Disturbing Themes of House on Mango Street and The Bluest Eye Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago and raised in Illinois, the only girl in a family of seven people . Cisneros is known for her collection of poems and books focusing on the Chicano experience in the United States. In his writing, Cisneros explores and transcends the boundaries of place, ethnicity, gender, and language. Cisneros writes in a lyrical but deceptively simple language, making the invisible visible by focusing on the lives of Chicanas, their relationships with their families, their religion, their art and their politics. Toni Morrison, born as Chloe Anthony Wofford in Ohio in 1931, changed her name because it was difficult for people to pronounce. She was the second of four children and both of her parents emigrated from the South. Morrison is best known for her novels and short stories, being a lecturer, teacher and public servant. He writes using agile language and his lyrical writing, exploring the African-American middle classes and popular culture. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, written in 1984, and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, first published in 1970, are both aimed at teenage audiences, but deal with profound and often disturbing themes concerning serious social conditions and their effects on children. Both books are told in the first person; both narrators are young girls, living in destitute neighborhoods, who witness the harsh realities of life for those who are poor, abused, and hopeless, though the narrators themselves manage to survive their harsh environments with their wits and strength intact. Books are more than just literary exercises written simply to amuse or delight an audience. Both authors attempt to provoke... half of the article... s 91). Of the two books, Morrison's is by far the more effective for both adolescent and adult audiences. Its characters and settings are thoroughly and thoughtfully drawn, it has a powerful, thought-provoking theme, and it has a clear plot that can inspire audiences to laugh or cry. The reader can delve deeply into the minds and actions of the characters as well as the environment in which they live in The Bluest Eye and find a series of newspaper articles, sometimes vaguely touching or thought-provoking, capable, perhaps, of stimulating discussions on some of the issues it touches on, but essentially too minimal and impersonal to inspire a deep emotional reaction in readers. Works Cited: Cisneros, Sandra. The house on Mango Street. 1stVintage Contemporaries ed.New York: Vintage Books, 1991.Morrison, Toni. The bluest eye. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1993.