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Thesis:
Since people in today's world only look at the single stories of the world, it is important that books and stories such as "The Woman Warrior" and "The House on Mango Street" are told to give people multiple stories and perspectives to show that there is more to a person than just one representative stereotype. These fiction books are used to immerse the readers into these minority women's stories to help people feel what they feel and try to understand what they go though even though most of the readers can't know how truly difficult their experiences were. This gives these multicultural literature books the power to tell the unheard stories and either make change happen or inspire other minorities to make their own path in life.

"The Woman Warrior" Section:
- talk about how Kingston overcame the stereotype especially that of the Chinese woman within the family, not just the stereotype of being Chinese in America (passage 3)
- she makes the reader understand the guilt, frustration, longings, etc built up inside of her (blurting out confessions to mother)
- readers become invested in the stories of the women who went against the norm in China and want Kingston to believe in herself to do the same

"The House on Mango Street" Section:
- different stories of women to show why they shouldn't be stereotyped
- Esperanza wasn't like the other hispanic women and wanted to show people that she could get out of Mango Street
- through her writing, she was freed and the reader has this realization with her at the end of the novel--> the book gave her the power to see that she could be freed of the stereotypes and expectations and could decide how to move forward by herself

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"Should Literature be Useful?" Summary:
In "Should Literature be Useful?" by Lee Siegel, the author argues the uselessness of fiction but explores the value of it as well. More specifically, Siegel believes that "what [literature] does best is to do nothing particular or specialized or easily formulable at all." In other words, people can interpret fiction however and in however many ways they would like to because "fiction's properties are countless and unquantifiable." Siegel argues that fiction makes people more empathetic which in turn reflects higher "emotional intelligence" which was shown through literature studies at the New School. According to Siegel, this study showed that people who read fiction had higher empathy and emotional intelligence levels. Fiction allows people to explore and use their imagination without even doing anything in particular in order to escape "the quotidian challenge, the daily grind, and the
necessity of attaching a specific meaning to what people are thinking and feeling, and the urgency of trying, for the sake of love or money, to profit from it."

"Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer" Summary:
In "Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer" by Murphy Paul, the author argues that there is proof "that individuals who often read fiction appear to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them and view the world from their perspective," according to psychologist Raymond Mar. More specifically, Paul states that "the novels, poems and other
kinds of literature that can be appreciated only by readers whose brains, quite literally, have been trained to apprehend them." In other words, younger generations nowadays don't get the same exposure to deep reading because of how much people read online now. Paul emphasizes that "we ought to take steps to preserve" deep reading to protect this reading experience. Many children are losing the immersion of themselves in reading because "their reading is pragmatic and instrumental." Paul believes that "we will have deprived [the kids] of an elevating and enlightening experience that will enlarge them as people" if they are not shown the place where deep reading can take them.

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"Now all the stories which I had heard of the city-within-a-city leaped alive in my mind." pg. 159

This was the life that he never could have imagined because he had been in the South in that white school for so long. He was able to branch out because he was able to escape the school even thought at this point he was working to go back.

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"I seemed to run swiftly up an incline and shot forward with sudden acceleration into a wet blast of black emptiness that was somehow a bath of whiteness." pg. 230

Discussing how white and blacks are portrayed through the darkness that the white people created. They make themselves seem as if they are the light in their self made darkness so they can take advantage of the black people.

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"Shine floodlights into dark corners: no ghosts." pg. 204

Kingston finally becomes a ghost because she has no more secrets. She used her voice against her mother and finally stood up for herself. She made an active choice to choose one side of her double identity and to be a woman in America and not be restricted by Chinese traditions.

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"Even now China wraps double binds around my feet." pg. 48

Kingston's Chinese identity limits her in some parts of her life and restricts her from being her whole self. She can't be what she wants to be if she takes on the traditional Chinese role of the woman.

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"Coke bottles and milkweed, among all the waste and beauty of the world- which is what she herself was. All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. And all our beauty, which was hers first she gave to us." pg. 205

This is human nature to bash on others to make ourself feel better about ourselves. They took Pecola's worth from her.

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"Nobody looked up not once the day Angel Vargas learned to fly and dropped from the sky like a sugar donut, just like a falling star, and exploded down to earth without even an 'Oh.'" pg. 30

This girl committed suicide because she didn't have anyone to support or care about her or to value her. Esperanza has people who care about her and want her to move away from Mango Street and not feel like she is so stuck that she either kills herself or ends up the woman by the window.

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"Pecola rubbed the cat's head; he whined, his tongue flicking with pleasure. The blue eyes in the black face held her."
pg. 90

Pecola is the cat in this metaphor because the way Pecola was treated was the same way the cat was treated. People are white washed into treating people like Pecola like this because she is ugly in their eyes which means she is of no worth and no one cares.

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"I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees. ... Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do." pg. 11

This name represents everything that isn't the woman by the window which is exactly what Esperanza wants to be. A name like this gives her power, something most women on Mango street don't have. This name along with the metaphor of the house represent Esperanza's freedom that she longs for so badly.

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"When I discover who I am, I'll be free." pg. 243

In this quote the invisible man is stating his sense of identity. He knows the only way to find out who he is is through self exploration away from white people and black people so one influences him and he can think for himself.

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"I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes." pg. 29

This is Kingston debating about her double identity and whether she wants to be the dragon or tiger. But how does she choose what she wants to be?

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"Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another- physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought." pg. 122

This was a pivotal moment for Pecola because this is when she started thinking that her beauty was her worth.

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"I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor." pg. 9

Esperanza wants to escape Mango Street and make something of herself because she doesn't want to waste her potential but her circumstances are tying her down.

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The invisible man was recruited by the white men of the Brotherhood, but he was a natural born leader and speaker by himself and they wanted him for his talents. His skills were not something taught to him by white people.

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Pecola gave other people her beauty when they put their ugliness onto her.

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Kingston went against the gender role by writing these stories down and using her voice to do so. In doing this, she did not keep the silence of a Chinese girl.

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Esperanza is determined to not to get stuck like these women and submit to a life where she wouldn't be able to take care of herself without a man. She wants to have her own house where she has the power and is in control (and not just sexual power).

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- African American
- school: white education
- male
- region (moves from South to North)
- on his own (family isn't an influence)
- position in work (school, paint job, brotherhood)

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- woman
- beauty standards
- African American
- lack of love from parents (no attention from mother and raped by father)
- made fun of by other kids

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- woman
- Chinese
- struggle with double identity of a Chinese home and an American education and outside life
- lack of knowledge about Kingston's family (aunt)
- American education (smart)
- struggle of using voice
- relationship with mother

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- hispanic
- woman
- poverty
- sexuality
- culture (speaking spanish)
- supportive people around her
- family (parents can't give her the house she wants)
- friends (relationship with Sally)
- Mango Street

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A single story in this book is that Hispanic women are all in situations like that of the women in this novel that Esperanza describes because they are too poor and inexperienced.

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A single story in this novel would be that Chinese women in America assume the role of the woman in Chinese families and do as they are told.

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I think a single story in this book is if a person doesn't look like Barbie, she can't be beautiful.

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A single story in this novel is that black people can't make it in America without the help of white people.