In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros creates the theme that when a young girl is growing up without role models and a community that doesn’t support her development, she will have uncertainty in her identity and will search for her way out of the endless cycle. Cisneros does this through the main character, Esperanza. Cisneros creatively weaves the uncertain identity though many of the vignettes, but the vignettes that have the strongest meaning are number one and four. In vignette one, “The House on Mango Street,” Esperanza describes the places that she’s lived before
The transition from childhood to adulthood is a monumental part of one’s life. The change brings about many new responsibilities and expectations needed for adulthood. As the story, The House on Mango Street, follows the gradual maturation of the main character, Esperanza, readers can see the struggles of the transition to adulthood. In the novella, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, two main challenges are discussed, becoming self conscious and losing innocence.
Esperanza, a strong- willed girl who dreams big despite her surroundings and restrictions, is the main character in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Esperanza represents the females of her poor and impoverished neighborhood who wish to change and better themselves. She desires both sexuality and autonomy of marriage, hoping to break the typical life cycle of woman in her family and neighborhood. Throughout the novel, she goes through many different changes in search of identity and maturity, seeking self-reliance and interdependence, through insecure ideas such as owning her own house, instead of seeking comfort and in one’s self. Esperanza matures as she begins to see the difference. She evolves from an insecure girl to a
The Novel, The House on Mango Street, was based on the writer Sandra Cisneros. She was writing this when she was living in Chicago. She was like Esperanza. She want though poverty. She has been heartbroken and deeply joyous. She inventing for herself who and what she will become. This is the life of Esperanza Cordero and based on Sandra Cisneros to all women out there.
In addition, the financial state of Esperanza and her family contribute to a factor that has shaped her identity. Esperanza is not pleased with her wealth and wishes for more. In the first chapter, she describes her home starting with a good, optimistic tone but as she explained more, her tone felt ashamed: “Out back is a small garage for the car we don't own yet and a small yard that looks smaller between the two buildings on either side. [.....] and the house has only one washroom. Everybody has to share a bedroom-Mama and Papa, Carlos and Kiki, me and Nenny” (4). This shows that the family does not have enough money to live a sustainable and comfortable life. Later in the book, it mentions how there is a desire for “white people” homes and towns with large homes and space. Although, Esperanza does not admit that she is poor, she surely hints to it multiple times throughout the novella.
In The House on Mango Street, we see how the youth struggled with the discrimination being pushed on them by Whites. Esperanza describes how they lived in such a poverty-stricken area of the city, and did not interact with the Whites. She talks about how the Whites saw Mexicans as bad people who committed crimes. Esperanza shows how personal identity for Mexicans was made
In the book “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros we are advised the story of the protagonist Esperanza over a sequence of short scenes. Esperanza is a adolescent lady who moved out of her old home along with her parents into a new area called Mango Street. The new house is not what Esperanza wanted, she anticipated a big, white, provincial house with a backyard. Rather, she got a tiny, red, recap apartment in a Latino area in Chicago. It is a coming of age story where Esperanza blooms in many attitudes, all over the whole book we appreciate she wants to move out of Mango Street into her own house. One of the complications that Esperanza faces is the experience of shame. This happens through House on Mango Street, Rice Sandwich, Bums in the Attic, and Monkey Garden; the first three have to do with her despise of the new house. In the scene Rice Sandwich, Esperanza ambitions to eat in the canteen with the other “special kids” rather of having to walk back home to make lunch. She asks her mom to write a letter to the nun who is the principal of the school, she doesn't accept the letter as the grammar was amateurish and asks Esperanza where she lived.
Mark Haddon once said, “Reading is a conversation. All books talk. But a good book listens as well.” Although, there are many children's adventure books, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cineros is the best by far. The book is intriguing, funny, heart-warming and full of adventure. The book paints a vivid picture of Esperanza and her family living in their new house on Mango Street. Sadly, the house doesn’t meet up to Esperanza’s expectations, but she learns to adjust to her new home. The character of Esperanza in The House on Mango Street expresses the difficulty, adventure, friendships, and maturity in her lifestyle. While living on Mango Street, Esperanza faced many challenges. She acclimated to the consistent move from place to place with her family. In The House on Mango Street page.3, it says, “But what I remember most is moving a lot.” Esperanza moved about four times before moving on Mango Street. She transitions from apartment to apartment, but now her family finally has a home they can call their own. Unfortunately, the house isn’t the house Esperanza dreamed of or seen on T.V. It wasn’t the luxurious three bathrooms, big flat screen television, and large backyard kind of house. This house was small, red with tight steps and small yard. The red bricks are crumbling, the door was swollen, and everyone shared bedroom. Currently, the house accommodates six people: Mama, Papa, Carlos, Kiki, Esperanza and her sister, Nenny. Learning to adjust to her new home,
The House on Mango Street is a collection of vignettes written by Sandra Cisneros that is about a young Mexican-American girl named Esperanza, and the struggles of her life as she transitions from childhood into adulthood. Esperanza wants to find her true identity, but the conflicts and struggles that she faces throughout the story. Her town is a part of her adventure to find her self identity. She picks herself up, learning and figuring herself out throughout the novel. The author uses symbolism throughout the vignettes to convey the deeper meaning of conflicts developed in the novel, to show the difficulties of growing into adulthood.
Esperanza was ashamed of the house she lived in, the clothes she wore, her appearance and even her name. Esperanza’s confidence was already extremely low. For instance, she was talking to a nun at her school about being able to eat lunch at school because she lived to far away to walk home and eat. The nun glared out the window and pointed at a rundown house and asked if Esperanza lived there. Even though she did not live there, Esperanza replied, “Yes.” After the nun made this rude remark, Esperanza cried because she was disappointed that the nun thought it was her house. She let the nun get the best of her. It is crucial to keep a positive attitude and try your hardest to make the best of your situation, as it will enable you to live a happier life and be more successful in what you do. Although at times Esperanza was humiliated and embarrassed, such as when Tito and Sally started to laugh at her when she tried to stop them from kissing Sally, she didn’t let these situations keep her down. Esperanza was sad that one of her good friends would do such a thing to her, when she was only trying to protect her, but continued to persevere and made the best of the
In The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, a little girl from a Latino heritage is given birth to. Not literally, but in the sense of characterization. Esperanza is a fictional character made up by Cisneros to bring about sensitive, alert, and rich literature. She is the protagonist in the novel and is used to depict a female’s life growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Cisneros creates the illusion that Esperanza is a real human being to communicate the struggles of growing up as a Latina immigrant in a modern world, by giving her a name, elaborating her thoughts and feelings, and illustrating her growth as a person through major events.
With this in mind the internal conflict is important, because it shows Esperanza’s sensitivity about everything what concerns herself and her being insecure. One of the vignette that tells about is called “ Chanclas.” It recounts about her being non confident, because of her old shoes that she gets every year. For example, the quote says, “ Then Uncle Nacho is pulling and pulling my arm and it does not matter how the new dress Mama bought me is because my feet are ugly.” (Cisneros 46). This quote shows that she cares so much about one detail and even the prettiest dress cannot divert her attention. She does not pay attention to the dress, because she just thinks about her shoes and she assumes everyone will look at her feet. Another quote which supports her insecure, is “ Meanwhile that boy who is my cousin by first communion or something asks me to dance and I can’t. Just stuff my feet under the metal folding chair stamped Precious Blood and pick on a wad of brown gum that’s stuck beneath the seat. I shake my head no. My feet growing bigger and bigger.” (Cisneros 47) According to this quote Esperanza does not want people to notice her imperfection so she stays out of society contact. It is not because she does not want to she explains it as a cannot thing. She does not want to embarrass herself. The quote which stays for her having low self esteem is “Until my uncle who is a liar says, You are the prettiest girl here, will you dance, but I believe him, and yes, we are dancing. And Uncle spins me, and my skinny arms bend the way he taught me, and my mom watches, and my little cousins watch, and the boy who is my cousin by first communion watches, and everyone says, wow, who are those two who dance like in the movies, until I forget that I am wearing only ordinary shoes, brown and white.” (Cisneros 47) There is a clear statement that supports, that she thinks about
Because of her coming of age, Esperanza learns the double standard in society and how powerless women
Sandra Cisneros uses characterization to show that even when there is bad times you can still find your true self in The House on Mango Street. Esperanza is the main character and she feels lonely, embarrassed, and just wants to fit in her new neighborhood. She is having a hard time trying to find her identity. Esperanza wants to change her name “…more like the real me” instead of accepting a name from her family’s heritage, “…the one nobody sees” (Cisneros 11). She thinks her name sounds rough when her classmates say it, but sounds softer in Spanish.
Esperanza's overall opinion on sex and romance are like a storybook. Or at least that's what she has been told. She thinks that romance is a fairytale and prince charming is supposed to sweep her off her feet and fall in love with her. One of Esperanza's friends tells her everything. she talks about love with her friend sally, sally told her everything there is to know about love. She told her everything about Sally told her that falling in love is amazing and all she wanted to do was fall in love with someone who felt the same way. Everyone thinks that sally is crazy for thinking all of that but esperanza does not. She thinks that it's really sweet and she believes that sally will find someone.