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Theme Analysis: The House On Mango Street

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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

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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“Only a house as quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as a paper before the poem” (Cisneros 108). What this quote shows is that Esperanza has now accepted her home. She now knows that home is a feeling. She wants something where she can feel good about herself. This is important because Esperanza must forget her past and focus on the future.

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