The House On Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros

The exceptional Sandra Cisneros incorporates many stylistic choices in her book, The House on Mango Street. The vignettes, “The First Job”, “Hips”, and “Red Clowns” really accentuate her theme of Esperanza Cordero’s journey into adulthood. In these vignettes, Cisneros repeatedly illustrates the contrasts between expectation and reality in order to highlight Esperanza’s drive, as well as the complications she must face of growing up.
In the vignette, “The First Job” Esperanza experiences first hand the obstacles she must overcome to attain her goal of growing up. Esperanza’s maturity is put to the test when she has to lie and say she is a year older than she is and act to the part. Having a job all to her own gave her the sense of independence

While waiting by the red clowns for Sally who was off kissing the boys in the garden, the clowns sexually abuse Esperanza and that is when she directs all her negative emotions toward adulthood and the society instead of directing it towards the men who were responsible. This example is shown when Esperanza says, “I waited my whole life. You’re a liar. They all lied. All the books and magazines, everything that told it wrong.” (100) Esperanza blames a great deal of what happened to her on society because it built lies in her head saying that sex is about love and romance. She feels betrayed by Sally as well for not saving her from losing her innocence and childhood which in this case, is her virginity. Esperanza’s voice in this chapter holds a lot of childish innocence. This example is shown when she says, “I couldn’t make them go away. I couldn’t do anything but cry. I don’t remember.” (100) This chapter really emphasizes on the complications Esperanza is forced to face throughout the

As Esperanza, Rachel, and Lucy all jump rope together singing rhymes about hips, they don't exactly know where their future as women holds. Despite that, what the girls do know is that they want hips like the grown ladies have. Although the girls are talking about a rather mature subject, they still manage to mix it with a silly childish song. For example, the rhyme that Rachel begins on page 51, "Skip, skip/snake in your hips./Wiggle around/and break your lip" shows the attachment that the girls still have to their childhood. Nenny on the other hand shows complete resistance to making the transition from childhood to adulthood that her sister is making. It really shows the growing gap between Nenny and Esperanza. While the three other girls are all making up their own creative rhymes, Nenny is singing all old songs not relating to the topic that Esperanza, Rachel, and Lucy are carrying on. Esperanza then claims that Nenny is “too many light-years away.” and “she is in a world we don’t belong to anymore.” (52) Nenny is still mentally in her own world - the world of childhood that Esperanza has started to leave behind. Esperanza also says that Nenny is “going, going,” (52) when actually Esperanza is the one who is moving away. She is moving away because she is leaving her childhood behind her and becoming the more mature women that she