House On Mango Street Character Analysis

Although Esperanza grew up in a very poverty stricken neighborhood, she didn’t let that define her as an adult and was able to be successful later on in life. Esperanza grew up in a place that was very looked down upon. On page 5, Esperanza was asked by a nun where she lived. After pointing to her house, the nun responded “You live there?” She was not only in an area that was clearly not nice, but she was also judged and she felt embarrassed about it. People who even just drove through her underprivileged neighborhood think of Esperanza and her neighbors as “dangerous. They think [they] will attack them with shiny knives. They are stupid people who got lost here by mistake” (18). This neighborhood wasn’t the type of place people wanted to be near or in. It was so run-down and such a seemingly threatening place, people would be scared just

In The House on Mango Street the women are either empowered or constricted. Rosa Vargas was constricted because she had lots of children and had a husband who left her for no reason. Rafaela was limited because she was so beautiful he thought she would run away. Sally was restrained because she could not express herself without getting beat by her father and when she gets married to escape she is still held back. In The House on Mango Street Rosa Vargas, Rafaela, and Sally are constricted because of thing that have happened to mess up their lives and because of decisions that hold them back.

First, the book starts off telling the story of how Esperanza grew up in a loving wealthy family who owned El Rancho de las Rosas in Aguascalientes, Mexico. She was surrounded by generations of family members who loved her. The family had lots of servants who worked for them during the grape harvest season and they also helped them with everything else during the off season. Esperanza was a young girl who really didn’t understand poverty and was known to have a snobbish attitude at times when she was little because of her family’s wealth. She was surrounded by families that were just as wealthy as her own so poverty was not a norm in their community. There are many examples of her snobby ways in the beginning of book like when she first boarded a train in Mexico and realizes that she and her friend definitely wouldn’t be traveling first class. Her reaction to this was basically like: "You expect me to travel coach?! Yeah right." It was evident Esperanza did not use to a present lifestyle. Esperanza father was her biggest mentor and she followed his teachings very closely. After the death of her father, it was people like Abuelita, Mama, and Miguel that help keep Esperanza diva 'tude in check which helped keep her

Growing up on Mango Street, girls had to take two steps backward to take one forward. Just like ballroom dancing, women let men take the lead and sacrifice an extra step to continue moving on the floor. When Sally escaped from her father and married the marshmallow salesman, she had to give up her youth and femininity.

Judgement is a very frequent occurrence in today’s world. It usually isn’t an encouraging judgement though. Throughout the book, The House on Mango Street, the message of judgement of others being cruel is revealed. This isn’t just in Esperanza, the main character, but everyone in the book. It is important that everyone in the book progresses and matures as a person because, it causes everyone to become more together. This all proves the claim of, The House on Mango Street portrays an aspect of maturity by showing that what people imagine about others is often not how they truly act and are as a person, how they grow as a person, and what they strive to become.

As Esperanza goes into detail,The more Esperanza describes her neighbors the more Esperanza struggles with her place in society and desires to leave her neighborhood.

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 is new to the neighborhood, and was never proud of her previous houses, but the negative intonation that the nun uses on her makes her feel like she is being judged, not on who she is, but what her family can afford. There is the place Esperanza now has to call home and the degrading presumption that the neighborhood already has causes her to accept that she can’t change her image without money and let her personality shine through. She seems to accept her label as poor in the story, “A Rice Sandwich”, where she believes the special, also known as rich, kids get to eat in the canteen and she wants to be part of that narrative, so she begs her mother for three days, to write her a note to allow her eat in the canteen. When she couldn’t endure her daughter’s nagging anymore, she complied. Thinking this would be enough affirmation, Esperanza went to school the next with the note and stood in the line with the other kids. She wasn’t recognized by the nun who checks the list, and has to face Sister Superior, who claims that she doesn’t live far enough to stay at school and asks Esperanza to show where her house is. “That one? She said, pointing to a row of ugly three -flats, the ones even the raggedy men are ashamed to go into. Yes, I nodded even though I knew that wasn’t my house,”(45). Esperanza was compared to the most raggedy men, and had to accept

This relates to the theme of the struggle for self definition, because at first Esperanza was under the impression she could change a man, but as she’s exposed to these horrible encounters she comes to the conclusion that boys and girls live in different worlds.

However, some may argue that Esperanza's friends are more of an important aspect of Esperanza's identity. This may be because Esperanza spends time with her friends in which they create experiences together that may develop who she grew up to be. In spite of that, Esperanza's family is who she spends the majority of her time with. She wouldn't have learned how to be a role model for others if it weren’t for her family. In addition without her family

When a character is exposed to an incident in which his or her perspective is forever changed, he or she will gain knowledge and maturity. An event such as being raped is an example of how one can lose his or her innocence. The House on Mango Street leads the reader into analyzing his or her own life. It shows how Esperanza’s pure view of life has changed to become a more sophisticated and realistic one. Growing up is something that everyone, at one point or another, goes through. This loss of innocence is something that is unavoidable and irreversible. When people lose their innocence, they gain maturity and gain knowledge. When a person losing the pureness in them, they open their eyes and they are able to see the world for what it really

Esperanza began to feel like an outcast, like she was completely alone. She felt absolutely ashamed of who she was. Her identity was lost in her yearn to find comfort in friends to feel as if she belonged. “I want to be like the waves on the sea, like the clouds in the wind, but I’m me. One day I’ll jump out of my skin. I’ll shake

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

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