The House On Mango Street Identity Analysis

“The increasing tendency towards seeing people in terms of one dominant ‘identity’... is not only an imposition of an external and arbitrary priority, but also the denial of an important liberty of a person” - Amartya Sen. The United States of America is well versed in diversity. We are a country founded on the very belief that being multicultural is not a thing to be looked down upon, but instead a thing to be celebrated. Despite this, many try to force people into a role of one identity, as if someone cannot be a mix of both but must fit a cookie cutter shape of one culture. The novel The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, is a prime example of being trapped in ideas of who you are supposed to be based off of society’s view of you.

Those outside Esperanza’s community aren't the only ones holding her back. In the vignette, The Three Sisters, Esperanza sees death for the first time. Three old ladies, who seemed to have read Esperanza's thoughts, beckon her over to them. After brief small talk they say, "When you leave you must remember to come back for the others. A circle, understand? 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...Then I didn't know what to say. It was as if she could read my mind, as if she knew what I had wished for, and I felt ashamed for having made such a wish” (105). Esperanza wants to leave Mango Street and cut every tie she has to it as she does. She wants a new life, a real home, a best friend, and a place to truly belong. However, because of pressure from family, friends, and even three strangers, Esperanza feels shame for even thinking about her desires. Her culture values family and loyalty above all else; Esperanza will never completely leave Mango Street because of the shame imposed to her by her culture, despite the fact that it is the same thing that makes her want to leave. Without her culture, Esperanza could fulfill her desires without a sense of guilt, and without the negativity

Esperanza attends a private catholic school and at some point gets the idea in her mind that she wants to eat lunch in the canteen with all the other kids instead of going home to eat. Despite the fact that many of her schoolmates go home to eat, Esperanza obsession to sit in the lunchroom and just belong will not be alleviated. Esperanza shows her need to fit in by thinking, “The special kids, the ones who wear keys around their necks, get to eat in the canteen. The canteen! Even the name sounds important...I got it in my head one day to ask my mother to make me a sandwhich and write a note to the principal so I could eat in the canteen too” (43). Esperanza’s desire and drive to belong to a culture that is not her own is palpable in the canteen scene. Belonging and eating lunch with other kids at school is an age old idea nearly everyone can relate to. The constant struggle with Esperanza and her own culture is Cisneros way of connecting to the readers through a universal theme. When readers can relate to a piece of work at a higher level, the entirety of it takes on a new and personal meaning to everyone who reads it. The House on Mango Street does just that which successively illuminates Sandra