Childhood Innocence and Lessons in 'The House on Mango Street'

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While reading the book The House On Mango Street, the author Sandra Cisneros shows a lot of different aspects of how life is during childhood. I found it very functional on why Cisneros did that. She wanted to show us the different life styles parent’s have on raising their children. Reading The House On Mango Street teaches you a great amount of things. Cisneros showed the innocence of childhood, but she also showed the sinful ways of childhood. Cisneros showed how the children were naive in the chapter “Louie, His Cousin & His Other Cousin” when Louie’s cousin steals a car and has the kids take a little drive with him. “They put handcuffs on him and put him the backseat of the cop car, and we all waved as they drove away” (Cisneros 25). That’s the beauty of childhood. It hides all the bad in the world. A child never thinks for a second if there is bad people in the world. As a kid, there comes the innocence, then it’s the foolish mistakes we make, but fail to learn from. There comes a great deal of foolishness during our young ages. It’s what makes childhood interesting. Our childhood is what we are made of. It’s what defines us. The House On Mango Street opens your eyes to how childhood really is. Cisneros has a very unique way of opening up our eyes. She’s secretive about it. While reading, you do not even know that you’re understanding. You just keep reading because the book is that good. You wanna know what happens to Esperanza and Nenny. You need to know if Esperanza ever goes back to Mango Street or not. In the beginning of the book, Esperanza hates living in the house on Mango Street. We see it on page five. “The house on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go” (Cisneros 5). Throughout the book, we see how Esperanza feels about living in that house. She’s always felt like she’s

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