The House On Mango Street Analysis

Every female wants to be accepted, so they listen to the men and do what they say even if they do not feel like doing it, they do. Esperanza claims she does not want to be that. She proves that she can grow up differently than the people that surround where she calls home. When someone tells people to be a certain way they usually listen, but Esperanza finds something deep inside herself to be different, “Alicia points to the house I am ashamed of.” (Cisneros, pg.106)

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Esperanza is able to look at her great grandmother and realize what she does not want to become, but also she realizes what she does want: to become a strong, independent woman.

The Novel, The House on Mango Street, was based on the writer Sandra Cisneros. She was writing this when she was living in Chicago. She was like Esperanza. She want though poverty. She has been heartbroken and deeply joyous. She inventing for herself who and what she will become. This is the life of Esperanza Cordero and based on Sandra Cisneros to all women out there.

“Born Bad” is the vignette I chose to address from The House on Mango Street. I didn’t find it to be significant at first because of the style of writing the author uses. I’ve not read any books using little vignettes as chapters. This style of writing makes me feel like I am reading about situations that seem random and disconnected. Esperanza was born on the evil day, what does this really have to do with her being a woman and not fitting in on Mango Street? Lucy, Rachel, and Esperanza made fun of Aunt Lupe the day she died, a sad event but what does that have do with her being a foreigner on Mango Street?

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.

People from all over the world change, change in either mentality, thoughts, maturity, physically, mentally, appearance, feelings and etc. What causes the transformation of that person is important, but how much did it affect them is also crucial. In Sandra Cisneros novel, entitled The House on Mango Street,the story depicts a Latina girl who transform throughout her time being on Mango Street. The girl named Esperanza is to faced obstacles of female oppression that she witnesses in the life of women on her street who they depends on men to bring them out of the street. In The House on Mango Street, Cisneros uses characterization to express the

Esperanza Facing Challenges “Don’t be afraid to start over”. Being forced to leave your home, and make a new life for yourself and your family. Esperanza young Hispanic girl who was born a princess, than all of a sudden she’s facing challenges that she never thought she would have to deal with. Since her Papa’s death, Esperanza had to face many challenges as an immigrant. Such as learning how to do chores, dealing with Mama becoming sick with Valley Fever, than Esperanza and other Mexicans having to face discrimination in the U.S.

Change is an inevitable process that derives from experience, time, and growth. In Sandra Cisneros’ novella, Esperanza is a growing female who conflicts with poverty, sexuality, and identity. The main character begins by conveying that she is a person that lacks self definition and wishes to be liberated from her community. However, as time progresses, she transforms into a woman who decides to become selfless and give back to her community. The author reveals that the loss of innocence due to one's experience is the main cause for maturing.

"My Name" gives the reader a good idea of the macho stereotypes that dominate Esperanza's life. She tells how she was taught that the year of the horse, the year she was born on, is unlucky for females. Although Esperanza understands the Mexican ideal of an obedient woman, she completely rejects the lifestyle. "She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horse which is supposed to be bad luck if you're born female but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong." The strong tone Esperanza writes in shows her admiration of her great grandmother's free spirit as a "horse woman," which is much like her own. The metaphor shows how like the independent, free animal, some are doomed to be captured, trained, and ruled by men. Like a horse, Esperanza's great grandmother was "caught" when "my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off." Esperanza is amaze at the legitimacy of male domination when she says ."..just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier." Here, Esperanza learns to understand that her society refers to women as objects and their worth is determined by their appearance and function.