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The House On Mango Street Coming Of Age Essay

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Coming of age is described as the transition between childhood and adulthood. It is usually determined when a child reaches a certain age and is no longer considered a minor. But was that the case in The House on Mango Street? Through a series of vignettes, Sandra Cisneros links the theme of coming of age. She uses a sense of “otherness”, loss of innocence, and a search for identity to help the reader understand what Esperanza had to do, what she had to go through, to be seen as mature or even considered an adult. Esperanza Cordero did not “come of age” by just growing up; she lived on Mango Street.

To begin with, Cisneros builds the concept of “coming of age” by developing a theme of “otherness”. All her life, Esperanza moved from house to house, street to street. In her journal, Cordero states, “You live there? There. I had to look to where she pointed….You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I live there….I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But …show more content…

Mango Street had ended the search. In the beginning of the novel, Esperanza reveals, “She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow....I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window”(Cisneros 11). At a very young age, Esperanza Corderos has an idea of what she wants and what she doesn't. Towards the end of her journal, Esperanza writes what was told, “You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street. You can’t erase what you know. You can’t forget who you are….It was as if she could read my mind, as if she knew what I had wished for”(Cisneros 105). Esperanza always knew what she wanted, all she needed was something, someone, to help her realize, to help her find her. Esperanza’s experiences on Mango Street have shaped her identity. Mango Street had become a part of who she

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