Character Analysis: The House On Mango Street

Everyone has grown up in an environment that has shaped who they are as a person. Poverty-stricken areas shape a person's identity and how they value certain things in life. Sandra Cisneros's character Esperanza is shaped through her struggles with poverty and identity. The novella tells a story how hardships and penury have affected Esperanza as a person and how she yearns for the need of liberation from her poor life on Mango Street. Cisneros's novella The House on Mango Street has taught me that identity is shaped through a person's environment.

Cisneros's theme of environment shaping identity is prominent throughout the text. In multiple vignettes, you see how the poverty and how Esperanza sees the confining and troubling community that she lives. Cisneros's writes," They put handcuffs on him and put him the backseat of the cop car, and we all waved as they drove away"(page 25). The indigence the people face on Mango Street really affects their actions and how they perceive things. Therefore, Louie's cousin arrest can be attributed to his poverty and not being able to afford a car. Cisneros's recurring theme of how environment affects identity is also found in people's lives. Similarly, I found that environment shapes identity because being born in one country and immigrating has really affected me as a person. I have traditions and values that you might not find in the United States,

such as a Sunday Roast and Remembrance Day. Growing up as an immigrant can be troublesome and have awkward effects on how a person may see and experience the world. I can see semblance between my life and Esperanza’s life. We both see the community we live in as different, in my case from what I am used to experiencing. She faces struggles and issues as does any other teen growing up. She faces betrayals of sorts with her friend Sally and some other women in her community. One example Cisneros writes is,”Sally, you lied. It wasn’t what you said at all. What he did. Where he touched me. I didn’t want it, Sally”(page 99) In that passage, Esperanza feels deceived by Sally. She trusted Sally, but ultimately Sally’s and Esperanza’s perspective differ. Sally is pressured into marrying early by their cultural beliefs, and as such partakes in what is considered scandalous behavior in the eyes of Esperanza. Esperanza feels like she doesn’t what go down that road which would lead to pain and suffering. In our eyes, the community shows warnings that could lead to what Esperanza could become in the future. These warnings provide Esperanza with the want to leave the neighborhood and pursue something better than what she is used to. Another prime of example of the warnings she faces is the women who are tethered the their unhappy and overall dull marriages like a prisoner with a life sentence. Ultimately, we see that Esperanza needs to get out of what could be a potentially prison-like marriage to a random man who will treat her poorly.
By reading and experiencing The House on Mango Street, I have truly seen that identity is shaped through a person’s environment.

The issues Esperanza faces have shaped who she is as a person. She has seen what she is and what she is not. She believes she is not going to be trapped by the cultural expectations that the community imposes. The personal change she goes through is quite apparent as you see her transition from an innocent girl to a driven woman. Mango Street has shaped Esperanza for the good. From that, identity is not forced upon a person, but shaped by

environment.