Sandra Cisneros mentions feet and shoes multiple times in her book, The House on Mango Street, and it’s one of the most important themes. The types of shoes Esperanza wears symbolize maturity, and it has the power to determine how she feels about herself, whether it is positive or negative. Wearing high heels makes Esperanza feel like a princess, wearing plain brown flip-flops can make her feel ugly, and she thinks that if she were to wear black suede shoes, she thinks that she would be tough.
In the vignette “The Family of Little Feet,” shoes, or rather high heels, are worn by Esperanza and her friends Lucy and Rachel, which makes them feel like princesses. Heels often symbolize maturity, and are also attention grabbing, especially when three young girls are wearing them. When Esperanza wears the high
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Because of this, Esperanza feels like she does not deserve to feel pretty. A proof of this is when Esperanza says, “ Everybody is laughing except me, because I’m wearing the new dress, pink and white with stripes, and new under clothes, and new socks and the old saddle shoes I wear to school, brown and white, the kid I get every September because they last long and they do” (47). Esperanza notices how everyone is having a lot of fun at the party, except for herself, because she’s wearing her chanclas. The one thing that hold Esperanza back from feeling pretty and having a good time are her shoes. Her family cannot afford to get Esperanza new shoes for special occasions, so she’s stuck wearing the same shoes she wears to everyday to school to the party. This also symbolizes that no matter how hard Esperanza tries, she’s being held down because of how she’s in the lower class, and how bad she feels about