Esperanza's The House On Mango Street

Esperanza is the protagonist of the story. She is very wealthy and gets everything she wants. She struggles through her father’s death and moving to California. Throughout the story she becomes very mature, determined, and a hard worker. She really shocked me because she was a very spoiled princess who became a very strong migrant worker. Ramona Ortega also known as Mama is Esperanza’s mother. They are always together and she helped Esperanza stay strong. Throughout the story she is very strong but becomes very ill and depressed. Miguel was Esperanza’s best friends when they were little kids. He is the child of two servants that work for the family. He wants to become a mechanic and is very determined to reach that goal. They still look after eachother, even though they aren’t very close due to their social status. In the end he is able to bring back Abuelita back from Mexico. Hortensia was a servant that took care of their family. She always looked after Esperanza and was almost like a second mother. She was a Zapotec Indian. She was Alfonso’s wife and the mother of Miguel. Alfonso was a field worker and a very close friend to Papa. He loved the land and took care of the rose garden. He is the main person who helped everyone get to California. Isabel is the daughter of Juan and Josefina. She is only 9 years old but can clean, do laundry, and change diapers. She was the one who taught Esperanza how to do housework. She becomes very close friends with Esperanza. Isabel is the only one who goes to school to learn to read, write, and speak

All the people on Mango Street were struggling to get by, but they seemed satisfied with just making it. Esperanza was not. There were characters like Esperanza’s mother who was a “smart cookie,” and could’ve been anything, but she let shame get the best of her and dropped out of school. There was also Rafaela who got married before the 8th grade just so she could move into her own house, but her husband never let her leave the house afterward. He never let her see her friends, and the highlight of her week was getting coconut or papaya juice from someone who would send it up in a paper bag attached to a clothespin since she couldn’t leave the house. Lastly, there was the time when she was left stranded by the tilt-a- whirl waiting for a friend that never came back and got molested by a group of boys. The only witnesses were the red clown statues that seemed to be laughing at her. Nevertheless, she let none of this stopped her from going forward and perusing her dream. She still seemed to be struggling with a sense of belonging, but maybe that’s because she didn’t.

In the book Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan, Esperanza is the main character who is the protagonist. Esperanza is a thirteen-year-old child that has been faced with more tragic events from the age of nine to thirteen than some may experience their whole life time. Her character is very smart, determined, and compassionate just like some of the kids you may know. The author does a great job with allowing the reader to get inside Esperanza’s head to understand her thinking and logic. The author uses Esperanza life to encourage children who may be going through some of the same experience, that they could make it through to. Although Esperanza is just a normal kid trying to have fun, the constant tragic events in her life forces her to mature instantly becoming a strong young adult. This paper will discuss how Esperanza grew up and some of Esperanza reactions that shows her growth in maturity, while exploring some of the conflicts Esperanza experienced that causes her to change her thinking.

When Esperanza looks at the trees, she notices how they are alike… How they both don’t belong. Being a Latina person and mistreated often, she feels as if she is the minority. She doesn’t belong like how the four skinny trees don’t. The author uses personification when using “skinny necks and similies as she compares herself to them. They become metaphors for her and her family, who are outcasts.

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 has a variety of female role models in her life. Many are trapped in abusive relationships, waiting for others to change their live. Esperanza had many struggles in her life, not growing up where and how she wanted to so role models were very important to her. These role models showed her the way she didn't

Esperanza’s sexuality and sexual experiences are developing as she continues to grow. In the chapter “Sally”, Esperanza learns a lot about sexual behavior. Sally represents what a “pretty” girl is. Esperanza pays attention to some details about Sally. Esperanza notices how Sally dresses more provocative than other girls.

Throughout the course of Mango Street, Esperanza’s relationship towards her house change. As time passes her feelings about the house itself change and the emotional impact of the house of her changes as well. Esperanza’s house on Mango Street symbolizes her Mexican culture. For so long she has wanted to leave it. She envisions a different type of life than what she is used to - moving from house to house. “this house is going to be different / my life is going to be different”. One can look at all the things she envisions - the "trappings of the good life" such as the running water, the garden etc. as symbols for the new life.

It is displaying how Esperanza doesn’t have a home and how she will support anyone who will ask for it because she knows how it impacts a person. She doesn’t want anyone else to be impacted in that way like she was.

When first coming to this country as a Hispanic American you may face a lot of difficulties and find more problems than the average white American. Hispanic people go through different adversities and have trouble overcoming them. In The House on Mango Street the main character Esperanza is the one that narrates the story, she explains what it is like to live on Mango Street. She shows the readers that living on Mango Street is perceived as a terrible area, if one were looking from the outside in. But those that live there feel that they live in fair living conditions. The fact is most of the people who live on Mango Street don 't know what it 's like to live outside of mango street. In the story, they show a lifestyle that most Hispanic people deal with especially the ones that come to America and have to figure out how to make ends meet. In The House on Mango Street, the novel has many themes and problems, such as gender inequality, stereotypes, and language barriers. With short stories like "Aria" and "the myth of Latin Woman," a solution is always found. Sometimes there is a simple solution and other times, it is not so easy to find, or there 's just no solution to solving the characters problems and they are still trying to look for results.

Next is Marin; she is a beautiful green-eyed Puerto Rican woman. She sells Avon products and babysits to make a living. Her family lives in Puerto Rico and she’s living with her cousin, saving money for when she goes back to Puerto Rico. Alike Esperanza, Marin is hardworking; she desires a real job where you could wear nice clothing and look beautiful. Marin often relishes in singing and dancing and dreams of getting married to a wealthy gentleman that will take her to a large house far away, altering her life forever, unlike Esperanza who doesn’t wish to be tied down in

The author conveys the theme identity through the point of view. Since the point of view is through Esperanza’s eyes the reader can see how she is affected by everything she goes through. This was the author can demonstrate how Esperanza’s internally developing. During the novel, Esperanza had to get a job at a young age to help pay for the private school she went to. She felt very out of place and uncomfortable throughout the experience. “...I wouldn’t have minded it except that you got tired after a while and I didn’t know if I could sit down or not…” (House on Mango Street p.54) The audience can see from her point of view how she is feeling. For example, she felt so uncomfortable that she didn’t know when it was acceptable to sit. She would only sit once the other ladies would. This is showing how she is feeling because it’s an example of her

Esperanza's mother thinks she wasted her life away. Her mother can speak English and Spanish, draw, and sing. She's also good at fixing broken TV's. She sings to Madame Butterflies while making dinner. She doesn't want to just rely on a husband because two of her friends got hurt one got left an other one is a widow. She dropped out of school for no nice clothes. She doesn't want Esperanza to be like her when she was younger. Sally is beaten by her father. She is all bruised up when she gets to school then lies about it saying she just fell. She told Esperanza her father beat her with his hands this time not his belt. He's being protective in a bad way to her. She tries to move in with Esperanza but her father wins her back and she comes

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.

As in life, Esperanza’s maturity evolves and grows during the course of the vignettes as she develops and gains new experiences. Throughout The House on Mango Street, maturity is a dominant theme for Esperanza as she goes from a girl who wants a new house purely for superficial reasons, to someone who wants independence by making everything dependent upon how men see her, to someone who wants the independence of her own home and who has accepted Mango Street as a part of her. In the beginning, Esperanza is focused solely on how others see the house, and the embarrassment that comes with claiming it. She feels the judgment from the woman asking her, “You live there?