ipl-logo

Theme Analysis: The House On Mango Street

772 Words4 Pages

Izaiha Espericueta Teacher 7/11/23 English 3 Honors The House on Mango Street Analysis In The House on Mango Street the theme is women must fight against cultural and societal discrimination. It is created by using conflict as not only the main protagonist is affected by it but rather multiple characters who are in different stages of their life. The book itself contains vignettes which in each vignette is a new setting or new type of conflict. This allows the reader to have different opinions on different topics while not just focusing on the main protagonist. The theme itself can represented by the references to teenage struggles, sexual assault, and poverty. Esperanza, the main protagonist, is a Mexican/America girl who tells the reader that she would like a home to call her own as she is not entirely satisfied with the place her family calls home. In the vignette, The House on Mango Street, Esperanza states, “I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it. The house on Mango Street isn’t it” (Cisneros 5). From the quote alone a reader could tell that Esperanza is ashamed of her “house” …show more content…

Additionally, it is not just her family that lacks wealth but her entire community which can be seen in the Vignette “Gil’s Furniture Bought and Sold”. The store owner is against turning on lights because of electricity bills with Esperanza stating,” The store is small with just a dirty window for light. He doesn’t turn the lights on unless you got money to buy things with, so in the dark we look and see all kinds of thing” (Cisneros 19). The author includes these details to depict poverty as a struggle that many people should be grateful for not enduring. The author includes this to show us that everybody is on a societal hierarchy with Esperanza’s community being at the

Show More
Related
229 Words | 1 Pages

In The House on Mango Street written by Sandra Cisneros, the dominant theme for these collection of vignettes is the dreams and beauty expressed throughout the book using poetic devices. For instance, Esperanza grasps onto the dream of having her own house as she remains discontented with the house on Mango Street. On page 5, she stated, “I knew then I had to have a house. A real house.”

Read More
299 Words | 2 Pages

In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros uses imagery to convey themes. In the vignette “Sally” it talks about a new character Sally, especially her social life, in this quote it will provide an insight to sallys life, through imagery:"Sally is the girl with eyes like egypt and nylons the color of smoke"(81). In this quote, it talks about how sally looks, however through close reading we can infer that this conveys a theme of jealousy. By the way that Esperanza describes her, she may be embarrassed when they are compared. This theme of jealousy runs throughout the whole book, it gives us an idea of some of Esperanzas insecurities.

Read More
493 Words | 2 Pages

The House on Mango Street: Facing Realities In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, many characters struggle with facing the realities of their lives and economical situations. Two prominent examples of this struggle are houses and trapped women. One girl, named Esperanza, is raped while she is visiting the carnival with her friend Sally. Esperanza said, "Sally, you lied.

Read More
497 Words | 2 Pages

Esperanza’s house on Mango Street is not the house she dreamed on when she lived on Loomis Street, not the kind of house her parent’s talked about, not the house she wanted. Her house on Mango Street is a small, red house with even smaller stairs leading to the door. The brick are falling out of place and to get inside, one must shove the door, swollen like Esperanza’s feet in later vignettes, open. Once inside, where you are never very far from someone else, there are small hallway stairs that lead to the only one shared bedroom and bathroom. This house is just, “For the time being,”[5] Esperanza claims, for this is nothing like the house she longs for.

Read More
684 Words | 3 Pages

How would you feel when you grew to realize the street you were raised on wasn’t good for your wellbeing and that you needed to get away? Well, ‘The House on Mango Street, written by Sandra Cisneros is a story about Esperanza’s childhood growing up in Chicago and how she develops as she gets older throughout the book. She realizes throughout the book that she didn’t belong on Mango Street. It takes whomever is reading it on an adventure through Esperanza’s point of view on her life. The book shows an overview of her childhood through several small short stories put together.

Read More
1002 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
653 Words | 3 Pages

Esperanza's focus on the description of her house and neighborhood underscores the symbolic power of home. For her, home represents not only a physical structure but also a reflection of her aspirations and desires. She yearns for a house of her own, one that is not defined by societal expectations but embodies her individuality. She states, "Not a man's house. Not a daddy's.

Read More
437 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
429 Words | 2 Pages

This Vignette shows a lot of them society and class because the guy Gil owns this store and he only turns the lights on for certain people. If someone walks by and doesn't look very wealthy he will keep the lights off, but if someone that looks wealthy walks by he will turn the lights on so they will see everything he has and maybe buy something. In the vignette it says “ We bought a used refrigerator from him once.” (Cisneros, 19). This is showing you the type of society she lives

Read More
662 Words | 3 Pages

Esperanza is still in poverty, and she doesn’t like people knowing where she lives. She is ashamed of her house and tries to hide where she lives. Esperanza. In the vignette “Cathy Queen of cats” she is talking to her friends, and Cathy mentioned something about her house. She then tries to change the subject because of how ashamed she is.

Read More
1115 Words | 5 Pages

In the book, The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is portrayed as a young innocent girl that drastically changes over the course of the book. Esperanza is new to mango street and encounters many challenges but also positive experiences that she is able to take away from mango street. In order for Esperanza to transform as a human it was inevitable for her to face the struggles on mango street. As Esperanza matures throughout the novel she experiences three major developments that shape her future through the awakening of maturity, responsibility and her awakening of her interest in poetry.

Read More
1117 Words | 5 Pages

Esperanza is often humiliated not only by where she lives, but also by her physical appearance, hence causing a restriction in her climb to a higher social class. Esperanza is frequently ashamed of her family’s broken-down house in an urban, poor

Read More
1627 Words | 7 Pages

For Esperanza, her house isn’t just a house – it’s a reflection of her identity. Deep in her heart Esperanza longs for a house. A house

Read More
1095 Words | 5 Pages

The House on Mango Street is a touching and timeless tale told in short vignettes. It tells the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago. Her life, and the lives of the people around her, are laid bare to the readers in this touching novella. In the beginning, Esperanza is not accepting of herself. Her family’s poor financial situation, the sadness of the people around her, and the problems she faces in her daily life make her very cynical.

Read More
540 Words | 3 Pages

This ideal heaven that Esperanza's family dream about is what gives them hope to keep going everyday, although it may not be attainable. Since Esperanza does not know this, though, when they get to their new house on Mango Street, she sees it is nothing like that despite the depictions of a house she was told. This contributes to a cynical, jaded attitude that is sad to see someone so young have, as we see when she her parents tell her that this new house is temporary, and she tells the reader: “But I know how those things go” (Cisneros, 5). Here, although the house of dreams help her parents keep surviving, it gives haunts Esperanza as an unobtainable myth.

Read More

More about Theme Analysis: The House On Mango Street

Related Topics

Open Document