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”
Esperanza’s Achievement of Cultural Identity and Autonomy In the coming of age story of Sandra Cisnero’s novel The House on Mango Street, the author uses simple but profound language to express the young girl and main character, Esperanza’s, goal is to become an autonomous individual who controls her own choices. She is driven by her observations of the many trapped and powerless people of Mango Street. This desire is physically represented by her dream of a new house in a different place—at first it is a house for her family, but at the story’s end, it is a house she owns alone, where she can write. It not only symbolizes her dream of agency of trying to change her name to something that shows the “real” her.
Although there are a variety of characters throughout literature that have made sacrifices that expose their values, none of them come close in comparison to the sacrifices of Esperanza in Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street. The consistent sacrifices displayed through Esperanza’s self-image, innocence, and cynicism express the struggles and desire for feminine individuality and respect that begin for many in childhood and dissolve into adulthood. Not only does Esperanza display these sacrifices constantly throughout the novel, the author’s use of her character as a beacon of catharsis to the reader symbolically represents the majority of women. Much like other women, Esperanza constantly tries to find herself throughout her own sacrifices,
She has a beautiful voice and many talents that could have allowed her to break the cycle of poverty. She chose to let shame take control of her, in hence, she lost her identity along the way. In turn, this only increased her level of shame. All these things considered, the theme shame and identity is linked to the title” The House on Mango Street” because her Mama never escaped the cycle of poverty and is still experiencing the results of her shame. Esperanza knows that through her writings that she can find her identity and break the family cycle of
In the House on Mango Street, Esperanza is seeking for an identity of her own. In her current neighborhood, she struggles with economic, cultural, and gender based barriers to personal growth, and she believes that changing her surroundings is her solution; however, she realizes that to discover her identity, her ultimate destination is a home in the heart. The house on Mango Street was one that was the opposite of what Esperanza had dreamt her entire life. The house is, “…small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you 'd think they were holding their breath... bricks...crumbling in places, and the front door...so swollen you have to push hard to get in". (Cisneros 5)
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.
The vignette “The House on Mango Street” helps the reader obtain a better understanding of Esperanza’s house because it describes the broken down and small house she and her family lives in. In addition, the vignette “Gill’s Furniture Store Bought and Sold,” compares to Esperanza’s sometimes dark and confusing life. Lastly, the vignette “Those Who Don’t” gives the reader a better understanding of Esperanza’s life and how strangers judge the people around her. Esperanza’s street is intimidating and scary to strangers and passersby who do not know them. The houses are small and falling apart in places.
In the series of vignettes The House on Mango Street, the author Sandra Cisneros details the life of main character Esperanza, a young girl living in a barrio of Chicago. As Esperanza tells the reader about her experiences in her day to day life, the reader hears about her struggles and dreams, her hopes and expectations in life and how these affect her. Being a young girl, Esperanza holds naivety and hope for the world, not having experienced many mature situations or society yet, and since she is going through the time in her life when she begins experiencing these issues, we see her heartbreak and the world she knew shatter. For example, when Esperanza and her family move to Mango Street, as our story kicks off, her parents would often talk about the life that they would get when they win the lottery, like having “A real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn't have to move each year. And our house would have running water and pipes that worked.
In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza’s shame and despair dragging her down, contrasted with her vivid dreams of escaping her economic class providing purpose and hope demonstrate the dual contradictory effects of poverty on an individual. While she does express ambition for her aspirations, Esperanza’s economic troubles cause her to feel despondent and isolated, demonstrated by her disappointment with her material possessions. Her despair is first introduced in the vignette “The House on Mango Street” where a passing nun views Esperanza’s run-down house. The nun responds to her house with disbelief and disgust, prompting Esperanza’s embarrassment: “The way she said it made me feel like nothing.
Many people are undermined by the drawbacks of belonging to a low socioeconomic status. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is raised in a poor, Latino community, causing her to be introduced to poverty at an early age. This introduction of poverty affects Esperanza in many ways, one including that she is unable to find success. Esperanza struggles to achieve success in life because the cycle of poverty restricts her in a position in which she cannot break free from her socioeconomic status.
Everyone is affected by life’s circumstances. The responses to those experiences can have a positive or negative outcome in one’s future. In Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, the protagonist, Esperanza, gives us her views on life, how she views herself, and she views her future. Not only does she give her perspective throughout the story, she tells us of the numerous experiences that she grows through. These experiences have an impact on her, creating new emotions and new adult like perspectives she has never faced before.
The House on Mango Street is set in a poor, primarily Hispanic neighborhood. Author Sandra Cisneros creates an atypical, yet easily digestible world for the reader to experience while learning about Esperanza’s childhood. The culture of her environment influences Esperanza’s development as she becomes a young woman, and contributes to the book’s driving theme of self-empowerment. Mango Street is the source of Esperanza’s growth through her childhood, and it hides sadness and longing underneath stereotypes of Hispanic people. The characters that live in the broken-down neighborhood all seem to represent pigeonholed views of Latino individuals.
In Sandra Cisneros novel “The House on Mango Street,” the themes of self-discovery and identity are woven into the narrative, primarily guiding the protagonist, Esperanza, in her journey of personal growth and cultural understanding. Through Esperanzas experiences living in mango street, Cisneros explores how complex forming an identity and finding a sense of belonging within the context of cultural heritage and female adolescence. As Esperanza navigates the challenges of growing up in a society marked by social and economic inequality, she confronts expectations put on her as a Latina woman. Her Journey of Self Discovery reveals the influences that shape her identity, the conflicts she faces, and the profound significance of her cultural and
Believe it or not, people are not entirely unique. It is certain that no one is truly the same as another person, but it would not be ridiculous to think that everyone does in fact share many similarities. After all, the majority of the population grows and develops opinions or values based on what they see or hear. For Esperanza, the protagonist of Sandra Cisneros’s, The House on Mango Street, the perspective she has is built upon her childhood on Mango Street. This coming-of-age novel illustrates how Esperanza’s experiences on Mango Street play an important role during her period of growth.
Assisting in her journey of self discovery, the neighborhood residents allow her to experience different stories and understand the diversity in the world. Sandra Cisneros details this situation in her novel The House on Mango Street. Cisneros shows Esperanza’s coming of
