Identity In Sandra Cisneros's The House On Mango Street

Have you ever felt like the place you belonged to didn’t belong to you? In The House on Mango Street, this is how the main character, Esperanza, felt. The author, Sandra Cisneros, did a good job in portraying a girl who couldn’t find her place. She had a problem accepting where she was from, The House on Mango Street is heartfelt novel and is great to pass the time. In this story, you will be shown the lives of Esperanza, her sister Nenny, their two best friends Rachel and Lucy, and the many people who lived on Mango Street. This book is about a girl who went from denying her place to accepting it.

In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros creates the theme that when a young girl is growing up without role models and a community that doesn’t support her development, she will have uncertainty in her identity and will search for her way out of the endless cycle. Cisneros does this through the main character, Esperanza. Cisneros creatively weaves the uncertain identity though many of the vignettes, but the vignettes that have the strongest meaning are number one and four. In vignette one, “The House on Mango Street,” Esperanza describes the places that she’s lived before

In the collection of vignettes, The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros develops the theme that people should not be devalued because of their financial circumstances through metaphors of classism, the motif of shame, and the contrast between minor characters Alicia and Esperanza’s mother. Esperanza, the protagonist, is a Mexican-American adolescent living in the rural Chicago region. She occupies a house on Mango Street with her father, mother, two brothers, Carlos and Kiki, and little sister, Nenny. Mango Street is filled with low-income families, like Esperanza’s, trying to adapt to their difficult circumstances. Esperanza realizes it is difficult, but she dreams of leaving her house and Mango Street altogether.

Have you ever heard of a poor child who has lived in a very uncomfortable home and didn’t have great wealth? In The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, this is the problem. In The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros Esperanza Cordero is the main character. Esperanza lived in the house on mango street during her developmental years, from the ages six to her becoming a young adult. The three biggest problems Esperanza's faces are poverty, confidence, and relationships.

Esperanza, a strong- willed girl who dreams big despite her surroundings and restrictions, is the main character in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Esperanza represents the females of her poor and impoverished neighborhood who wish to change and better themselves. She desires both sexuality and autonomy of marriage, hoping to break the typical life cycle of woman in her family and neighborhood. Throughout the novel, she goes through many different changes in search of identity and maturity, seeking self-reliance and interdependence, through insecure ideas such as owning her own house, instead of seeking comfort and in one’s self. Esperanza matures as she begins to see the difference. She evolves from an insecure girl to a

In “The House on Mango Street”, the young daughter desires to leave her neighborhood as a way to escape her Mexican-American culture. One of the cultures which are most powerful in this story is the Hispanic culture that Esperanza and all of her neighbors emerge from. Her Hispanic culture has such a powerful influence on her

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 House on Mango Street is a bildungsroman about a young Latina girl, named Esperanza Cordero, who has various struggles while she is searching to determine who she is and where she belongs in this world. The author, Sandra Cisneros, addresses several themes in the book of which three are significant; language barrier, self discovery, and gender roles.

Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street tells the story of a young, teenage, Latina girl named Esperanza, living in the late twentieth century. Esperanza takes her readers through her life and adventures through each chapter of the novella where each time she learns something. She faces the troubles of racism, friendship, and strange neighborhoods and most importantly, figuring out how she wants to spend her life. Through her race and wealth, Esperanza has created her identity as a shy, poor, and ambitious person.

In that community women must give up everything for their men. These women are trapped in their homes and sexually assaulted by the dominant man. Although, Esperanza knows that she won’t suffer the same way. “I have begun my own quiet war. Simple. Sure. I am the one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate” (89). She refuses to be treated in such a way, and shows her feelings by doing what she believes in. Esperanza focuses on herself, knowing if she wants to be different from the other women in her society she’s going to have to completely understand what she wants. At first, she was self-conscious and worried about how others viewed her. However by the end, she was no longer willing to follow the standing gender roles in her society. Esperanza still had a regard for how the people she cared about viewed her but knew she had to focus on what she thought was right. Focusing on her identity gave Esperanza the chance to unleash her true self against the outside forces holding her back.

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

When society faces obstacles that are deemed a burden it is often forgotten that those same Experiences and tragedies often shape an individual's outlook on life and inspires personal growth from within. The Novel, The House on Mango Street reminds its readers that even in the worst of times there is still a lesson to be learned as seen through the eyes of a girl named, Esperanza. The coming of age story deals with dark underlying struggles blanketed in the innocent viewpoint of a child forced to grow up frighteningly quick. The main protagonist, a young Chicano girl, reminds the audience of the importance of learning from past experience in order to form an identity entirely based on the individuals own volition. Sandra Cisneros, The author of House on Mango Street, uses Esperanza's struggles caused by her race,gender, and economic status to instill the theme of identity.

The world is not always fair, but don’t let that hold you down. Make the best of the cards you are dealt. In the Sandra Cisneros novel, The House on Mango Street, Esperanza, the main character, struggles to find happiness on Mango Street. In her youth, Esperanza moved from place to place quite frequently. Before she lived on Mango Street, she lived on Loomis, Keeler, Paulina, and in several other homes on several other streets. The story is about Esperanza’s experience on Mango Street and her self-discovery. She tries to figure out who she is in the light of the stereotypes of the Latina women she is surrounded by. Growing up in the barrio, Esperanza learns that Latina women are treated poorly by men and marry at an extremely young age.

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.

The House on Mango Street This essay focuses on the changes to Esperanza Cordero’s identity throughout the course of the novel House on Mango Street. In the book we meet Esperanza as a child who recently moved to Mango Street in Chicago. Later, Esperanza matures into an adolescent who observes life and her peers more closely and critically. Finally, at the end of the novel, Esperanza is ready to enter the adult world with a clear focus and determination. She crafts new aspects of her identity, while retaining many of the older ones.