Examples Of Coming Of Age In The House On Mango Street

Coming of age is a process where in individual gains the quality of self-actualization.
In The House on Mango Street, the protagonist, Esperanza, develops this quality through overcoming various trials and tribulations.
Esperanza makes critical advancements in the coming-of-age process by overcoming the debilitating impact of her socioeconomic status in order to achieve her hopes and dreams.

To develop self-actualization, one must begin by recognizing the problem.
Throughout the story, Esperanza learns the debilitating effects of her families socioeconomic status through the adversity she is faced with.
Esperanza starts off as a young girl who lives on Mango Street, an impoverished neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. Due to her low position in the status quo, she often feels as though “she is a red balloon tied to an anchor”. (9)

The debilitating impacts of her poverty prompt her to become like a tree “who grew despite concrete.” (75)
She realizes then that despite the constant adversity she faces and her home that “even the raggedy men are ashamed to go into” (45), she learns vicariously through the women in her life that she doesn’t want to “inherit her (grandmother’s) place by the window.” (11)
At this point Esperanza has realized that she must pave her own way out of Mango Street and has finally come to terms with her place in society.

The next stop in becoming self-actualized is to proceed with action to eradicate and overcome said problem through