Cisneros uses her poetic skills in her stories of Mango Street and plays with narration style to convey not only a cultural experience, but also a universal human experience. Gender, class, and ethnicity arise as points of speculation and social commentary in this very short work. Age is also a key factor.
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Please click on Comments to offer your ideas on this story. Give your own definition of what “autoethnography” means; don’t look it up, but instead figure it out on your own and state how it applies here. If you've read other parts of this tale before, feel free to incorporate those ideas or any other connections you can make. Sign your comments with your first name and last initial.
Autoethnography is a way of self reflection. I actual know this because I learned about it in high school.
ReplyDeleteAshley H.
I believe auto-ethnography is talking about past experiences. I got this because the text is written in the past and the narrator is talking her own experiences.
ReplyDeleteJake G.
Autoethnography is similar to an autobiography, but instead of it reflecting upon yourself it reflects on what someone goes through in general meaning what that person goes through during his/her life. In this case “The house on Mango Street” its reflecting on how this girl is feeling throughout all the times she has moved and where she is living now. - Vanessa G
ReplyDeleteAuto ethnography is a way of expressing something that the author went through at one time. This relates to the story because the author could have went through a time where she was ashamed of where she lived or where she came from.
ReplyDeleteDana N
I believe Auto ethnography is when the author writes a story based on past events that they have experienced. I thought this was a touching story due to the fact that the situation her family is facing inspires her to have a family when shes older and never live like that. -Matt H
ReplyDeleteAutoethnography is like a autobiography but more about your own personal experiences reflecting on what you went through in life. It applies to "The House on Mango Street" because it explains how this girl has been moving around from house to house in her life. Feeling ashamed of the places she lived and her living conditions.
ReplyDelete-Omari G
Autoethnorgraphy is an autobiography that describes a personal feeling or experience in the writing. The feelings or experiences written in the story are very authentic.
ReplyDelete-Marisa R
By using what the author experienced as a background, the writing could more inspire readers. This is why it is similar to autobiography. Thus, my definition of autoethnography is the writing of something unreal which is partly based on the author's past experiences. -Donghwan K
ReplyDeleteI've had an anthropology class before where we have studied ethnography. Since I've learned it to be the study of cultures, "The House On Mango Street" being autoethnographic for Cisneros would mean that this is reflective of her own life experiences as well as many living in poverty or working class neighborhoods; having to be ashamed of living arrangements and hoping for better. Those who grew up like she did can relate.
ReplyDelete-Ashleigh N.
Based on reading "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros an autoethnography would be a story of self reflection and experiences that a person dealt with throughout life. This conclusion can be made by realizing that the story is written in first person. This puts the reader directly into the experiences of the narrator. Rather then simply tell her life she describes it, points out the hardships and discomforts. She even incorporates the poverty surrounding her and the negativity it creates "You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded." (Cisneros). This puts the reader into immediate discomfort due to its detail in the dialogue. An autobiography does not go into such detail while a autoethnography does.
ReplyDelete-Doug C.
I think autoethnography is when a person talks about his or her ethnic background. She basically talked about her living conditions before and after she moved to Mango street, how she felt about it, and how she wanted to get out of there.
ReplyDeleteDarwin U
I think that autoethnography is a form of self reflection but specifically dealing with a persons race and ethnicity. With this story, it is clear that Cisneros's family didn't have a lot of money but they were very optimistic about their lives and didn't let their living conditions greatly effect them.
ReplyDelete-Christina H
I believe autoethnography is very similar to autobiography. Since both words have the word "auto" in them, I think that autoethnography is some sort of experience that the author went through in his/her life and is incorporating it in the authors story. For example, in the story "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros we can see that the author is describing her experiences before she moved to Mango Street and her experiences after she moved to Mango Street.
ReplyDelete- Christian G.
After reading the short story I assumed this was a memoir. The author seemed to have experienced these events herself. I think autoethnography means that the narrator used ethnic traits such as using words like "ma" and "pa" to help the reader infer their ethnic background.
ReplyDelete-Julianna C
The word autoethnography might have something to do with a story version of an author's biography about his or her life. The full version of this book is pretty good. The character describes the neighborhood as being poor and run down.
ReplyDelete-Amanda F
Autoethnography can be described as a writer using his/her own life experiences and ethnic challenges to write a story. The story is something like an autobiography but indirectly. Sandra Cisnero writes about her life in “The House on Mango Street” but she never actually says that it is. She describes it as a second person narrator but when reading you can tell it is about her own experiences as a child.
ReplyDelete-Anthony C.
After reading "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros, I believe that an autoethnography is a piece of writing that reflects upon ones life and or experiences, like an autobiography. But even bigger than that, I believe that an autoenthnography links with cultural issues (race, ethnicity, money situation). For example, the names of her family members reveal that they may be a different ethnicity such as Spanish or Mexican. Cisneros also explains the conditions of the areas and houses she has lived in before which gives the reader the idea that the family has very little money. These examples connect her experiences to cultural aspects of life. -Jordan C.
ReplyDeleteI feel that there is a lot of emotion in "The House on Mango Street" because the tone of the character's voice when the nun asked if that is where she lives. "The way she said it made me feel like nothing" (Cisneros). It makes you wonder if the author is writing in the mindset of the character, or writing from her own experiences. The emotion in that line is sort of overwhelming because for a second it makes you reflect on a difficult time in your life that may have made you feel a similar way.
ReplyDeleteNicole R.
Sandra Cisneros may or may not have lived in a pitiful excuse for a “real” house as a child, but the main character in her short story “The House on Mango Street” sure did. From the first person narration style, to the details scattered throughout the story like the names of the family and the architecture of the Mango Street home, it's possible that Cisneros was writing a story that she, as well as many others, could personally relate to. The term autoethnography has been asked to be defined. The insertion of “ethno” into “autobiography” may mean that autoethnography refers to a literary genre that contains not just stories dealing with self reflection, as is common in all autobiographies, but stories that deal with self reflection that include details and references to the main character's ethnic background, that persons ethnic upbringing and values perhaps. The poor conditions the unnamed narrator of “Mango Street” describes would be an example of these details. -Kyle B.
ReplyDeleteThe understanding of autoethnography that i took out of the story and through the constuction of the word, is that it is not only soley about the author but yet the ethnic group to which they belong. In "The House on Mango Street" Cisneros expresses the plight of children growing up in poverty. While it is a story about her moving from one condemned home to the next, it is more about the impact that it has on children growing up from her same ethnic backround.
ReplyDelete-Louis D
Sandra, Cisneros. "The House on Mango Street". Autoethnography is similar to the autobiography which is a writing style that uses author's personal experience and life to apply in the story and to connect the culure or the society. In addition to, the setting, such as the building and street in the story are actually existent in the real life.
ReplyDeletePeng Q
An autoethnography sounds like a reflection of ones past experiences due to their surroundings or ethnicity. In this story the girl is shown to not be satisfied with her surroundings. She want to leave her current life and live one of someone in a wealthy class.
ReplyDelete-Tyler P
In the "The house on mango street" the athour writes in an autoethnography, which i believe is a way the writer writes from personal experiances and uses his or her background to enrich a work of lirerature.
ReplyDeleteChristian C
I believe auto ethnography means a reflection upon yourself or how you feel about yourself. I conclude that from reading the story. - Victoria G
ReplyDeleteI believe that autoethnography has to do with someone’s past. It almost sounds like autobiography. In the “House On Mango Street” the main character kept on referring to things that happened in his and his family lives. Like where they lived and what they’ve been through. Using what I’ve read from the text I could predict that the word autoethnography has something to do with past or history in one’s life. George P.
ReplyDeleteI think autoethnography means describing things that have happened to you in the past. The House on Mango Street was about the persons past.
ReplyDelete-Akram A
The excerpt from The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros is a story about a young girl and her family finally having a house of their own, but not a house they expected or wanted. They come from a low class, ethnic background with not much money and no comfort in their own home. They have dreamed of a house “with running water and pipes that worked...with a great big yard and grass growing without a fence” (Cisneros). It’s hard to believe a large family living in a house that didn’t even have water or heat, all cooped up in one bedroom. However, this is the reality of many people, especially those of lower classes and diverse, ethnic backgrounds. Not having a landlord anymore, like the family in the story, should feel freeing, well worth the wait, and give hope for even more to come. I think the young girl narrating the story should be a bit more appreciative of that fact. With that being said, I believe this is an autoenthnography, which I think means is a type of writing that blends your own experiences taking into account your specific culture, community, and society. - Esther P.
ReplyDeleteTo me Autoethnography means a type of self reflection. The story is about a little girl reflecting on all the places she lived in her past, so that is where my definition of auto ethnography comes from.
ReplyDeleteKhadijah D.
Autoethnography means to self reflect and then connect your self reflection to your culture and the people around you.
ReplyDeleteMatt D
Autoethnography means to reflect on ones self. This story "The House On Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros is about a little girl remembering all the places she and her family have lived in the past. While growing up the little girl is learning the reasons she has moved so much and learning the truth behind her life. -Emily Z.
ReplyDeleteAutoethnography is a form of self reflection. Authors use this technique to connect their past experiences with the literature.
ReplyDelete-Megan H.
Autoethnography is a self-reflection on one's past. In this story, the little girl reflects on her past and all of the different houses that she has lived in. - James L.
ReplyDelete