House on Mango Street Theme

Hook: In the coming-of-age novel, House on Mango Street, the main character Esperanza narrates the story through her perspective of the situations she encounters as she grows older in her new neighborhood.

To begin, when Cisneros characterizes Esperanza as a “red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor” (9), Cisneros means to show how Esperanza feels restricted to live out her full potential. Like the anchor, obstacles such as gender roles and the lack of financial support hold Esperanza back from escaping the expectations of marriage and subservience to men. The “red balloon” (9) also characterizes Esperanza as a unique and bright individual who does not belong to Mango Street. In the novella, Cisneros uses red to characterize prominent details in Esperanza’s life like the “red clowns” (99) and the “red red lips” (89) of the woman whose

In The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisernos, the main character, Esperanza, goes from having a negative outlook on life to a positive one. Many difficult situations Esperanza faces show her changing perspective on the world around her. An example of Esperanza’s negativity is her feelings towards her home. Esperanza and her family move into a new house, on the not-so perfect, Mango Street. Esperanza has this dream of a “...white [house] with trees around it, a great big yard and grass growing without a fence” (70), but, “The house on Mango Street isn’t it” (73). The home she lives in is described as being “...small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath. Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in” (49).

Marin said that “she’s going to get a real job downtown because that’s where the best jobs are, since you always get to look beautiful and get to wear nice clothes and can meet someone in the subway who might marry you and take you to live in a big house faraway.” (Cisneros,26-27) This mean she will change her life with man not her own. In this story’s background society is woman should work in a house and man should go outside and make money so this is like man should protect woman. Also, another character that similar with Marin is Rafaela. She is beautiful so her husband didn’t let her go outside of her house. Then, she never left outside and she just look outside through the window. This can be said that women rely on men and leave all responsibilities for men. In the past, this thought, same as them is very normal but as time passes, most people agree for gender equality. Then, literally, gender is being equal. But, Esperanza thought that woman should live in recognition of these thoughts and consider them after she met normal woman in that

Everyone has specific characteristics and qualities that make them the way they present themselves. Young, middle-aged, and old people are constantly forming the essentials that affect their self-awareness through their daily activities. Forming one’s identity is an ongoing process, because every person in the world can change people one way or another. In The House on Mango Street, the experiences young Esperanza faced day to day develop her true individuality.

Symbolism is key in this novel as Cisneros expresses a lot of information through symbols The concept of the high heels that the girls; Esperanza, Lucy, Rachel, and Nenny had received showed one of their first tastes into their sexual maturity. Beforehand, Esperanza believed that boys in girls live in separate social spheres as shown in the vignette “Boys & Girls” where she discusses how her brothers are best friends and that she wants another friend, specifically a girl, to talk about her feelings and share her secrets with. This is also where Esperanza talks about another key symbol in this story.

The assumptions that people put on others relate to the way others react and most likely fall into the conjectures. For the citizens on Mango Street, expectations have always remained constant. For example, Rafaela is expected to fall into the gender role and follow her husband’s instructions. She eventually succumbs and takes her role as a Hispanic woman. However, these expectations are not limited to just gender. The Vargas kids grew up with a single mother who could not handle her own problems, nonetheless her children. Consequently, the Vargas kids grow up without much guidance. They were perceived poorly by neighbors and “are without respect for all things living, including themselves” (Cisneros 29). The Vargas kids are viewed as troublesome and the rest of the community eventually stopped caring even when Angel Vargas died. Despite the heavy influence of suppositions in society, Esperanza challenges them. She drives herself to “say goodbye to Mango,” since she believes that she will eventually leave because of the differences across cultures (Cisneros 110). Esperanza feels conflicted between having two cultures to determine her heritage and background. She wants to move past the expectations that restrict her. She would not allow the cultural barriers to stop her, but for now, she can only wish to do

“Home is where the heart is.” In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros develops this famous statement to depict what a “home” really represents. What is a home? Is it a house with four walls and a roof, the neighborhood of kids while growing up, or a unique Cleaver household where everything is perfect and no problems arise? According to Cisneros, we all have our own home with which we identify; however, we cannot always go back to the environment we once considered our dwelling place. The home, which is characterized by who we are, and determined by how we view ourselves, is what makes every individual unique. A home is a personality, a depiction of who we are inside and

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.

Everyone has challenges in their life, their feelings behind their actions make them who they are. In the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros there are many conflicts which explore the characters, to get to know them closer. The internal conflict is used to discover the identity of the main character, Esperanza.

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.

Lindsey Rietzsch once said “A negative attitude drains, a positive attitude energizes.” This quote means that having a negative attitude lowers your self versus having a positive attitude where is actually increases attitude and it energizes you by inspiring you. “The House on Mango Street” sets up in Chicago, where the narrator(Esperanza) lives on Mango Street. The House on Mango Street that Esperanza lives in is really bad condition and old. It is so small that the narrator has to share beds in the same room with her family. Esperanza begins to lower her self esteem because she does not like where she lives and every time when some asks, “Where do you live?” She wants a real house that she could point to and she thinks the House On Mango street is not. But later, along the times, Esperanza’s negativity of herself begins to slowly change by looking at nature and take a closer look at the environment she lives in. Cisnero shows that knowing and being able to accept where our background is from is an important part of growing in life also as determining the real you.

In the novel, “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, the main character Esperanza has many positive influences on her life. Hardships do not define one’s life either in a mental or physical capacity. Throughout the novel, Esperanza’s grandmother, Marin, and Rosa Vargas enable her to overcome the hardships of becoming a woman.

The book I read was “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros. There was many themes in this book. The two I want to focus on are Loss of Innocence and The Power of Words.

Kids usually don't act their age. They either act older or younger. They grow up too fast or too slow. In the book, House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, a girl named Esperanza moves to house on Mango Street and doesn't seem to fit in. She meets a girl named Sally at her school and becomes friends with her but Sally is not a good friend. She chooses boys over Esperanza and abandones her a couple of times to be with boys.Ezperanza cant fit in because she is growing up too slow while Sally, who is not a good friend is growing up too fast .Sandra Cisneros develops the theme through character conflicts. The theme of House on Mango Street is not to grow up too fast or too slow.