1. In “The House on Mango Street”, a narrative by Sandra Cisneros, a theme of freedom and entrapment is revealed through the use of metaphors. In the vignette “Boys & Girls”, Esperanza craves for a friend to play and have fun with, but feels she is stuck with Nenny for now. She then uses the metaphor, “Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor” (Cisneros 9). This metaphor helps reveal a theme of freedom and entrapment. Esperanza wants to be free to make friends as she pleases, but at this time, she feels like her younger sister Nenny is her responsibility, saying “Since she comes right after me, she is my responsibility” (8). This is where the metaphor and the theme come in. Esperanza wants to have freedom, like a balloon would have freedom to float away in the wind, but she is entrapped by her sister, who functions as the anchor. This anchor holds Esperanza, the balloon, from floating away as she pleases, but instead, she must stay grounded with Nenny, because she has a responsibility to her and her family. Later in the book, Esperanza reads one of her poems that says, “One day I’ll jump out of my own skin” (Cisneros 60). This metaphor also gives insight to the theme of freedom and entrapment. Esperanza feels that she is held back by prejudices and poverty, so one day she wants to jump out of her skin, leaving her race and poverty behind, and be free to live up to her full potential.

We’ve always had good Christmas’s at my grandparents house, except for one year. Its a yearly tradition, that my family would meet my cousins, aunts, and uncles at my grandparents house. We would always have our Christmas celebration in the living room at my grandparents, and it was a little different this year because they were remodeling their house, and their carpet floors had been pulled out, but no floors had been put in yet; so we were having our Christmas celebration on the bare concrete floor. Our tradition was that we played bingo, and if you won a game, you got to open one of your Christmas presents that night, Christmas Eve. This specific year, none of the younger children won any games, so they started having fits while the older cousins got to open their gifts early. The threats started coming, specifically to me and my younger cousin Zach, that we would have to go to the infamous “punishment room”. Nobody ever wanted to go in their because their was a scary plastic goose that grandma kept in their to scare the children. Nobody knew why she had it or where she got it, but it was the reason all the kids stayed out of that room. Of course Zach and I didn’t stop crying, because we didn’t get to open any presents, so obviously we had to go to the “punishment room”. My aunt put the scary goose right in front of the door, so we were scared to try and leave the room. Eventually, we ended up crying until we were so tired that we fell asleep and didn’t wake up until the next morning.

My most prized possession is a football receiver glove. For my 12th birthday, my parents and my grandpa took me to a New York Giants vs Dallas Cowboy game, because my favorite team, the Giants, were playing in Dallas. It was a Monday night game, so after my mom picked me up for school, she surprised me and told me we were going. So my mom, my dad, my grandpa and I headed towards Dallas. We got to the stadium, and went to our seats on the 7th row. It was a type of game that I liked because my team, the Giants, were completely dominating the Cowboys, which I hated. Because the margin was so large at halftime, most of the Cowboy fans had gone home, so we were able to move to the front row. We sat next to another Giants fan who was wearing a US Army uniform. We talked to him a lot and he was very nice. But during the second half of the game, the Cowboys came back and nearly won, so it ended up being an exciting game. I also enjoyed that Tony Romo hurt his shoulder while I was their. After the Giants ended up winning, we went and stood by the tunnel that the players walked into after the game. One of the Giants receivers, Mario Manningham, tossed his gloves up to the stands, and the army guy caught it. As we were leaving, he ran me down and told me he wanted me to have one of them. Its a 4XL size red glove with black stripes and a NFL logo on it. It’s not only my prized possession because it’s a glove used from a player from my favorite team, but its a reminder of my grandfather. The last time I ever saw him, besides when he was in the hospital, was when he went to the game with me.