Living in today’s world can be a struggle, not everyone easily fits in. Part of being someone in today’s society is knowing who made people who they are and understanding where they come from. Esperanza, the main character in the book The House On Mango Street faces problems understanding who she is. Esperanza faces problems with accepting her identity of who she is and where she comes from. Once Esperanza started to mature and understand life she realized many things about herself. In the vignette Hairs Esperanza reveals aspects of her identity of what makes her who she is. Esperanza stated “Everybody in our family has different hair.” Esperanza understands that she is different and having different hair is part of her identity. Living in Chicago on Mango street is a struggle for everyone. Maturing quickly is definitely a aspect of living without a lot of money. Many …show more content…
Esperanza begins to learn and dislike parts of her being. On page 10 in the vignette My Name Esperanza mentioned “In English it means hope. In Spanish it means to many letters.” therefore she knows what her name means. Esperanza then explains that her name was passed down from her great grandmother. The name Esperanza plays a role in her identity, hope. The three sisters in the vignette The Three Sisters believe that Esperanza will move on in her life to do great things. The three sisters also have hope that she will come back for the people on Mango Street. Being that her name means hope plays a key role in her identity. Even Though Esperanza understands what her name means she does not like it. At the end of My Name she feels that her name doesn't fit her, “I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me” she states implying that her name misleads her identity. Esperanza’s tone to how she thinks about her name is misleading to her
The setting of the novel is a poor latino neighborhood in the suburbs of Chicago during the 1980s. All of Esperanza’s vignettes take place in a time- span of about one year. Esperanza reflects back onto memories of some of her older, previous houses but for the most part, the majority of her vignettes are written memories from her house on Mango Street. Esperanza narrates her own stories, struggles, and observations as she grows up trying to find her place in the world.
Mitchell Curtis English 9 / Period 6 Mr.Boyat 17 October 2016 Three Influential Characters in The House on Mango Street 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.
Esperanza says that she will come back, she will come back for “the ones I left behind... the ones who cannot out”. (Cisneros 110). Esperanza is able to go through a change and accept who she is through her community and her family. She is able to use her situation to empower herself, and to be hopeful in her own
What is the definition of "coming of age". According to the Oxford dictionary, "coming of age refers to the process of growing up or entering into adulthood". Now the other hand, Why does it happen? and finally, how does it affect ones health or mindset? These questions will all be answered from a specific perspective of a character and the main protagonist, in the book, "House On Mango Street".
“In the meantime they’ll just have to move a little farther north from Mango Street, a little farther away every time people like us keep moving in (Cisneros 13).” This quote is a significant part of the story because it shows how Esperanza truly feels about herself and her family. She thinks that because she is poor and lives and a bad neighborhood people move away from her family. Esperanza doesn’t think very much of her or her family at all. She thinks that it is because of their race that people do not want to be near them.
“All discomfort comes from suppressing your identity”(Bryant H. McGill). We can not decide upon our own identity; It comes from our hopes, dreams, memories, culture and experiences. We can not suppress or change who we are or where we came from and must except ourselves. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros introduces the main character Esperanza, who is initially ashamed and tries to repress parts of her identity. One of the main themes in The House on Mango Street is E. acknowledging her name and mango street as part of her self identity.
Many people are undermined by the drawbacks of belonging to a low socioeconomic status. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is raised in a poor, Latino community, causing her to be introduced to poverty at an early age. This introduction of poverty affects Esperanza in many ways, one including that she is unable to find success. Esperanza struggles to achieve success in life because the cycle of poverty restricts her in a position in which she cannot break free from her socioeconomic status.
Still Esperanza does not get what is going on at this point. She is still so naïve and innocent. Sometimes the reader forgets how young she actually is because of the things she is going through at such a young age. Her mind and her decisions are moving at a faster pace, but she is still so blind to the world.
Obstacles 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.
Esperanza expresses how her mother’s hair is like rosettes when she puts her hair up. She describes her hair beautiful and pretty after she puts her hair up in little circles which make her hair look curly. And every time Esperanza hugs her mother, she can smell the warmth of bread before it is baked, to Esperanza is smells like home and she feels safe. Her family may seem the same because they all look the same but in reality each hair holds a story with different
Esperanza had no friend when she moved to her dad’s new home. She cannot be a friend with boys because that is prohibited in her culture. She also cannot be a friend with her sister because of the big different in the age. Friends in the American culture is something necessary because they will be you other family. Esperanza tried so badly to find to herself a second family in another words new friends.
Everyone is affected by life’s circumstances. The responses to those experiences can have a positive or negative outcome in one’s future. In Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, the protagonist, Esperanza, gives us her views on life, how she views herself, and she views her future. Not only does she give her perspective throughout the story, she tells us of the numerous experiences that she grows through. These experiences have an impact on her, creating new emotions and new adult like perspectives she has never faced before.
Esperanza shifts from a follower into a confused individual, allowing her to begin her life as a woman outside of the oppressive nature of Mango Street. The suffocating stereotypes and sad, gloomy traits of the culture surrounding Esperanza contribute to the cultivation of her strong will and ardor. Mango Street opens her eyes to the abusive nature of her environment, and aids her in breaking the chain of corruption by defining and terminating the situation for herself. The neighborhood itself allows Esperanza to
Esperanza’s interest is writing poem, appears in many of the chapters where it explains a way of bonding with her community by sharing poems with one another. Because Esperanza has become a writer her observations strengthen throughout the novel. One example of how she matures through writing is in the beginning of the book she told stories that were obviously meant for a younger audiences but through the middle of the book she started to use more observation based upon what she saw which helped develop the story more for the reader. This change shows that she is becoming an artist, and also that she is starting to distance herself from her community, since she focuses more on capturing experiences than living through them, she starts to further her self from interaction and focuses more on observation of the people around her. By the end of The House on Mango Street, she knows that she underwent a huge transformation and her relationship with mango st is starting to weaken.
Interestingly, she seems to lose this confidence when speaking to adults outside of her immediate family. Perhaps this points to some traumatic incident with a stranger? But I digress. Esperanza pesters her mother for three days, asking for a note to eat in the canteen. She tells her mother “You will see me less, and like me more.”