The House On Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros

Self-realization is a part of growing up. “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros consists of a girl creating journal/letter entries, which are the chapters in the book. As a reader, understanding Esperanza, the main character, comes from understanding how she handles life situations in each story. As a younger Hispanic female, Esperanza grows up in poverty. She slowly realizes who she is as a person. While Esperanza gets older, her writing style changes; it goes from innocent to becoming numb to disturbances she encounters.

In the beginning, Esperanza has a writing style of a younger aged girl. She writes about simple things or things she just doesn’t realize are wrong. A good example of this is in the chapter “Hairs.” In this chapter,

Things begin to take place in Esperanza’s life that suggests she is getting older. In the “The Family of Little Feet” chapter, Esperanza, her younger sister and her friends put on high heels. They decide to walk around in them because they look like older women with them on. They begin to receive sexual comments. A drunken man starts to talk to Rachel, one of the friends. The other friend, Lucy, immediately made them leave. Esperanza was able to realize that the drunken man was not being appropriate. This is a change. Earlier she wasn’t able to realize that people being taken away by cops was a bad situation. Although she still has her innocents, she is realizing what other people’s views are. She begins to understand that the situation she’s in is looked down upon. A good example of this is in the chapter “Those Who Don’t.” Esperanza discusses how other people view her community verse how they really are. “Those who don’t know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we’re dangerous. They think we will attack them with shiny knives. They are stupid people who are lost and go here by mistake,” (28). Esperanza is beginning to realize how people judge people in poverty. People have preconceived ideas about places like where Esperanza lives and the people who live there. In The Theory Toolbox, “culture” chapter

The writing style changes. It used to be about innocent topics, but it changed to writing about her friend being abused. Instead of talking about hair, she talks about herself as “...an ugly daughter. I am the one nobody comes for,” (88). The simple-minded girl went from writing about her family’s shoe sizes to writing about being molested. “It wasn’t what you said at all. What he did. Where he touched me. I didn’t want it, Sally. The way they said it’s supposed to be, all the story books and movies, why did you lie to me?” (99). This quote shows something horrible that Esperanza went through. She didn’t sugar coat it. The rawness of her story is completely different from at the beginning when she waved to the police car as it was taking someone away. As the writing style changes, Esperanza changes. It is a whole bunch of self-realization. Esperanza always knew that the house on Mango Street wasn’t her real home. Towards the end of the story, it goes from Esperanza dealing with living on Mango Street to dreaming that she will make enough out. In the end, she realizes that living on Mango Street does not define who she is. She wants to overcome