"In the canteen, which was nothing special, lots of boys and girls watched while I ate my sandwich, the bread already greasy and the rice cold." (Cisneros, The House on Mango Street, 45)
In this chapter of the book, Esperanza really wants to take a lunch and sit in the cafeteria instead of walking home to eat. She thought that the special kids got to eat there and that it was an important place. She goes through quite a bit of trouble to be able to take a lunch and eat in that special room. Eventually she finds out that it really isn't that cool and she doesn't belong there.
I could feel what she was going through because I went through a similar experience. Growing up my mom always made me a lunch to take to school. Many of the students who brought their own lunch, including myself, wanted so badly to eat a school lunch.I think that everyone who took a sack lunch to school can say that they wanted to have the school lunch at one time or another. The kids who got the cafeteria food got pizza, chicken, milk, and all sorts of cool lunch items. Us sack lunch kids got stuck with the same sandwich, an apple, and if we were lucky, a cookie. We all envied the kids who didn't have to carry a lunchpail to school, who got to have a choice in what they were going to eat for lunch. Eventually my mom gave in and gave me a few dollars to be able to pay for a lunch. I was super excited to finally have a school lunch and not a nasty sandwich. I got my food and sat with the other school lunch kids. I was completely let down. The food wasn't really that good and all my friends that I usually sat with were not with me. The next day I went back to a sack lunch and was grateful from that day on for a mom who made me a lunch.
No comments:
Post a Comment