Theme Of Identity In The House On Mango Street

Someone’s outward appearance never fully shows their true self. Sandra Cisneros uses the novella, The House on Mango Street, to show that people need to be accepting of themselves. Esperanza does not see the good things in herself. She tries really hard, but can not find them. She later learns that she is perfect just the way she is. Esperanza’s negative view on herself slowly changes as she begins to focus on her larger community and her place within it. Through this, Cisneros shows that knowing and accepting where one comes from is an important part of growing up and determining one’s identity.

All the people on Mango Street were struggling to get by, but they seemed satisfied with just making it. Esperanza was not. There were characters like Esperanza’s mother who was a “smart cookie,” and could’ve been anything, but she let shame get the best of her and dropped out of school. There was also Rafaela who got married before the 8th grade just so she could move into her own house, but her husband never let her leave the house afterward. He never let her see her friends, and the highlight of her week was getting coconut or papaya juice from someone who would send it up in a paper bag attached to a clothespin since she couldn’t leave the house. Lastly, there was the time when she was left stranded by the tilt-a- whirl waiting for a friend that never came back and got molested by a group of boys. The only witnesses were the red clown statues that seemed to be laughing at her. Nevertheless, she let none of this stopped her from going forward and perusing her dream. She still seemed to be struggling with a sense of belonging, but maybe that’s because she didn’t.

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.

At first, we examine Responsibility which is shown in both books such as “Bloodline” and “The House on Mango Street” in such a way all the problems revolve around it, that is to say the sense of responsibility is present in all the situations that the characters live in and it constitutes one of the most important challenge to overcome in the life as presented by the Sandra Cisneros and Gaines. Responsibility is also addressed as a way of facing the duties or sometime as an inevitable fate which some characters understand early they cannot do anything but adapt it to overcome and achieve their obligation. However according to this situation of responsibility it will be necessary to analyze some aspects about the responsibility attitude as presented

“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

The House on Mango Street uses three vignettes to state that innocence shelters children from the extreme truth of the adult world. To begin, in “The First Job”, an older man unexpectedly forces himself on Esperanza: “I thought I would because he was so old and just as I was about to put my lips on his cheek, he grabs my face with both hands and kisses me hard on the mouth and doesn’t let go” (Cisneros 55). Esperanza’s innocence allowed her to kiss an old man on the cheek for his birthday because she could not imagine anything inappropriate occurring. However, the man “grabs [her] face with both hands” and “doesn’t let go”. This violent action shatters the innocence that has hidden Esperanza from the adult truth. Next, Esperanza witnesses how Tito and the boys treat Sally in “The Monkey Garden”: “One of Tito’s friends said you can’t get the keys back unless you kiss us and Sally pretended to be mad at first but she said yes” (Cisneros 96). The adult game played angers Esperanza as the boys use Sally to their advantage and Sally “[pretends] to be mad” but still willingly complies. Esperanza, unlike Sally, sees the situation as wrong because of her innocence, but when she attempts to save Sally, the boys laugh at her. Embarrassed, Esperanza is exposed to an adult type of game and now feels confused from this break in her innocence. Finally, Esperanza completely loses her innocence after being sexually assaulted at the carnival: “You’re a liar. They all lied. All the books and

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

The most important Theme in The House on Mango Street is identity. Identity is a very

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.

When a character is exposed to an incident in which his or her perspective is forever changed, he or she will gain knowledge and maturity. An event such as being raped is an example of how one can lose his or her innocence. The House on Mango Street leads the reader into analyzing his or her own life. It shows how Esperanza’s pure view of life has changed to become a more sophisticated and realistic one. Growing up is something that everyone, at one point or another, goes through. This loss of innocence is something that is unavoidable and irreversible. When people lose their innocence, they gain maturity and gain knowledge. When a person losing the pureness in them, they open their eyes and they are able to see the world for what it really

She points out to readers that the place she will live in one day will be “Not an apartment in the back. Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s. A house all my own” (108). In this Esperanza is making connections again to the women who she is surrounded by on Mango Street. As she is maturing she has come to the realization that these women are in an oppressive situation and belong to men because they do not own anything on their own. The women who make up Mango Street are at the mercy of their significant others who are able to control them this way. Since the beginning of the text Esperanza has been obsessed with finding a place that is her own. She does not see Mango Street as being her home but through the community who makes up Mango Street she is being transformed. In this piece she conveys her desire to own her own home and by pointing out to the readers that it will not be a man’s house or a dad’s house she is demonstrating how the environment of Mango Street is influencing her. By seeing the women on her street being confined Esperanza has decided that she will own her home, something that cannot be taken away from her and cannot be turned against her to hold her imprisoned within its

Lastly, the third theme portrayed in the first few chapters is society and class. Expounding the looks of her house, "Out back is a small garage for the car we don't own yet and a small yard that looks smaller between the two buildings on either side" (4). The description of Esperanza's home contains clues about their social class. Obviously, her family lives in poverty by living in a poor quality house in the impoverished Latino section of Chicago. When a nun from Esperanza's school examines her house, she states, "You live there? The way she said it make me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded" (5). She feels immensely judged by the woman who must live in a much higher social class. The way she says the word there tells Esperanza that there is something wrong with her home.

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.

With this in mind the internal conflict is important, because it shows Esperanza’s sensitivity about everything what concerns herself and her being insecure. One of the vignette that tells about is called “ Chanclas.” It recounts about her being non confident, because of her old shoes that she gets every year. For example, the quote says, “ Then Uncle Nacho is pulling and pulling my arm and it does not matter how the new dress Mama bought me is because my feet are ugly.” (Cisneros 46). This quote shows that she cares so much about one detail and even the prettiest dress cannot divert her attention. She does not pay attention to the dress, because she just thinks about her shoes and she assumes everyone will look at her feet. Another quote which supports her insecure, is “ Meanwhile that boy who is my cousin by first communion or something asks me to dance and I can’t. Just stuff my feet under the metal folding chair stamped Precious Blood and pick on a wad of brown gum that’s stuck beneath the seat. I shake my head no. My feet growing bigger and bigger.” (Cisneros 47) According to this quote Esperanza does not want people to notice her imperfection so she stays out of society contact. It is not because she does not want to she explains it as a cannot thing. She does not want to embarrass herself. The quote which stays for her having low self esteem is “Until my uncle who is a liar says, You are the prettiest girl here, will you dance, but I believe him, and yes, we are dancing. And Uncle spins me, and my skinny arms bend the way he taught me, and my mom watches, and my little cousins watch, and the boy who is my cousin by first communion watches, and everyone says, wow, who are those two who dance like in the movies, until I forget that I am wearing only ordinary shoes, brown and white.” (Cisneros 47) There is a clear statement that supports, that she thinks about

Self-identity plays a large and significant role in shaping each of our lives. It is very important because it affects the way you feel about yourself and how you behave in challenging situations. In “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, the main character, Esperanza, is an approximately 12-year-old Mexican-American girl who struggles for self-definition and underscores her every action and encounter as she matures emotionally and sexually. Similarly, in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, the main character, Junior, is a 14-year-old Spokane Indian boy who decides to go to a high school which has mostly white kids in nearby Reardan, Washington in order to have better opportunities in life. Both of these characters struggle to fit in with their surroundings that they almost forget about their self-identity.