The most difficult part of chasing dreams is perhaps the strength to leave things behind. In The House of Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros introduces Esperanza, an ambitious character who lived in a sad red house on Mango Street. As she lived in this non-luxurious quarter of the world, Esperanza discovered the secrets of life in a destitute town. Desiring more than existence in a closed town, she escaped to a portal where she revealed her thoughts, emotions, and dreams through the stories and poems she wrote regarding anything and everything. This gave her hope and vision, a vision of her own life without Mango Street, without the bleak circumstances surrounding her. At the end of the book, Esperanza ambitiously declared that Mango Street will …show more content…
not have her forever, for she is too strong. Esperanza’s nature of strength, the author revealed, is determination because throughout her life with her family’s living arrangement, friends, and family, Esperanza saw the limbo state of residents in Mango Street. Therefore she created a world—a world of writing coated with resolve to make dreams come true. Esperanza wrote stories of her family as they transferred from one place to another, then finally resulting in the House of Mango Street.
When Esperanza’s family lived on the third floor of a building that looked terribly unlivable prior to the house on Mango Street, a nun asked Esperanza if that’s where she lived while pointing at the building. Esperanza felt worthless as she confirmed the answer. Therefore she wrote, “I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it. The house on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go.” Through this quote, Esperanza revealed her determination to have her own house of which she will not be ashamed to show, but there is also a hint of detachment. Esperanza described the house on Mango Street as, “It’s small and red with tight steps in front and the windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath. Bricks crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in…And the house has only one washroom. Everybody has to share a bedroom…” Giving the house humane physical features, Esperanza painted her dislike for this house clearly in the appearance and comfort aspects. Hence, she detached herself emotionally from this structure because in her world, her house will be beautiful. It will be her retreat and her space, where it will be filled with her belongings along with tranquility. “One day I’ll own …show more content…
my own house, but I won’t forget who I am and where I came from,” said Esperanza because she is determined to bring this dream to life. Through the lives of which Esperanza narrated about, Esperanza learned the faults of many characters on Mango Street as she watched them waste away waiting for miracles to change their lives, which increased her resolve to leave this place and be independent. Marin, one of Esperanza’s friends, was from Puerto Rico, but she was staying with her aunt in this little town of Chicago. As Esperanza reported, Marin intended to get married with her Puerto Rican boyfriend, but it didn’t go as planned. Therefore, Marin, dressed in enticing dresses as cigarettes hung from her mouth, “under the streetlight, dancing by herself, is singing the same song somewhere. I know. Is waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life.” Esperanza’s poet friend, Minerva, writes poem with Esperanza. Esperanza described Minerva as, “She is always sad like a house on fire—always something wrong,” because of her troubled marriage. In Esperanza’s eyes, Minerva’s story with her husband went round and round. Whenever, Minerva is in a state of disarray over her husband, Esperanza felt sorry for Minerva because Minerva was stuck and she can’t seem to break free from this rut. Another friend, Sally suffered under her abusive father. Due to their religion, Sally was strictly monitored, however that did not stop Sally from dreaming. Then one day, Sally’s father abused Sally as he lost all feelings of restraint. Seeing her friends like this, Esperanza felt sadness for them, but she also remained detached because she could not help these people. She knew her goal and she had determination, however, her friends lack in this area because they are dependent on someone else to change their own circumstances and they are also attached to this way of life. Esperanza saw that and it hardened her desire to break away from this town of chains. In her own family, Esperanza felt the need to fly away even though she loved them with all of heart.
One day, Esperanza watched her father cry because his mother died. She stood there and held her father as her father cried because she did not know what else to do. As the eldest she had to carry the burden to spread the news, then she thought of her own father’s death with so much sadness. Her mother, on the other hand, confided in Esperanza saying, “I could’ve been somebody, you know? Esperanza, you go to school. Study hard… Shame is a bad thing, you know. It keeps you down. You want to know why I quit school? Because I didn’t have nice clothes. No clothes, but I had brains.” Then, her aunt Lupe, who was once beautiful, was blind and paralyzed. Esperanza occasionally, brought books to read to her aunt and during one of those visits, Aunt Lupe made a suggestion to Esperanza because Esperanza had read to her one of Esperanza’s originals. “That’s nice. That’s very good, she said in her tired voice. You just remember to keep writing, Esperanza. You must keep writing. It will keep you free.” Through her father’s breakdown to her mother’s regretful confession, Esperanza felt weighed down and miserably trapped among the emotions of everyone. She needed to be set free, therefore, her aunt told her the secret that set her free. Esperanza wrote, “Someday I will have a best friend all my own. One I can tell my secrets to. One who will understand my jokes without my having to explain
them. Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor,” to declare her dream of having someone to carry her burdens with her rather than her carrying everyone else’s burdens. She felt like she was trapped with a heavy anchor holding on to her. Esperanza, the girl from the red house on Mango Street, revealed her dreams through stories and poems of her life. From friends to family in this Hispanic part of Chicago, Esperanza felt the need to break away from this town because the sadness and dreary lives overwhelmed her and she was determined to fly away from these circumstances. Throughout these narrations of other characters’ lives, Esperanza saw the stationary circular rounds of life in this town and she strived for more. Her strength originated from determination, will allow her to break free of Mango Street for she is stronger that than the chains of this town. In Esperanza’s world, she has a house of her own of which she is not ashamed, a friend to carry her burdens rather than vice versa, and an atmosphere of tranquility rather than depression and bleakness.
(Cisneros, pg 43)”. The structural repetition of there gives the indication that both Esperanza and the nun view the flat as an alien place in opposition to the rest of society, causing Esperanza to yearn for different surroundings. A few years later, as a preteen, Esperanza is confronted by three visitors in her home. One of the visitors mysteriously states that Esperanza “will always be Mango Street,” although Esperanza feels ashamed “for having made such a selfish wish” about leaving Mango street. By stating that Esperanza is “Mango Street,” the visitor highlights that Esperanza is part of the community on Mango Street; however, as an outcast, Esperanza aspires to leave for a better place(as evidenced by the wish). Towards the end of the book, Esperanza reflects on her development as a mature writer. When
The House on Mango Street, a fictional book written by Sandra Cisneros is a book filled with many hidden messages. The book revolves around a young girl named Esperanza who feels out of place with the life she has. She sees that the things around her don’t really add up. The story is told from Esperanza’s perspective and the events she goes through to find herself. Through the strategy of fragmenting sentences, Cisneros establishes that the sense of not belonging, creates a person’s individuality that makes them who they are.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is about a girl who struggles finding her true self. Esperanza sees the typical figures like Sally and Rafaela. There is also her neighbor Marin shows the “true” identity for women on Mango Street. She also sees her mother is and is not like that at the same time. The main struggle that Esperanza has is with beauty. This explains why most of the negative people that Esperanza meets on Mango Street, and her gender, helped her see the mold she needed to fill in order to give herself an identity.
Throughout the course of Mango Street, Esperanza’s relationship towards her house change. As time passes her feelings about the house itself change and the emotional impact of the house of her changes as well. Esperanza’s house on Mango Street symbolizes her Mexican culture. For so long she has wanted to leave it. She envisions a different type of life than what she is used to - moving from house to house. “this house is going to be different / my life is going to be different”. One can look at all the things she envisions - the "trappings of the good life" such as the running water, the garden etc. as symbols for the new life.
As the chapter opens, the first impression of Sire is one of a James Dean type of character. Sire and his friends are just sitting on their bikes, pitching pennies, or in other words, gambling. Esperanza tells us that she is scared of them, which makes me wonder why she would be afraid of them? She then says how her dad calls him a “punk.”
In the poor slums of Chicago, a family living in poverty struggles to get by. In the book, House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza is a twelve year old girl who lives with her family in the Windy City. She lives with her three siblings and both parents on Mango Street. Esperanza has no control over her life and family’s poverty. People who have no control over their life desperately seek change. Esperanza seeks to change her name, her home, and her destiny as a way to control her life.
In “The House on Mango Street”, by Sandra Cisneros, a little girl named Esperanza struggles with loneliness and low self esteem. Esperanza just moved to Mango Street. She was expecting a nice house and a nice neighborhood. “They told us that one day we would move into a house, a real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn’t have to move each year.” (Pg. 4) Esperanza was not happy when she saw the house. The bricks were crumbling in places and the door was swollen. Esperanza then knew she would be judged based by the looks of her house. Esperanza met a nun in her neighborhood, and she asked Esperanza where she lived. When Esperanza showed where she lived the nun said “You live there?”(Pg. 5) That comment made Esperanza feel bad about
In the short story “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, make Esperanza the main character. Esperanza expresses herself in traditional words, her own feelings about life. The image of the The House on Mango Street is located in a poor neighborhood, where this young girl and her family present emotions becoming into a hope of a better life. These feelings led Esperanza convert the idea to own a beautiful house into an obsession. The image of Esperanza and her House becomes a symbol of different ideas such as shame, fantasy, independence, confidence and hope.
Throughout The House on Mango Street Esperanza learns to resist the gender norms that are deeply imbedded in her community. The majority of the other female characters in the novel have internalized the male viewpoint and they believe that it is their husbands or fathers responsibility to care for them and make any crucial decisions for them. However, despite the influence of other female characters that are “immasculated”, according to Judith Fetterley, Esperanza’s experiences lead her to become a “resisting reader” in Fettereley’s terminology because she does not want to become like the women that she observes, stuck under a man’s authority. She desires to leave Mango Street and have a “home of her own” so that she will never be forced to depend on a man (Cisneros 108). During the course of the novel Esperanza eventually realizes that it is also her duty to go back to Mango Street “For the ones that cannot out”, or the women who do not challenge the norms (110). Esperanza eventually turns to her writing as a way to escape from her situation without having to marry a man that she would be forced to rely on like some of her friends do.
“Someday, I will have a best friend all my own. One I can tell my secrets to. One who will understand my jokes without me having to explain them” (9). These are the longing words spoken by Esperanza. In the novel The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is young girl experiencing adolescence not only longing for a place to fit in but also wanting to be beautiful. This becomes complicated as Esperanza becomes more sexually aware. Throughout the novel, Cisneros argues the importance of beauty and how Esperanza deals with beauty as a part of her identity. When Esperanza meets Sally a new friend, Esperanza’s whole world is turned upside down. Esperanza’s views on beauty change from a positive outlook to a negative one by watching how beauty has damaged Sally’s life.
The House on Mango Street is the tale about a young girl named Esperanza who is maturing throughout the text. In it Esperanza documents the events and people who make up Mango Street. It is through this community that Esperanza’s ideas and concepts of the relationships between men and women are shaped. She provides detailed accounts about the oppression of women at not only the hands of men who make up Mango Street but also how the community contributes to this oppression. As the young girls and women of Mango Street try to navigate the world they must deal with a patriarchal society that seeks to keep them confined. By growing up in this environment where women are confined Esperanza seeks desperately to depart from Mango Street for fear
Although Esperanza is constantly reaffirming that she wants to move away from Mango Street, we know by the end novel that she will one day return to help those who will not have the opportunities Esperanza has had in her life. Indeed, in the closing pages Esperanza admits that she cannot escape Mango Street. She can never again call it home, but it has influenced her dreams, formed her personality, and she has learned valuable life lessons from its inhabitants. That is why, explains Esperanza, she tells stories about the house on Mango Street, revealing the beauty amidst dirty streets and unveiling her true inner self, the peace of knowing that her “home is where her heart is.”
Esperanza, a strong- willed girl who dreams big despite her surroundings and restrictions, is the main character in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Esperanza represents the females of her poor and impoverished neighborhood who wish to change and better themselves. She desires both sexuality and autonomy of marriage, hoping to break the typical life cycle of woman in her family and neighborhood. Throughout the novel, she goes through many different changes in search of identity and maturity, seeking self-reliance and interdependence, through insecure ideas such as owning her own house, instead of seeking comfort and in one’s self. Esperanza matures as she begins to see the difference. She evolves from an insecure girl to a mature young lady through her difficult life experiences and the people she comes across. It is through personal encounters and experiences that Esperanza begins to become sexually aware and acceptance her place and self-definition in her community.
In class we read the book House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the main character Esperanza lives in a lower working class neighborhood and street called Mango Street dealing with poverty. Her house is an important symbol in House on Mango Street. It represents Eperanza’s process of maturing as a person and the change in her perspective of poverty and struggle being shameful, to it being something to embrace and use as motivation. This is a very important part of the story because it is in many aspects where we are from that make us who we become. This is interesting to see in the book as her opinions and perspective of things inside and outside of her neighborhood are shaped by her experiences.
The House on Mango Street is a novel composed of connected vignettes. The novel is told through the eyes of Esperanza, the main heroine. Throughout the novel Esperanza expresses her desire to leave Mango Street for a better, wealthier, and happier life. Esperanza makes many references to her feelings about her family's poverty; in multiple vignettes Esperanza expresses her sadness,resentfulness, and disappointment of her poverty