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Identity Crisis: The House On Mango Street

494 Words2 Pages

Joey Feniello
Hingano
English Term 4
May 19 2016

Identity Crisis
The House on Mango Street is based around one girl and her struggle to fit together the pieces of her identity together to find herself. This is apparent throughout the entire novel. Important things that contribute to her identity are Latin American Traditions, Esperanza's neighborhood, family relationships and dynamics, friendships, and encounters with others. Esperanza is Mexican-American. Her family practices Latin-American traditions. These traditions are a large part of Esperanza and her family's identity. Her dad provides for the family and works while her mom's jobs are taking care of the children, the marriage, and taking care of the house.
Esperanza's neighborhood …show more content…

One part is Esperanza being mildly shy. Her shyness is especially apparent when she is around people who she doesn't know well. This is probably because of the intimidation she feels that these people pose to her. For example, in the chapters "The First Job" and "A Rice Sandwich" Esperanza is too shy to eat with her other co-workers and friends, as shown in the quote from "The First Job": "When lunch time came I was scared to eat alone in the company lunchroom". Another prominent part of Esperanza's personality is the trust she has in others. This is one of Esperanza's weaknesses as an individual because it allows her to be gullible and vulnerable. In 'Cathy Queen of Cats' Esperanza's gullibility is obvious when Cathy tells Esperanza that "...[her] father will have to fly to France one day and find her...cousin...and inherit the family house. How do I know this is so? She told me so.". Another error in trusting others is that Esperanza is susceptible to betrayal. In 'Red Clowns' Esperanza is betrayed by Sally because Sally told Esperanza that the circus would be a fun experience, but instead she was raped. Esperanza blames Sally, the magazines, and the movies for lying to her about the circus. Esperanza is a very idealistic person. She assumes everything is pretty and fun, but when she finds out the acrimonious reality of life she becomes disappointed and

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“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.

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