In the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the story is developed through the eyes of a young girl Esperanza. She learns about the realities of life in a house that she recently moved into. There are many characters that are written as she learns about her new neighborhood. The three most influential characters in the novel are Sally, her Mother ,and Marin.
Every human being is born with a desire for a unique identity. Whether it is at their jobs, schools, or amongst their friends, people will always search for recognition. The House on Mango Street, a novel beautifully crafted by author Sandra Cisneros, depicts a young Latino girl's prolonged search for an identity. Cisneros uses ethnic and thematic elements to portray the girl's evolution. Through many hardships and life-changing experiences, Esperanza slowly blossoms from an innocent child into a mature young woman.
Numerous people stumble upon obstacles, but only a few can overcome them. Most obstacles are influenced by the values of the society. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Liesel Meminger overcomes her lack of education and her different beliefs on Jewish people. In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet both overcome the obstacle of not being able to be together because of the feud between their families. In “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza overcomes the obstacle of not fitting into her society because of her lack of money. Liesel Meminger, Romeo and Juliet, and Esperanza all overcome many big obstacles influenced by their society.
The narrator, Esperanza is telling the reader, her childhood innocence has disappeared and she knows the hard times her family is going through. And she was constantly put in an environment where she was starting to not believe in her parents or in
Imagine losing everything you had, your house, your dad, and all your possessions all of that at the age of 12. Ghastly isn’t it? Well in the story, Esperanza Rising by: Pam Munoz Ryan, Esperanza had to go through all that and shift to America during the Great Depression, and even if you don’t know what that is, you probably know by the looks of it that it is not the most marvelous thing. And you would be right, it’s not. When Esperanza goes to work in America to earn money, there are strikes going on about how people don’t get paid enough for working. Esperanza takes the job because she needs the money to help her mom who is sick and in the hospital and to earn money, so that her grandma can come to America. Esperanza is a brave 12 year-old
The House on Mango Street is a touching and timeless tale told in short vignettes. It tells the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago. Her life, and the lives of the people around her, are laid bare to the readers in this touching novella. In the beginning, Esperanza is not accepting of herself. Her family’s poor financial situation, the sadness of the people around her, and the problems she faces in her daily life make her very cynical. However, Esperanza’s negative view of herself slowly changes as she begins to focus on her larger community and her place within it. Through this, Cisneros shows that knowing and accepting where we have come from is an important part of growing up and determining who we are.
Her development starts to reveal itself in the story when she starts saying “A boy held me once so hard, I swear, I felt the grip and weight of his arms but it was a dream” (75). This quotation reflects her process because at the beginning of the story Esperanza sets out despising boys and now she’s dreaming about holding a boy. This makes the reader believe that Esperanza is starting to become a mature young girl. She’s having delusions about boys. Esperanza is gaining confidence and slowly pushing away her poverty and society, she’s trying to find anything so she can be distracted away from her reality and that gives her an incentive to become a mature young lady. Esperanza is slowly growing up and she feels responsible now for herself and even her family. When she stands up for her sister “That’s right, I add before Lucy of Rachel can make fun of her” (50). This is a conspicuous symbol of her sophistication because she stood up for her sister Nenny. She feels responsible, pledged and she doesn’t want her sister to go the same way she went. Cisneros is trying to emphasis for the readers that Esperanza is struggling for self-definition in every way
At one point, a young girl wanted to touch Esperanza's doll ,but Esperanza thought she was dirty so Esperanza didn't let her touch it. Her mother seemed very angry, and at the time Esperanza didn't know why. As the situation progressed Esperanza understood that what she did was wrong. When Esperanza was wealthy she didn't really think about how hard it was for the people who got deported from the camps. So she didn't really care about those people, but as Esperanza had to live the lifestyle of fear for deportation, she felt bad for the people who were deported.
Esperanza is young, but she already sees what she is meant to be in life. The women that surround her are silent, and many of them cannot leave the house. She watches girls have children and marry just to escape their home because that is the only thing they know in life. Esperanza already knows she wants to be more than what is expected of her as a poor, Latina girl, and will fight the expectations placed on her in the subtlest of ways. “I have begun my own quiet war. Simple. Sure. I am one
In “The House on Mango Street” the windows are directly correlated to five different women in the book. For some it shows their nativity or even their dreams. Most of those women are a direct correlation to Esperanza’s growth and development as a person and character. Still, they all have one thing in common. These women including Esperanza are all imprisoned in the novel by different aspects in their lives.
Esperanza, which means hope in Spanish, is the name of the main character in the House on Mango Street. Throughout the first chapter of the story, Esperanza tells the reader about her past experiences in all the houses she and her family has lived in since she was born. Esperanza recalls how each house was different. Alike many children Esperanza’s age, can be very materialistic. Esperanza wants a nice house and these feelings makes her ashamed of her family and where they live. Therefore, Esperanza becomes materialistic, insecure and dreamy about her family’s future.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros tells of a willful young girl named Esperanza who dreams big despite her surroundings and restrictions. Throughout the book, she endures the trials and tribulations of growing up, illuminating her experiences through a variety of different symbols. One recurring theme that Cisneros applies to the story is the loss of innocence. Representations such as a house, high heels, and a garden help in giving insight to how Esperanza’s childhood was taken away from her too young too soon.
The House on Mango Street is set in a poor, primarily Hispanic neighborhood. Author Sandra Cisneros creates an atypical, yet easily digestible world for the reader to experience while learning about Esperanza’s childhood. The culture of her environment influences Esperanza’s development as she becomes a young woman, and contributes to the book’s driving theme of self-empowerment.
Esperanza acquires a sense of who she is as a young woman. These characters aid in her decided stance on gender roles and how she wants to evade them as she starts to build her own life. Through Esperanza’s narration, the darkness that correlates with the roles of women is brought into light. The gender roles found in the book are still issues today. Such ideas ruin much of society because people have yet to question and altar them. However, much like Esperanza, in recent years people have offered their own views to the world in hopes that traditional and considerably out-dated women’s roles will change. These individuals hold a key to a better home for themselves and for others far away from Mango
The House on Mango Street follows Esperanza Cordero 's transitioning through a progression of pieces about her family, neighborhood, and mystery dreams. In spite of the fact that the novel does not take after a customary sequential example, a story develops by Esperanza’s fortifying toward oneself and will overcomebarriers of poverty, sex, and race. The novel starts when the Cordero family moves into another house, the first they have ever claimed, on Mango Street in the Latino segment of Chicago. The red, unstable house frustrates Esperanza. It is not in the least the fantasy house her guardians had constantly discussed, nor is it the house high on a slope that Esperanza promises to one day own.