Essay On House On Mango Street

House on Mango Street is a novel written by a Mexican-American writer Sandra Cisneros. It is a collection of short stories centered around the coming of age. The novel is centered around Esperanza Cordero life and each story represents an element of her life growing up in Chicago. In one of her short stories “Papa Wakes up Tired in the Dark” she is told the shocking news from her father, one morning “ Your abuelito [grandfather] is dead” (Cisneros 56). Her father begins to cry which is the first time Esperanza has seen her father in a weak state. The father then leaves for Mexico as Esperanza refers to it as “that country” (Cisneros 57) as trying to say the country of sadness. Mr. Cordero goes to Mexico to bury his father. In the meantime Esperanza, as the oldest one in her family has to take charge around the house and take care of her family while he is gone. She's the one that has to break the news to her siblings about their grandfather passing away and explain to them why they must stay quiet and not play today. Soon after, as every morning passes by her father wakes up in the dark filled with sadness in his face. All she does is hold him in her arms.

We also see the shift in gender roles as Esperanza has to support the family while her father is gone to the funeral of his father. We also notice that Esperanza is looking at her surroundings through her father's eyes. This is a representation of coming of age. In seeing her character mature and take on the identity of her father, meaning a parent role, in being the responsible one while he's gone, she begins to imagine what it would be like if her own father died. As a teenager, she is unsure what to exactly do to help her father through these difficult times. All she does is embraces him with a