Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong ‘there’? Like you’re out of place? Or you just don’t fit in? The girl in the poem Four Skinny Trees feels just like that. Four Skinny Trees by Sandra Cisnersos was written in 1984. The House on Mango Street was her first novel, each chapter she made into a poem. The book and poem were inspired by her experience being a Mexican-American child. The poem is about four Mexican-American sisters that are not used to the big city, Chicago, and are upset because they feel like they don’t belong there. Sandra Cisnersos uses strong symbolism and personification. The poem shows the sisters have each others backs and are the only four that understand each other.
What do the trees mean? In “Four Skinny Trees” Cisnersos, has symbolized the trees to be her sisters. “Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine,” (1-2). This proves that she symbolized the trees to be her sisters, because she says that the trees have skinny necks and pointing elbows like hers. She is showing that her and her sister look alike Another example is, “Four did not belong here, but are here,” (2). This demonstrates, that Sandra and her sisters didn’t feel like they belonged there, they didn’t fit in, living in a big city. But they stick together and have their arms around each other to keep their strength.
