The House On Mango Street Analysis

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.

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.

Some people think that others aren’t as bright as they truly are and this is changed by how they have grown and developed. For instance, this is revealed in the book by a character named Darius, a kid who doesn’t like school who most others believe isn’t very bright, is developed by the quote, “Darius, who doesn’t like school, who is sometimes stupid and mostly a fool, said something wise today, through most days he says nothing. Darius, who chases girls with firecrackers or a stick that touched a rat and thinks he’s tough, today pointed up because the world was full of clouds, the kind like pillows...That one there. See that. That’s God, Darius said”(33). This develops Darius and how everyone believes that he isn’t bright and as he grows, starts to become brighter and becomes very deep in his thoughts. This is related to how people imagine that Darius and others is often not how they grow as a human being. This is also developed by the quote, “One day I’ll own my own house, but I won’t forget who I am or where I came from”(87). This quote explains how Esperanza wants to eventually own her own house and grow as a person but still know who she is. Others may not know that she wants this and this causes her to grow as a person which the develops into the claim, how people visualize others and how they act versus how they grow and this is an aspect of maturity.

Esperanza’s maturity and growth, physically and mentally is very evident in the vignette “Hips”. There are two distinct focuses in this vignette. One focus is about the body and the other topic is about sisterly love. • When Esperanza and her friends discuss the topic of hips, the thought is a mature one and not a mocking one, especially when the statement of “what I’m saying is who here is ready? You got to be ready to know what to do with hips when you get them” (50).

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

Sally is gorgeous, She wears lots of make-up and short skirts. Boys gossip about her. Her father won't let her out of the house because of her beauty Esperanza wants to be her best friend. She wishes she didn't have to go home after school. Esperanza is two years younger then Minerva. She has two children and is married. Her husband left her only to return later and then leave again.When the kids are asleep she writes poetry. Esperanza and Minerva share poems they wrote. It bothers Esperanza that after her husband comes back and beats her she still takes him back.

This upsets Esperanza that they would exploit her like that, and so she runs off to tell the boys mother. “Your son and his friends stole Sally’s keys and now they won’t give them back unless she kisses them and right now they’re making her kiss them (Cisneros, 97). Esperanza can not believe that the mother would not help her friend Sally. When Esperanza goes back to try and save sally for herself, they all laugh in her face and tell her to go away. “They all looked at me as if I was the one that was crazy and made me feel ashamed (Cisneros, 98).”

The first time Esperanza makes an appearance in the book, she is younger and easily manipulated, especially by her friends. Esperanza meets a girl named Cathy, a snobby girl that lived on Mango Street. When Cathy tells Esperanza “Okay, I’ll be your friend. But only until next Tuesday. That’s when we move away.” Then as if she forgot I had just moved in, she says the neighborhood is getting bad” (13) This was a racist statement towards Esperanza and her family, something she doesn’t quite understand yet because Esperanza thinks Cathy forgot they moved in, yet she was actually being racist. This is the first time Esperanza is exposed to racism in the book, therefore exposing her to the outside world. Later in the book, Esperanza meets Sally, a beautiful girl with shiny black hair, that all she seemingly just wants is to love, and Esperanza wants to be just like her. “I like your black coat and the shoes you wear, where did you get them? I want to buy shoes just like yours.” (82) Sally and Esperanza become friends, but later in the story, in the chapter Red Clowns, Esperanza is put in a dangerous situation where Sally walks off

“I don’t know why we picked her. Maybe we were bored that day. Maybe we got tired. We liked my aunt. She listened to our stories. She always asked to come back.” The girls regret making the decision to use Aunt Lupe in their game because she died after that. They start to wonder if they are cursed due to Esperanza’s

As a final point, Esperanza’s siblings also played an important role in her stages of growing up. The author uses this sentence to express that, "And then I don't know why, but I have to turn around and pretend I don't care about the box so Nenny won't see how stupid I am." (Pg. 20). This shows how Esperanza wants to be a role model for her younger sister Nenny, and this helps Esperanza become a strong independent woman as she grows up. If she never had a younger sister, Esperanza would have never learned how to become a role model for her siblings and even so other people. Without Esperanza's family and their important roles in her life, she wouldn't have become the person she grew up to be.

A poignant figure in Esperanza’s life is her own grandmother. In fact, Esperanza was given her birth name after her grandmother. A touching gesture that came from good faith. A name may have some value, but for Esperanza there was a high intrinsic quality to such a simple component. Despite, never encountering her own grandmother in person, Esperanza was grateful to have fond memories by carrying her legacy through her name. Life’s motto concerns dealing with adversity and carrying the legacy of one’s family eternally. Being confident and smart was the only way to live by. No man was needed to help raise and nurture herself. Her grandmother instilled in Esperanza a sense of fortitude and independence. It is sad that a regret of Esperanza is linked to her grandmother, further illustrating the physical and mental hardships one can endure in

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.

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

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, portrays the life of a teenage girl named Esperanza living on Mango Street. Though Esperanza lives in a diverse city, pre-existing stereotypes are affecting how others(women?) are perceived and treated. Esperanza starts to see how to change her community and the negative view of herself by taking the wrong actions of other women and connecting them to her own life experiences.

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