Shame In The House On Mango Street

What is shame? When you experience shame, do you let it ruin you? Do you grow from it? These choices discussed in The House on Mango Street. The author of The House on Mango Street is Sandra Cisneros. This novel was published by Arte Publico Press in 1984. The House On Mango Street fits into the genre prose, the sub genre fiction, and the category realistic fiction; its literary style is lyrical prose because it is like a poem. The literary conflict in the novel is Man versus Society because Esperanza, the protagonist, wants to escape and grow beyond her community. She is a young girl who lives in a bad neighborhood in the 1980’s; she has to decide whether or not to fall apart from her shame like all of the other girls in her neighborhood or

to let herself grow from it like only one girl named Alicia. Themes are main ideas that drive the plot of a work of literature. In The House on Mango Street, Hoping versus Waiting, Marriage versus Education, Race, Poverty, and Gender as Anchors, and The Shame Cycle are all major themes. Though there are four major themes in the novel, the theme which most indicates the plot of Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street is The Shame Cycle.
In the exposition, there are many different examples where Esperanza is ashamed but chooses to grow from it rather than let it ruin her. For example, Esperanza has been ashamed of her previous apartments, and she moved because they weren’t getting the proper respect because their houses were run-down.

She says, “The water pipes broke and the landlord wouldn’t fix them because the house was to old” (p. 4). But the shame of living in these poor conditions inspires her to dream of, “A real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn’t have to move every year” (P. 4). Esperanza also feels ashamed when the nun is shocked by where she lives asking, “you live there?” (P. 5). Being harshly judged by the nun makes Esperanza plan to have, “A real house, one I could point to” (P. 5). In the chapter “Boys and Girls,” Esperanza is ashamed by Nenny because she’s immature and doesn’t understand anything. The text says, “Nenny is too young to be my friend” (P. 6). Due to the fact that she’s ashamed of Nenny, she turns to her dreams, thinking up, “a best friend all my own” (P. 9). Even Esperanza’s own name makes her feel ashamed. She says, “In English my name means ‘hope.’ In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means ‘waiting’.” (P. 10). When she learns it means waiting in Spanish, she decided to grow from it and focuses on the fact that in English it means ‘hope.’

In the longest part of the plot, the rising action, Esperanza and the other people in the community are ashamed, but only Alicia and Esperanza decide to grow from the shame and not

let it ruin them. Esperanza, having faced other shameful experiences, now faces the outside world and its dangerous situations, which often make her feel ashamed. A forced kiss by an old Oriental man makes Esperanza stronger because she decides not to let it ruin her. In the text, she states, “Then he asked if I knew what day it was, and when I didn’t, he said it was his birthday and would I please give him a birthday kiss. I thought I would because he was so old and just as I was about to put my lips on his cheek, he grabs my face with his hand and kisses me hard on the mouth and doesn’t let me go” (P. 55). After this shameful experience, the reader starts wondering if Esperanza will be a good girl and stay on the education path, using the shame to her advantage by letting it make her stronger, or if she will let it ruin her and try to find an escape through marriage. Alicia is a strong girl but is easily ashamed when her father abuses her. Alicia doesn’t let this shame that her father has put on her ruin her; instead she goes to a university, something no one in the neighborhood has done before; “Alicia who is afraid of nothing except four- legged fur. And fathers” (P. 32). Even though Alicia is ashamed by what her father does to her, she doesn’t let it ruin her. Rafaela, another girl in the community, has chosen to marry young, not knowing that marrying young will make her ashamed because she will never have freedom. All she can go is sit by the window as she gets older and life goes by, wishing that she could be like Rapunzel, who escapes using her hair. Being in this situation makes her ashamed like all of the rest of the women in the neighborhood who chose this path. Rafaela, unlike Alicia, lets her shame ruin her by not trying to fight and grow from her experiences. In the text, Esperanza describes her, “Rafaela who is still young but is getting old from leaning out of the window so much, gets locked indoors,” (P. 79). Lois is also like every other girl in the community, trying to escape by using marraige. Lois is ashamed that she can’t escape on her own, without a man, bu she can not because she never had any parental guidence and love. The reader gets this message when Esperanza says, “She doesn’t know how to tie her shoes” (P. 73). This statement shows that even though Lois might have, “Big girl hands, and her bones are long like ladies bones” (P. 73), she still can’t provide for herself, which makes her ashamed. In the end, like most of the other girls, she lets this lack of support for herself ruin her by not trying to make it different.
During the climax, Esperanza realizes that every female around her is caught in the shame cycle, including herself. Esperanza’s own mother is ashamed about how she lived her life. Her mother experienced shame at one time and chose to let it ruin her, which she worries has set a bad example for Esperanza. However, she uses her story to teach Esperanza the right way to go in life. Her mother says, “Shame is a bad thing, you know. It keeps you down” (P. 93). Like all of the other women, Esperanza’s mom let the shame ruin her. Even the men in Esperanza’s community are stuck in the shame cycle, like Sally’s father. Sally’s father is ashamed of his sisters, himself, and his daughter, Sally. The reader knows this because the text clearly states, that when he beat his daughter, “He broke into his own hands”(P. 93). Sandra Cisneros uses this line to show us that while he was ashamed that his daughter broke his rules, he was even more ashamed that he hadn’t raised her well enough to know she had love at home and didn’t need to seek male attention elsewhere. The worst part is that he lets this shame ruin him by breaking down and beating her rather than showing her love and fixing his mistakes. Esperanza is ashamed by Sally’s actions (kissing some boys), but she reacts by trying to save Sally. When she does, the boys and Sally look at her like she is loca (crazy). This experience is very important because Esperanza grows from this shame enormously. The quote that helps prove this is, “I looked at my feet in their white socks and ugly round shoes. They seemed far away” (P. 98). She has been forced to grow up and begins to dream of being “beautiful and cruel”. But in order to become this way she must first experience the ultimate shame. She does when she is raped at a carnival fair where she has gone so that Sally could meet some boys and seek love. She describes her rape saying, “He said I love you, I love you, Spanish girl” (p. 102). Unlike Sally, Esperanza instantly knows that this love is a lie because she has known real love from her parents. That love gives her the courage and strength to overcome The Shame Cycle. At this moment, she officially decides to grow from all of the shame she has had and not to let it ruin her.
Ergo, though there are four major themes in this novel, the theme which most dictates the plot of Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street is The Shame Cycle.

This novel is about the shame cycle and whether Esperanza will chose to grow from it or to let it ruin her. Esperanza didn’t know this, but she had to go through the most shaming experience possible in order to be forced to make a choice about how to use that shame. Other major themes of the novel include Hoping versus Waiting, Finding Freedom through Marriage or Education, and the Anchors of Race, Poverty, and Gender. Cisneros ties these themes together using the theme of The Shame Cycle, making it the most important. Esperanza hopes for a better life and chooses not to let her anchors stop her. To earn a better life, Esperanza decides to find freedom through education. She decides not to get married young as an escape. She decides to keep hoping and dreaming by not letting shame ruin her.The resolution and escape from the shame cycle helps Esperanza chose education,the rel path to freedom. Additionally, the plot of the novel only comes to a resolution when Esperanza finally overcomes her shame and escapes the

cycle.