Sandra Cisneroes in “My House of My Own”, attempts to create a recreation of her timeline as an adult writer. In creating this timeline, Cisneroes deploys fruitful storytelling on her experience and adventure with romance, from man to man through the background of the Hydro House. The Hydro House, located in Greece, serves a purpose as a vehicle of transportation for Ciseneroes’s memories and writings during that time. The Hydro is a monument to her at an important time in her life, when she fell in love, moved on, and fell in love once again. Her constant inner battle with her “nemesis”, rivals the romance she experiences with raccoon-eyed boys and occasional flings she has in the area. This story of romance is tied by the glue of the setting, which Cisneroes emphasizes throughout the story. To Cisneros, the Hydro is everything but a house, a house is a safe place which we associate with stability. However, in Cisneros’s life, the Hydro is a way to find an escape from stability and a life of rigid rules and guidance. Cisneros, hints this in her ending statements of chapter 1, by stating that she believed she was Penelope in the Greece land when she was actually Odysseus. I found that this distinction she creates perfectly sums the overall thesis of the two chapters, Cisneroes was not a symbol of fidelity she was a direct representation of freedom. Freedom in terms of spiritual awakening, romantic endeavors, and all in the pursuit of her true love: writing. Penelope is often a symbol of martial faith and resilience. However, Cisneroes makes a good point in asking why Odessysus is not a sign of resilience too. Did he not weather through tough adventures to get to Ithaca, is it truly fair to look at a woman in the eyes of a Penelope and not an Odessysus?
If I had a Hydro House of my own it would be quite big but local at the same time. I would want a house that represents comfortability, yet a sense of excitement that compels me to always get up and work on something new/exciting. It would allow me to raise my children and wife, comfortably (assuming I get married and have children), have entertainment (TV’s, maybe a pool, etc), and a great view of the world beyond. I believe that the “world beyond”, which I would peer into through my great view, would be probably a city as I think my Hydro House would be in a land where I can constantly communicate and work in terms of my career.