House On Mango Street

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Quick Summary : Wow, hard task to make a cute summary one such a book. The House on Mango Street is a book that depicts the life of a twelve year old Mexican- American Girl named Esperanza that has recently moved to Mango Street. The book explains that Mango Street is located in Chicago in a Latino based neighborhood that is on the poor side and mostly racially segregated. Throughout the time frame of a year, the book explains how Esperanza must mature rapidly to survive in her new neighborhood. This includes emotional and physical maturity between her family, younger boys, Younger girls, and sadly, older men in the neighborhood. Through the hard times of fighting through poverty, puberty, and sexual assault. Esperanza comes to the conclusion …show more content…

One of the things that stuck out to me greatly is the theme of sexuality. Within the story Esperanza has begins to mature in a sexual way which in modern day society is considered in appropriate for her age of 12. She begins to obtain sexual thoughts of other men. The powerful aspect of this is revealed later on in the story when she pieces together that sexual relations and staying in the neighborhood go hand in hand. Most of the women married are mostly forced to stay in the neighborhood which she does not want at all. But knowing this, she does not allow it to heavily sway her desires to the other boys. Further tying into this theme, you have the symbol of shoes. In the story, shoes becoming the starting point of a sexual image. But this image is not her initial thought of wearing heels, this image is evoked on her by older men as they take the shoes as a symbol of further maturity and sexual attraction. In a negative impact, once Esperanza wears the heels and obtains such attention, she does not want to go back to her childish little girl shoes. This further pushes the rate of maturity in a sexual way. New Vocabulary

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    The House on Mango Street is a novel by Sandra Cisneros. It is set in a poor, Latino neighborhood around 1960. The main character, Esperanza, is expected to get married in order to support herself. However, Esperanza strives for independence, and seeks to end the cycle of abusive patriarchy that holds Mango Street in thrall. Through the use of syntax and figurative language, Cisneros establishes that a sense of not belonging can fuel an individual’s desire for a better future.

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    Esperanza sees all of the women around her, and most of them are the same. The overall idea of the women on Mango Street is they are property to their husbands. They cannot do anything unless their husbands allow them to. It also starts out at a young age. The young girls like Esperanza see the women that live around them and think that is the way to live. They admire them so they start to mature faster than they should. Sally is one of them. Sally loves the attention that she gets from boys, but her father does not like that. Sally grew up and got married at a young age.

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