Esperanza's Identity In The House On Mango Street

I chose the first quote about Esperanza name because it shows the importance of language. I believe that language is the number one symbol of cultures and it is an expression of who we are as individuals. In this passage, Esperanza struggles to find her identity through the history of her name. We learned that Esperanza had inherited the name of her grandmother, but does not want to inherit her grandmother place of being locked into a house through marriage, and spending the rest of her life looking out the window in sadness. Esperanza says her name mean hope in English, which has a positive connotation, but then, chooses negative words such as sadness, too many letters, and a muddy color to associate with the meaning of her name in Spanish.

The meaning of Esperanza name in both English and Spanish is symbolic of her life. Esperanza is very sad about current life circumstances but is very hopeful for a positive change and a new beginning. Later on in the passage we also learned that Esperanza would like to change her name to a name that is easy to pronounce, a name that does not express her family heritage, a name that she can identify with. Her desire to change her name shows both an understanding of the power of language and a desire for her to form her own identity.

Moving forward, I chose the second quote because Mango Street because of its importance to the story. Esperanza is ashamed of the house on Mango street and tries to dissociate herself for it but she can't because it is a part of her identify. In the passage Esperanza complains to Alicia about not having a home and wishes to be more like Alicia, but Alicia reminds Esperanza that she does have a home, and that Manga Street is her home, whether she accepts it or not. Esperanza feels like she does not belong and does not want to be associate with Mango Street but the truth of the matter is no matter how far she goes, she can never truly escape Mango Street. She can never undo the year she has lived on Mango street because it is a part of who she is. Esperanza does not want to belong to Mango street because she doesn't want to end up like the women that live there. These women are all properties of their husbands, they are prisoner in their household, uneducated, and, they are voiceless and powerless. Like Alicia, Esperanza on has a dream of her own, she wants to be a writer, she wants to break out of the norms of Mango Street to fulfil her dreams, with the hop to someday return and make the neighborhood a better place for the people who cannot afford to to leave. In both quote one and 2, Esperanza struggle with self identification. Her name is part of who she is an individual and so is the house on mango street. They are both a part of her life, she is mango street.

I Chose the third quote from the supplemented reading because it ties in with The house on Mango Street.

In this quote the author states that that culture forms our beliefs which is absolutely true and that culture is made by man in power. In both stories we learned that the main characters are from similar cultural background and shares the same beliefs. However, the narrators in both stories are trying to break out of these cultural barriers because it only favors men and dehumanized women. In both stories, we see that women are voiceless, and powerless, they have no life of their own, they are slaves in their own homes. Women are subservient to men, the are ostracized by their family and society for wanting to be something other than a housewives. According to the supplemental reading, women are made to feel total failure if they don’t marry and have children. In House on Mango Street, we learned that Esperanza mother was a smart woman, but she had to give up her dreams to become a housewife because that was her role in life as a woman.These women suffers mental, physical, and emotional abuse daily but they couldn’t do anything to stop this from happening because the men had all the power, they were in charge of implementing all the rules and laws. The narrators in both stories feels like they don’t want to belong, they desires a life of the own, a life that puts them in the position of men, a life that elevate them, and goes against the social norms of their

culture.