Because Sandra Cisneros writes from the perspective of a child in her novel, The House on Mango Street, her audience has a insight into what life is like for a child struggling with her identity as a Latina girl; Esperanza is a child who hopes that one day she will escape poverty and be able to live in the house she always dreamed of, not just a house that constantly reminds her of her family's struggles and her embarrassment of living somewhere with a so unflattering appearance, inside and out. While the youthful-spirited narrator certainly provides insight into Esperanza's truths growing up, it also provides the opportunity for a psychoanalytic approach to Esperanza's perspectives on those around her. Even more so, it helps connect how she perceives others to reader response theory, in that she doesn't always read other characters accurately. In a way, Hans-Georg Gadamer's ideas can be related to Esperanza because of the way she, like the readers of a text, sometimes tries to find meaning in what a person says or does before that the full meaning can actually be found (Gadamer 722). On the other hand, his inability to understand some of the children around him can be explained by Sigmund Freud's theory that human beings do not always understand childhood actions until they are older (Freud 510). Undoubtedly, Esperanza's perception of others is affected by the fact that her thoughts are formed from a child's point of view; Sometimes his perception allows him to develop as a forgiving individual, while other times his psychological restrictions - as a child whose brain is not yet as developed as an adult's - l prevent us from fully understanding how she understands others during her interactions with them. no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In some ways, Esperanza's perception gives her positive information because in some cases her childish view of others affects her. prevents you from easily getting angry with them. . For example, she doesn't blame her parents for not giving her the better house they promised her when she was a child. Esperanza says, “At that moment I knew I had to have a house. A real house. The one I could quote. But that's not it. The house on Mango Street, right? For now, says mom. Temporary, Dad said. But I know how it goes” (Cisneros 5). Even though her parents' empty promises are hard on her, she is disappointed in the simple fact that she doesn't have the type of home she wants, even more so than her parents. Overall, she realizes that they are doing their best and doesn't resent them as much as an adult; This may be because children tend to see the good in people and are not as likely to hold grudges, especially toward their parents, with whom they desire a relationship. Unfortunately, childish perception does not always work to an individual's advantage. For example, one problem with Esperanza's childish perception is that it creates psychological restrictions that negatively affect her reading of those around her; As a child, she cannot always fully understand why others do what they do, which is evident in her confusion as to why Nenny does not try to fit in with their older friends. An example of these restrictions is the fact that young Esperanza does not understand her little sister very well. “You [Nenny] mustuse your own song. Make it up, you know? But she doesn't understand, or won't understand. It's hard to say which one. I can tell Lucy and Rachel are disgusted. Nenny, I say, but she doesn't hear me. She's too many light years away. She is in a world to which we no longer belong. Nenny. On the way. Leave” (Cisneros 52). Although the narrator, in hindsight, has a little more understanding as to why Nenny is in her own world, she does not understand Nenny's behavior when they were both young. According to the still As Esperanza matures, Nenny's lack of attempts to fit in with her older friends doesn't make sense. In her mind, why wouldn't Nenny participate with the others in a way that would cause them to accept her as a friend, instead of being annoyed by her strangeness (and therefore possibly causing them to be annoyed by Esperanza ) ? What Esperanza doesn't understand at this time in her life is that at Nenny's age, she doesn't care as much about being judged by others; instead, she just wants to perform in a way that entertains her. Thus, it is evident that the psychological restrictions that children possess, due to the fact that they are still learning about the world, affect the way Esperanza understands - or does not understand - her little sister. the desire to play, at the cost of not integrating with others, underlines his psychological restrictions as a young person and can be explained by the following theories of Sigmund Freud on growth: "When the child has grown up and has stopped playing, and after working for decades to approach the realities of life with the necessary seriousness, one day he may find himself in a mental situation that once again nullifies the contrast between play and reality. As an adult, he will be able to remember an intense seriousness. with which he once played in his childhood, and by assimilating his apparently serious occupations of today with his childhood games, he can throw off the too heavy burden which life imposes on him and obtain the high yield of pleasure which he offers humor. (Freud 510) To express Freud's idea in my own words, a person has three different perspectives on childhood play as they grow up (Freud 510). As a child, he finds playing important and enjoyable. Then, the adolescent goes through a stage in which not only does he no longer enjoy playing, but he doesn't really understand why it was enjoyable in the first place. Later, an adult is finally able to look back on the way he was playing and can understand why he might have considered playtime such a serious, credible, and exciting time” (Freud 510). Basically, the Esperanza's psychological restriction is apparent to the extent that it is in the middle stage; she is old enough to think that play is silly and immature, but not old enough to understand that play time is still a defining part of Nenny's life as a child. The fact that Esperanza's brain has not yet matured limits her ability to understand others, even her little sister. We can go further to say that Esperanza's misconception about whether the nun is judging her bothers her because she thinks the nun is judging her social behavior. For example, Esperanza recounts her exchange with the nun, saying, “That one? she said, pointing to a row of three ugly apartments, which even men in rags are ashamed to enter. Yes, I nodded although. I knew it wasn't my house and I started crying. I always cry when the nuns yell at me, even if they don’t yell” (Cisneros 45). Not only does Esperanza believe she has problems with the nun, butshe also believes that the nun is judging her for the house she lives in. Although the nun may pass judgment, the narrator's reflection on what happened provides no evidence. this shows that the nun criticizes Esperanza for her social status, economic status, ethnicity, or the location or appearance of her house. To delve deeper into the way Esperanza reads the nun, we must go back to the beginning; earlier in the novel, the narrator explains that the way the nun spoke to her about the house made her “feel like nothing” (Cisneros 5). Regardless of whether the nun thought badly of any of Esperanza's previously listed statuses, the nun said nothing hurtful to Esperanza, and (being a supposedly loving and accepting nun) it can be argued that she had not intend to do so. makeEsperanza feels bad about herself because of her situation. On the contrary, maybe she felt sympathy for her. Whether the nun truly judged Esperanza for her home or not, a child's psychological restrictions are seen through the fact that she does not even consider that the nun may not have experienced Esperanza's home as she assumed so at first. Often children draw incorrect conclusions and are quick to feel hurt because they can be fragile in their innocence. As for Hans-Georg Gadamer, a German philosopher, explains: “A person who tries to understand a text is always performing an act of projection. It projects before it a meaning for the text as a whole as soon as an initial meaning emerges from the text” (Gadamer 722). Even more, he goes on to explain that the reader only finds a theme so quickly because he or she is actively looking for one from the beginning. As the reader continues to go through the information given, he or she must continually adjust his or her interpretation of the author's meaning (Gadamer 722), because the additional information that appears when one continues reading a text allow a clearer interpretation of it. Here Gadamer is referring to how a reader interprets a certain text; However, its idea can also be related to how a character in a novel quickly tries to find meaning in another character's words or actions. In this specific case, his idea may be linked to Esperanza's haste to make assumptions about her sister Nenny and the nun, according to the previously mentioned incidents. Like Gadamer's idea that the reader tries to discover the full meaning of a text as soon as a theme is mentioned, the child's version of Esperanza seems to remain true to her initial conclusion about why those in his life say or do certain things. Like readers of a text, Esperanza might be able to better understand the meaning of different events and exchanges in her life if she took the time to reevaluate whether her original perception of these meanings was correct. As she grows, she is more likely to be able to better identify the meaning of others' actions, just as Gadamer's readers can better interpret the text as they take the time to gather information. Certainly, Esperanza's narration from a child's perspective impacts her discernment about how she understands her conversations with others in Sandra Cisneros' novel The House on Mango Street; Although her perception sometimes leads her to be a more forgiving person, it also imposes psychological restrictions that prevent her from properly understanding others. In some ways, Hans-Georg Gadamer's idea that readers may initially come to the wrong conclusions when researching a work's theme may be related to.