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Imagery In The House On Mango Street

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Recommended: The house on mango street literary elements

Caitlin Liddle
March 22, 2017
English, period 6 HOMS essay
As young men and women mature, barriers will appear in their everyday lives. Discovering how to move around these obstacles is challenging. In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, various characters realize the struggle of breaking free from a trapped existence to move forward into independence. Using a variety of literary devices, Cisneros brings her readers on an adventure, showing them these hard encounters through motif and imagery.
Cisneros uses the motif of numerous colors to illustrate Esperanza’s emotions towards being perplexed in a non-positive place. For example, Cisneros uses the color yellow to portray negative situations. Lucy, Rachel, and Esperanza wear high …show more content…

Darius is someone who most don’t take seriously, but when he begins to speak about the sky, everyone listens. In the vignette Darius & the Clouds, “… today [Darius], pointed up because the world was full of clouds…” (33). Darius is staring up at the clouds because he wants to be free, and doesn’t know how to be. Darius is wondering what he could become, but doesn’t know how to achieve it. This also occurs in a vignette about Aunt Lupe. When Aunt Lupe passed away, “maybe the sky didn’t look […]. Maybe God was busy” (59). The motif of the sky is being mentioned as something that is safe, or represented as being free and on one’s own. Esperanza’s aunt was struggling in the way that she couldn’t be free that day, she couldn’t be self-sustaining. Although motif was a great way to demonstrate the theme, the use of imagery was also a great choice in literary …show more content…

Esperanza attempt multiple times to mature much faster than necessary making her feel as though she is stuck. Relying on the literary devices of motif and imagery, Sandra Cisneros, in her novella, The House on Mango Street, shows her audience Esperanza’s struggle to escape into independence. Cisneros encourages her readers to move past the hardships of growing up, despite the barriers in life.

Not only is Cisneros’ use of motif showing Esperanza, and her friends, in a tough situation, but also how she is now becoming confused about and growing

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She is a Puerto Rican girl that wants “someone to change her life” and spends her days babysitting at her house (27). Esperanza gets the idea of marrying a rich man to get out of Mango Street. Marin also tells her about boys “is for the boys to see us and for us to see them” (27). These two ideas Marin shared with Esperanza shows how she can leave Mango Street and live a better life. To conclude, Sally, Mom, and Marin are the three most influential characters in the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros for opening abusive relationships, staying in school for the better, and leaving poverty by marrying a rich man to the main character

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. . scuffed and round, and the heels all crooked that look dumb with this dress” (47). Esperanza is so ashamed of the shoes that she doesn’t want to dance. This incident with her shoes connects with her feelings about so many other things in her life like the house she wants. Her parents told her one day they would move “into a house, a real house that would be ours for always . . .

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House on Mango Street analysis essay: Hopes and Dreams In the House on Mango Street, a novel by Sandra Cisneros, she suggests the notion that hopes and dreams can be obtained even when people are at the bottom of the totem pole as seen in Esperanza’s desire to live in a better place and find friends. One way that Sandra Cisneros suggests this theme is when Esperanza feels ashamed of her current house and knows “she has to have a real house. One she can point to and feel proud of (Cisneros 5) Another example is when Esperanza and the nun are talking and the nun asks where Esperanza lives and she is forced to “point to the the third floor, with the paint peeling”

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Many girls desire a female role model from a young age. The way these women are treated, and deal with this treatment can heavily impact the way young girls view themselves, and their future as well. Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street brings attention to issues of sexism and gender roles. This is done through a series of vignettes about the main character Esperanza navigating life by the example of her many role models. Each role model impacts Esperanza in a special way, Sally who is married at 13, Marin who is waiting to be rescued by a man, and Alicia who is balancing school and home responsibilities.

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