Coming Of Age In The House On Mango Street

It only takes one burning tree to devastate an entire forest. This is especially true in the summer because, during this season, moisture in the wood is driven out to create the perfect breeding ground for flames. Similarly, when you do something, you affect several people around you, whether you know it or not. However, one sign of maturity and coming of age is recognizing this fact, because it shows a connection between reality and the outside world. Although I thought that this idea was not really linked to coming of age, my opinion changed when I read “The House on Mango Street”. At the beginning of the story, Esperanza, the main character lives her life only looking at things from her own perspective. This is most prominently seen when Esperanza shows her house to one of the nuns from her school.

You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing” (Cisneros 5). Although Esperanza’s dislike towards her current living conditions is justified, she fails to take in consideration the hardships that her parents went through to live even in this house, which shuts her out from the outside world. Similarly, when I was younger, I was embarrassed to talk about my small house to my friends, who often lived in much bigger houses, and I did not like to talk to many people because of this feeling. However, both Esperanza and I changed opinions later on in life. Towards the end of the story, Esperanza contemplates her future outside of Mango Street. She says, ”Friends and neighbors will say, What happened to that Esperanza? Where did she go with all those books and paper? Why did she march so far away? They will not know I have gone away to come