The House on Mango Street is a novel on the growth of a young girl named Esperanza going through the challenges of puberty in a Latino neighborhood in Chicago. She wishes to be different from all the other women who have lived on Mango Street, because they have lived unfortunate lives. She wishes to have “a house all my own … a space for myself to go” (“A House of My Own” 108), to be an independent person, unlike most of the women, who have tied themselves down or have been tied down by their boyfriends, husbands, or parents. Sally is beaten by her father, so she defies him and goes to hang out with boys. She is forbidden to meet with the boys because she is too pretty according to her father. She later gets married to escape her father, but, …show more content…
She always says she is unlucky. After she puts her children to sleep after feeding them a pancake dinner, she writes poems on small pieces of paper, which she later allows Esperanza to read. Minerva also reads Esperanza’s poems. Esperanza says that Minerva is “always sad like a house on fire - always something wrong” (“Minerva Writes Poems” 84). Every week her husband comes back, she says that “she is through and lets him know enough is enough”, later to only let him back in. One day she comes to Esperanza all bruised up and asks for help, but Esperanza can’t do anything. Ruthie is a grown woman, Edna’s daughter (Edna is a lady who owns some apartments), yet her mind is like a young child’s. She likes to play with the kids and laugh all by herself. When Esperanza is telling a joke, Ruthie may say out of nowhere something completely random but stays observant about the place they are in. She “sees lovely things everywhere” (“Edna’s Ruthie” 68). Ruthie used to be a children’s author, so Esperanza told her a story (The Walrus and the Carpenter) to get her attention. Once she finished, Ruthie looked amazed, then complemented Esperanza on her teeth, and
Another example of optimism portrayed by Esperanza was that despite her horrible first experiences with the opposite sex, (as in chapter 21, The First Job and chapter 39, The Red Clowns) she still has dreams of sitting outside at night with her
The third is Sally, who shows Esperanza all the dangers and scary things of adulthood. Esperanza can share almost all her feelings with Sally. “Sally, do you sometimes wish you didn’t have to go home? Do you wish your feet would one day keep walking and take you far away from Mango Street, far away and maybe your feet would stop in front of a house, a nice one with flowers and big windows and steps for you to climb up two by two upstairs to where a room is waiting for you.” (Cisneros 82). This is something Esperanza never even told her family, and shows that she had a big desire to leave Mango Street, but cannot yet. Sally introduced Esperanza to situations in life that Esperanza realized she is not ready for yet, and is still afraid of. “Sally, you lied. It wasn’t what you said at all. What he did. Where he touched me. I didn’t want it, Sally. The way they said it, the way it’s supposed to be, all the storybooks and movies, why did you lie to me?” (Cisneros 99). All the situations Sally introduced to Esperanza influenced her the most because Esperanza listens to her advice, and she is closest to Sally. Finally there is Minerva. Only a little older than Esperanza, Minerva already has two kids and a husband who has left her, causing Minerva to regret her life on Mango Street. “Minerva cries because she is so unlucky.” (Cisneros 84) Seeing this makes Esperanza think about how if she stays on Mango Street, She will be trapped
Esperanza, Rachel, and Lucy all pray for themselves, thinking that they’re going to Hell for making fun of Esperanza’s Aunt Lupe. The girls, in a playful manner, imitated Aunt Lupe’s sick and bedridden state just before she died. Esperanza starts to reminisce the moment when Aunt Lupe was alive. She remembers going to her aunt’s house, describing it as being full of sickness and dirty dishes, and her aunt, lying in her bed “a little oyster, a little piece of meat on an open shell.” Esperanza shares her love of literature, and reads her aunt her poems. In the poem Esperanza recites for Lupe, Esperanza states that she wants to be like the “wave on the sea” and the “clouds in the wind,” and how she would like to “jump out of her skin and shake
She is referencing the fact that if Esperanza did not attend school, she would have to rely on somebody for her money, specifically her husband when she gets older. She references the predicaments two of her comrades are in. One’s husband left her while another woman’s husband died. She is implying that relying on your husband for money isn't good, as if something happens to him, life will be very hard. At the end of chapter 36, Cisneros is writing “Yup, she says disgusted, stirring again.” (Cisneros 91). She is reminding the readers that the situation Esperanza’s mom wants Esperanza to avoid is the situation she is
In the novel, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the theme of growing up is prevalent throughout the book. Throughout the novel, a young mexican girl named Esperanza goes through experiences as she matures that involve her friends, society, dangers that expose her to the outside world and help her to realize what the real world is like.
“My mother’s hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles, all curly and pretty.” If Esperanza were more confident and accepting of herself, she could explain her hair in the same way she could explain her mother’s. Esperanza looks up to her mother in many ways. That is why when her mother tells her negative things, it affects how Esperanza thinks about herself. For example, on page 58, "My mother says I was born on an evil day and prays for me.
Esperanza is forever marked by the house and neighborhood she lives in. She wants to be like other kids who are allowed to eat their lunch at school instead of having to go home everyday. These students live father from the school than she does. Esperanza assumes these children live in better houses and neighborhoods. She is embarrassed by her house and angry that she must be identified by it. As said by Sister Superior, “I bet I can see your house from my window. Which one? Come here. Which one is your house?” The sister points to an ugly row of houses in the general direction of Esperanzas address.
The novel “The House on Mango Street” is written by Sandra Cineros. It deals with family, neighbourhood and dreams of a young Mexican girl, Esperanza Cordero growing up in Chicago. The novel begins when the Corderos move into a new house on Mango Street in the Latino section of Chicago. The fact that it is the first house they have ever owned, make them proud. But when Esperanza sees it, she is disappointed by the red, dilapidated house. It is not the one their
Esperanza is a shy but a very bright girl. She dreams of the perfect home now, with beautiful flowers in their luscious garden and a room for everyone to live in comfortably all because of the unsatisfied face the nun made that one afternoon--when she moves to the house of Mango Street. She thinks it’s going to be a “grand house on a hill that will have a bedroom for everyone and at least three washrooms so when they took a bath they would not have to tell everybody.” (Cinceros 4) Reality is so different for her when her dream is shot down in a heartbeat when she
Esperanza does not want to be like the other women in her town, always locked inside and the only freedom they have is a small window. Her great-grandmother was a role model, she showed Esperanza the way she did not want to
Esperanza Cordero is a young twelve year old girl, growing up in a place, in a house, where she feels as though she does not want to be, or even belong. She often remembered her great-grandmother, from whom she had gotten her name from, as a way of relating her hopelessness to someone. Esperanza usually felt hopeless, which she found ironic considering that the name itself means hope. She reminisces about her great-grandmother from the stories she had been told, saying that she was a “horse woman,” who was free-spirited until she had gotten married and tied down. Esperanza only had this
“She walks, she talks, she cleans, she works, she IS, but she is NOT, all at once. She is here, but part of her is elsewhere for eternity” (Anonymous). This quote by an anonymous person illustrates a woman who is rooted in who she is but dreams to be someone else. She dreams to be another person, far away from her dreary life. Sandra Cisneros establishes that many young girls within the Hispanic culture represented in The House on Mango Street are forced into roles they do not wish to take, resulting in a loss of identity and ultimately, a sense of powerlessness in the girl without anyone to show her how to be powerful.
"She sits at become afraid to go outside". The leave home, she would need permission. She evolves from a victim of child abuse to a slave-like wife. Esperanza sees this despair throughout her story.
In “What Sally Said,” Esperanza is forced to confront just how brutal a girl’s own father can be.“He never hits me hard. She said her mama rubs lard on all the places where it hurts.” She doesn’t think he is in the wrong she thinks that he is just worried that she will make poor decisions like his sister did. “A girl who comes in with her pretty face all beaten and black can’t be falling off the stairs,” Sally is abused by her father, but she still lies for him.“He just went crazy, he just forgot he was her father between the buckle and the belt,” He saw Sally talking to a boy and just went
The vignette “Beautiful and Cruel,” conveys the impact it has on Esperanza. In this vignette, Esperanza feels that she is “an ugly daughter” and “the one nobody cares about” (Cisneros 88). She does not need, or want, a man to lead her life, unlike the women she knows. She does not need, or want, a man to make decisions for her. Unfortunately, she still feels the pressure to look gorgeous and stunning: “Nenny has pretty eyes and it’s easier to talk that way