The House On Mango Street Identity Essay

In today’s world there are countless social problems. People are often treated as an inferior or as if they are less important for many different reasons. In The House on Mango Street, the author Sandra Cisneros addresses these problems. Throughout the story Cisneros does a thorough job explaining and showing how these issues affect the public. This novel is written through the eyes of a young girl, Esperanza, growing up in a poor neighborhood where the lifestyles of the lower class are revealed. Cisneros points out that, in today’s society, the expectation of women and their treatment, discrimination based on poverty, and discrimination because of a person’s ethnicity are the major

CM: At first, Esperanza’s mental image of herself changes as she feels more confident with who and how superior she feels while walking in the heels.

In English Esperanza’s name means, “hope” (Cisneros 10), but in Spanish, it means “sadness” (Cisneros 10) and “waiting” (Cisneros 10). The word “hope” (Cisneros 10) adds a positive connotation to her name, but the words “sadness” (Cisneros 10) and “waiting” (Cisneros 10), add a negative connotation to the name. Cisneros character doesn’t like her name because she has inherited it from her great-grandmother who she describes as a “wild horse of a woman” (11), who did not want to get married, but was eventually forced into it. She never forgave her husband and spent her whole life looking out the window. Esperanza states that she does not want to inherit her great-grandmother’s “place by the window” along with her name. She wants to change her name to something that shows her true, secret self. Esperanza says; “I would like to baptize myself under a real name, a name more like the real me.” (Cisneros 11) She decides that a name such as Zeze the X would be

"She sits at become afraid to go outside". The leave home, she would need permission. She evolves from a victim of child abuse to a slave-like wife. Esperanza sees this despair throughout her story.

Thesis statement: Esperanza has a variety of female role models in her life. Many are trapped in abusive relationships, waiting for others to change their lives. Some are actively trying to change things on their own. Through these women and Esperanza’s reactions to them, Cisneros’ shows not only the hardships women face, but also explores their power to overcome them.

With all of the bad things going on around Esperanza, she was very optimistic and made the best of everything she could. For example, in chapter one, Esperanza explain how she and her family had always grown up poor and that they always had dreams of one day owning a big beautiful house like the ones that they saw on television. One with a back yard and a basement. When Esperanza's family was forced to move her parents had purchased the first house that they could afford so they wouldn't have to continue paying rent. The house was nothing like what they had spoke of or dreamt about. But Esperanza states, "I then knew I had to have a house. One I could point to. But this isn't it. The house on Mango Street isn't it. For the time being, Mama said. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go.." Within this paragraph it shows that Esperanza isn't exactly happy about where she is living but she is going to make the best of it and do what she has to do to get out of there and have a house of her own. One that she can point to.

She doesn’t let men rule over her. In this vignette thou, Esperanza doesn’t agree that hips were made to do “womanly” things. As stated in the quote that says “Hips are good for holding a baby when you’re cooking.” Women have hips to hold babies and do other things women are expected to do. For example, women are expected to pick up the plates and clean the table after everyone is done eating. “I am the one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate.” Here Esperanza is making a statement. She isn’t doing things women are expected to do. By defying this “rule”, Esperanza is showing that she is different and she doesn’t believe that men should be the dominant gender role.

In conclusion, we know that Esperanza’s negativity of herself begins to slowly change as she slowly experience what accepting means and how she began to accept where she was from . Throughout this book, Cisnero showed us accepting is an important part of growing in life as well as determining the true you. In the beginning she hated her life always wanted to escape out of Mango Street versus the end she says she is going to come back. From the beginning to the end, Esperanza finally accepted where she was from and how Mango Street has developed who she became

you know. You can't forget who you are” (Cisneros 105). Esperanza has to face the fact that her

“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 sky like a hundred violins” (60). In the story “The House on Mango Street”, the author Sandra Cisneros uses sentences full of imagery, metaphors, and word games, to show how self definition is a result of the people and places surrounding you. This is represented throughout the book when Esperanza wants to change her name, living in a male dominated society, and when she wishes for a new home.

“Beautiful and Cruel” marks the beginning of Esperanza’s “own quiet war” against machismo (Hispanic culture powered by men). She refuses to neither tame herself nor wait for a husband, and this rebellion is reflected in her leaving the “table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate (Cisneros 89).” Cisneros gives Esperanza a self-empowered voice and a desire for personal possessions, thing that she can call her own: Esperanza’s “power is her own (Cisneros 89).” Cisneros discusses two important themes: maintaining one’s own power and challenging the cultural and social expectations one is supposed to fulfill. Esperanza’s mission to create her own identity is manifest by her decision to not “lay (her) neck on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain (Cisneros 88).” Cisneros’ rough language and violent images of self-bondage reveal the contempt with which Esperanza views many of her peers whose only goal is to become a wife. To learn how to guard her power

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

But she is a very lonely person, she can't seem to find someone who fully understands her. She was alone in the monkey garden, she was alone at the fair, she was just alone. After Lucy left the picture, Sally came in. Esperanza basically was in Aw over Sally, wanting to know how Sally did her eye makeup, where Sally got her jacket and nylons from and if they were expensive. In that chapter the reader really sees Esperanza trying to be someone different than herself. Sally eventually became Esperanza's best friend, the one she was waiting for. The Monkey Garden, Sally was waiting outside looking mad because some punk kids “stole” her keys. The boys were there with Sally, and Esperanza felt out of place. She wanted to be with the other kids, it didn’t feel right to be in this group. Somethings went down, and Esperanza was really just out of it. She was back in the Monkey Garden, under a tree wishing it could all just end. She felt alone under the tree, “I looked at my feet in their white socks and ugly round shoes. They seemed far away. They didn’t seem to be my feet anymore. And the garden that had been such a good place to play didn’t seem to be mine either.” Esperanza felt so completely alone in this moment, so alone she wanted her life to end. She felt so out of place in the world. She felt that the garden, her special place, wasn’t even hers anymore. Red Clowns, at the fair Esperanza was

Esperanza is not very fond of her name, due to people saying it oddly, as well as having her own feelings about her name. She states “In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting.” Although what she says about her name in Spanish, is taken from the word Esperar which is Spanish for “to wait or expect.” When in English there is no word, nor a dictionary definition to her name. All things considered, she may not like her name, and want to baptize herself under a new name. She has already given meaning to her name, which to her is hope to all the sadness. Even though Esperanza does not fancy her name, she had

In “My Name” the girl, Esperanza didn't like her name. Even though it was her great grandmother's name she didn't feel it was worth it. She had lots of reasons for her to hate it. One of those reasons was because it meant sadness and waiting.