Different region has different culture. When people move to a new place, they must try to fix in the society. Whereas, fixing into a new place is not that easy. During the progress, people always find some social problems that need to be handled all over the world. In the novel “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros and the speech “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chima Adichie, both of the author talk about the story of adapting into a new society and call attention for social problems- women rights and stereotype.
First, both Cisneros and Adichie describe stories about moving into a new place and trying to adapt. Esperanza is the protagonist of Cisneros’s novel and she moves into Mango Street which is a totally new community for her. In the beginning of the novel, Esperanza says “We didn’t always live on Mango Street.”(Chapter “The House on Mango Street”,1). Esperanza says they move to many different places before and the Mango Street is just one of the new places. In the novel, Cisneros describes how the protagonist tries to adapt the school and make friends in the community. In the Chapter “Our Good Day”, Esperanza borrows Rachel and Lucy five dollars, then they become friends. Esperanza says: “Rachel, Lucy, me. Our new bicycle. Laughing the crooked ride back.”(Chapter “Our Good Day”, 24) From Cisneros’ subtle writing, people can find that when Esperanza accommodate the life in Mango Street, she makes lots of friends and feels more satisfied and comfortable. Similarly, Adichie talks about her life in American university. Adichie was born in Nigeria and go to America when she was 19. After she came to the United Sates, she learned a lot about a new conception and tried to accept that. Adichie recognized that her roommates “had felt sorry for [Adichie] even before she saw [Adichie]”(6) because there was a “single story of catastrophe”(6) about Africa even though Adichie is not an African. In the following years, Adichie accepted her new identity and realized how those American’s concept about Africa. This is also an adaption in a new environment. Therefore, both Cisneros and Adichie talk about stories about adapting into a new society.
On the other hands, both of the author appeal different social problems. Cisneros focus on the appealing of women rights in her novel. From Chapters such as “Sally”, “Edna’s Ruthie”, and “Minerva writes poems” can show the females in Mango Street have low statues and less powerful than males. For example, in the Chapter “Sally”, her father sets strict rules for her and “she can’t go out”(1). Sally cannot bare her father so she chooses to marry with a rich man in the later chapter. Whereas, she is trapped by her husband and has no rights to do what she wants. Sally only can “sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without [her husband’s] permission.”(Chapter “Linoleum Roses”,3). All the descriptions by Cisneros draw readers attention to women rights and make people want to fight back for women. The social problem that is showed by Adichie from her speech is stereotype. She finds out that most Americans think Africa is the place with catastrophe and people feel sorry for African even before they see them. Adichie’s roommate thinks “there was no possibility of Africans similar to her in any way, no possibility of feelings more complex than pity, no possibility of a connection as human equals.” Adichie appeals human to treat everybody equal and do not discriminate or have a single story to other race. Both author appeal people to change the situations in their stories.
In conclusion, both Cisneros and Adichie talk stories about adapting into a new environment and they draw the awareness about social problems to readers successfully. When people live in a new society, they might feel anxiety and nostalgia, however, eventually they will gain more knowledge and realize more problems all over the world. There still are so many social problems that need to be handled with, people have to pay attention to them; simplify them and finally overcome them.
J.Xia
