Character Analysis of Esperanza in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

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.

She gets excited when boys look at her on the streets. But her illusion of true love is destroyed by sexual violence. Her friend Sally’s behaviour towards boys contributes to Esperanza’s caution and distance by dealing with the opposite sex, too. Nevertheless, Esperanza does not stop dreaming of leaning against a car with her boyfriend in a place where that does not bother anyone. But she has set her standards higher than most of the women around her. She do not search for a man to escape from this place, she has seen too many unhappy marriages. Ruthie exemplifies such an one. She has run away from her husband and seems to be mentally disturbed. The young Rafaela is locked up by her husband because of her beauty. Nevertheless the tragic event is Sally’s which ends in abuse. Sally, Esperanza’s friend, only wanted to dream and share her love like Esperanza. Hurt and beaten by her father who just wanted to prevent the familiy’s ruin by Sally. To escape, despite of her minority, she marries a salesman. But unlike her wish, the abuse continues.

A boy comes up to ask her to dance and she declines, still focusing on how her feet don’t fit her shoes. Later, however, she is forced to dance with her Uncle Nacho and she notices that, “All night the boy who is a man watches me dance. He watched me dance” (48). The boy she declined watched her dance gracefully with her uncle and this made her feel unconformable. It seems she is just understanding what girls, or women, represent to boys, or men. She doesn’t need to be told because she is now more aware. There is a feeling that she doesn’t like it and it makes her more self conscious of how she looks, but that comes with growing up. In the last vignette, “Hips,” Esperanza is connecting the information she has been told by Alicia to her new experiences. Esperanza continues to inform everyone else what she has learned, saying, “They bloom like roses. They just one day open. Just like that. One day you might decide to have kids, and then where are you going to put them? Got to have room. Bones got to give”

In the novel, “The House on Mango Street”, author Sandra Cisneros portrays a story of a young girl, Esperanza who is completely dissatisfied with her life. She yearns for what she considers a perfect house and various other items that she believes will make her existence perfect. As she finds out who she truly is and what she is really good at, she becomes the person she had hidden all along. She was lost inside someone who was so conceited, and hoped for things that could never even happen. Unfortunately, when someone does not accept the realities of their life, maybe to make it better at some point, their situation becomes intolerable because this individual keeps searching for something that is unattainable.

Utilizing a series of vignettes, Sandra Cisneros follows the significant moments in the life of a young Mexican girl named Esperanza in her coming-of-age novel The House on Mango Street. The book records a year of Esperanza life, in which her family moves into a rented house on Mango Street in Chicago. While searching for her independence, Esperanza and her friends meet the issues of racism, sexuality, and male dominance. Esperanza forms the realization she will have to leave the toxic environment on Mango Street for her future, however, she plans to return and help those who are unable to remove themselves from the poor conditions.

“The House on Mango Street,” by Sandra Cisneros uses a narrative style to tell the story of Esperanza throughout her childhood.

Esperanza is girl who is the main character of the book “House On Mango Street” and the author who writes vignettes about her. The author of this book is Sandra Cisneros and gives us facts and thoughts about Esperanza’s life and more. Esperanza is 12 years old and lives in a house in a street called Mango Street. All of this contribute to the topics observation, friendship, and family. Observation, family, and friendship will give more gifts and trust to one another and become as one.

The House on Mango Street, a novella by Sandra Cisneros, revolves around the idea of a developing Latino girl facing the difficulties of transitioning to a young mature woman. Esperanza moves into a house on Mango Street, where she meets many diverse influential people as she attempts to discover her true identity and understanding of the world. While doing this, she encounters the struggles of her community, socioeconomic class, and heritage. Esperanza’s opposing view of herself slowly adjusts as she begins to focus on where she belongs in her community. Cisneros uses a series of short stories to reveal the importance of Esperanza’s acceptance of the knowledge from the significant people around her that contributes to her developing identity.

In Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street, Esperanza’s world influences her life for the better. Esperanza is living in poverty and watching all the mistakes people are making, her environment allows her to learn from the mistakes people around her are making. Sally, a girl living in her neighborhood, gets married like they expected, “Young and not ready” (Cisnero 14). Esperanza has seen someone get married too young before her eyes and now she will understand not to make the same mistake as Sally did. Esperanza living in this community allows her to understand what living at the bottom of the world is like, Esperanza becomes motivated wanting, “A house all my own” (Cisnero 15). Esperanza wants something better in life than living on

Esperanza’s friend Sally is one of the reasons that Esperanza really questions what it is to grow up. Sally wears make-up and appears to challenge the men in her life until they retaliate, like her father who beats and rapes her. In the chapter “The Monkey Garden” Sally is flirting with a group of boys and Esperanza can not understand why Sally will not play with her and the other girls. Then Esperanza thinks that Sally needs recusing from Tito and the other boys when they demand a kiss for the keys they took from her. Sally tells Esperanza to go away and she finally understands that Sally wanted to be with the boys. After meeting Sally and becoming more aware of her own sexuality Esperanza “decided to not grow up tame.”(88). She knows that

Now, Esperanza has changed a lot throughout the book. First she was spoiled and a brat. Here are some examples when she kept on complaining about their living conditions. She called the cabin a horse stable. So she has been really disrespectful to her mom and Miguel.

The decisions a person chooses to make greatly affects their lives and changes them. In the collection of short stories, The House on Mango Street, the author, Sandra Cisneros focuses on the life of a young Hispanic girl named Esperanza Cordero who gradually changes and matures through the experiences of gender discrimination, sexual orientation and countless more living on Mango Street. Esperanza's transformation from a young and innocent girl to a mature woman is displayed through her self-realization and experiences that help Cisneros reveal how one's own experiences can lead to the discovery of their identity.

The characters of The House on Mango Street include Esperanza the narrator, her family and her many friends and neighbors. In this literary analysis I will be analyzing the main three, Esperanza, Sally and Nenny. In The House on Mango Street a year goes by and Esperanza matures. She begins growing into a young woman. More people see her as a lady and not and innocent child. She also develops a sexual desire for some of the neighborhood boys. Emotionally she feels the desire for love. Although, her sexual desire becomes

I chose this quote because it displays the division of gender, or split into two sides based on boys and girls. Women were thought to be inferior to men and men dominated the society. Esperanza had no friends other than her brothers who would not be seen with her in public. I choose to incorporate this quote into my journal because the women are deemed as powerless. However Esperanza is willing to make a change and be an individual by not being dependent on anyone else.

Jose de las Luz y Caballero once said, “As the fruit ripens, so does the man mature; after many rains, suns, and blows.” (Forbes) Through the superior, inferior, and everything amid occurring in everyone’s lives, some choose to embrace it while others shove it in the back of their closet and try to forget it. However, while experiencing life, one learns and one grows. Sandra Cisneros’s novel “The House on Mango Street” is considered a coming of age novel. Esperanza, the main character, faces many different challenges and situations in her life. Esperanza is introduced as an innocent girl who later matures into a young adult after developing and grasping onto new concepts.