Criticism of the Writings of Sandra Cisneros

Cisneros appears to want to “motivate” readers to make the world a better place. She was motivated in college to write based on her own unique background when she realized that a majority of her classmates had no understanding of her world and therefore her writing. Their upbringings created totally different writing styles and inspired Cisneros to write about her real- life experiences with adve

Caramelo is Cisneros’ second novel, after The House on Mango Street. This newer novel has been very successful- selling two million copies in eleven different languages. Written to honor her father, Caramelo has many parallels with Cisneros’ personal family history. For example, Cisneros’ paternal grandfather was a cadet in Mexico’s military academy who ran from fighting to Philadelphia, he was often absent from the family making Cisneros’ grandmother the main parent to her father, uncles and aunt. Also her father ran away from his family to America when he did badly in school. Caramelo was described by Cisneros as “partly true, partly fiction… written in pieces”. This is very true when observing Caramelo’s unorthodox style. The typical style in a novel is linear storytelling- describing a chain of events in a smooth chronological order of events but in Caramelo this style doesn’t apply. The past’s memories are interweaved and combined with the present events and characters switch off telling their own roles influencing the family’s progression through time. Some of the themes in Caramelo are cultural conflict, identity issues and the place of women in society. The characters deal with the complications of getting past the clash of the traditional Mexican culture and the different and new culture of the United States. They also grow and experiment with straddling two different ways of life- the traditions and customs of Mexico and the freedom and opportunity of America. The book as well alludes to the strains placed on Mexican women to conform to their long-established passive roles.

Many reasons Cisneros is lauded by so many is due to her unique and powerful style of writing. In one review she was de

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