Esperanza's Identity In The House On Mango Street

“I want to be like the waves on the sea, like the clouds in the wind, but I 'm me. One day I 'll jump out of my skin. I 'll shake the sky like a hundred violins.” (Cisnero 73)
This is what Esperanza was determined to express during her journey of finding a place where she can be herself. In the House on Mango Street, Esperanza is seeking for an identity of her own. In her current neighborhood, she struggles with economic, cultural, and gender based barriers to personal growth, and she believes that changing her surroundings is her solution; however, she realizes that to discover her identity, her ultimate destination is a home in the heart. The house on Mango Street was one that was the opposite of what Esperanza had dreamt her entire life. The house is, “…small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you 'd think they were holding their breath... bricks...crumbling in places, and the front door...so swollen you have to push hard to get in". (Cisneros 5) For Esperanza, her house isn’t just a house – it’s a reflection of her identity. Deep in her heart Esperanza longs for a house. A house

Esperanza also realizes that she must be strong and fight her way up, and make her own identity, like the trees she notices, that grew despite the concrete. Esperanza believes that if she can move her roots, then she’ll be able to flourish and grow to be herself. But her problem is that she needs to move away from Mango Street to plant her roots. In the chapter “Four Skinny Trees”, Esperanza says, “Their strength is their secret. They send ferocious roots beneath the ground. They grow up and they grow down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger. This is how they keep.” (Cisneros 93) Esperanza deduces that she must follow their example, and make her way into the world, and for that, she’ll have to move away to, hopefully she wishes, her dream house – her soil for embedding her