget to urge her daughter to go to school and study hard. Exactly, the girl has enough reasons to leave Mongo Street, as she always has dreamed.
But it is not the whole dream. Esperanza’s friend Alicia has left Mongo Street and gone to university. But after that ,she became “stuck-up”and disliked being with her used partners. She left without looking back. However, Esperanza knows herself is always on Mongo Street. When she wants to keep that selfish idea, the three sisters see through her thoughts and tell her to come back. Because there are too many people suffering for the same reason on Mongo Street, and they can’t free themselves as easily as the lucky ones. As one of the victims, it is her responsibility to speak out for whoever is still treated unfairly.
The world is getting better and better owing to people like the author. Not only did she step out of her comfort zone, she also wrote such a beautiful and profound literary composition. This work once became a blockbuster and got great feedback, which contributed to the cause of human rights to be equal.
The House on Mongo Street is a story about the world which is not so beautiful, about the growing-up and dreams. Those are old topics, but the writer possesses special writing skills and an innocent heart of a child, which make the story far away from a dull lecture, instead, a beautiful poem. Such a writing style reminds me of a Chinese writer XiaoHong and her work Tales of Hulan River. The writer also spends a fair amount of ink on her life of early childhood. Tales of Hulan River also subtly criticizes fatuous custom in the north-eastern part of China and portray the colorful life with clean languages. But Xiaohong didn’t make up her mind to change. Exactly she left the little town and led a new life, but she didn’t write whether she would come back. Maybe that is what the work is short of compared with the other.
Actually, everyone lives or has lived on Mongo Street. Our hometown inevitably has defects, that is why we leave for a bigger world to earn our living. But remember leaving is not for yourself alone, leaving is to come back, help more persons to achieve their dream and make the sunlight shine on the whole world, no matter it is Mongo Street or Hulan Town.
