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Realities In The House On Mango Street

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The House on Mango Street: Facing Realities

In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, many characters struggle with facing the realities of their lives and economical situations. Two prominent examples of this struggle are houses and trapped women.

One girl, named Esperanza, is raped while she is visiting the carnival with her friend Sally. Esperanza said, "Sally, you lied. It wasn’t what you said at all...All the storybooks and movies, why did you lie to me?"(99) This quote shows how Esperanza's expectations of sex, that she gained from movies and books, was very different from the reality of its pain. Esperanza's friend also struggles with accepting the reality of her new married life. Esperanza said, "Sally got married just like we knew she would...She …show more content…

She said, "I want a house on the hill...People who live on hills sleep so close to the stars they forget those of us who live too much on earth." (86) This quote shows how desperately Esperanza wants to live in a large house. The reality of her situation is that her family is very poor and may never be able to afford a house that large. Esperanza and her family live in the house on Mango Street. Esperanza said, "The house on Mango Street is ours, and we don’t have to pay rent to anybody." (3) This quote shows that Esperanza and her family are proud to own a house of their own, but the reality of her situation is that she is still very poor and the house is not expensive to own. Towards the end of the book, Esperanza says, "Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a man's house. Not a daddy's. A house all my own." (108) This quote shows how desperately Esperanza wants to own a nice house that is all hers. The reality of her situation is that unless she finds a well paying job, she will never own an expensive and beautiful house.

The House on Mango Street includes many characters who struggle with accepting the realities of the hardships in their

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They are always talking about assortments of houses they want to live in one day and they always seem much better than the house her family is living in now on Mango Street. One of the examples that esperanza says about one of the houses she likes is ”Our house would be white with trees around it, a great big yard and growing without a fence” (4). They constantly move around and to places that aren't nice places. It is an ongoing theme in the book that esperanza talks about always wanting to move from the places she lives. There are many houses that they think is a better fit for them, but they just don’t have the money to afford the house.

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Esperanza and her family are always moving because they do not have much money, but they finally moved into a house on Mango Street where they “Don’t have to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with the people downstairs, or be careful not to make too much noise” (703). Although it sounded like a nice place, when a nun from her school saw where Esperanza lived, she said, “You live there?” (703). That made Esperanza feel like nothing and made her realize she needs a real house, one that is really nice. Esperanza wants to change her life and make the best of what she has.

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The House on Mango Street Message Not many of us can say that we have lived up to the expectations given to us and internally benefited from it. In the book The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza struggles with growing up with many expectations placed on her. She lives in a Latino neighborhood in Chicago with many neighbors who teach her important lessons. Overall, the story has a message that you should not rely on expectations and the author shows it by using the characterization of Esperanza and through figurative language.

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You live there? She responded. You live there? The way she said it, made me feel like nothing". This quote reinforces the fact of how apprehensive and shameful Esperanza is during the beginning of the story, where one can clearly see the state of insecurity of Esperanza.

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She however is very reactive to this situation, she doesn’t tell anybody what happened, she steals late passes, hides in an abandoned janitor closet, and eventually ditches school. That example shows how irresponsible she is. House On Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, is about a young girl who moves into a new house with her family in Chicago Illinois in the early 1980’s. Esperanza is not a very happy person, especially after the year she had at the house on Mango Street.

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“No, this isn’t my house I say and shake my head as if shaking could undo the year I’ve lived here (Cisneros 106).” This quote shows Esperanza’s unwillingness of accepting her poor neighbourhood because of the violence and inequality that has happened in it. In the House on Mango Street, the author, Sandra Cisneros, shows that there is a direct link between inequality, violence and poverty. The House on Mango Street shows women are held back by the inequalities that they face. Cisneros shows that racism prevents individuals from receiving job opportunities which leads to poverty and violence.

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