Esperanza's The House On Mango Street

Improved Essays
In the book, "The House on Mango Street," a young girl named Esperanza dreams of a big and fantastic house, but must live in a crummy, old house on Mango Street. Mango Street is rumored to be very dangerous and terrible, but is really a nice neighborhood. Her neighborhood is not exactly the perfect neighborhood to live in. Men in her neighborhood sometimes abused women and took their freedom away. Esperanza is not the type of girl that gives up her freedom the way some of her friends did. She wants to be in control and live her life the way she wants it to be. As the story continues, Esperanza starts to mature and soon her childhood will come to an end. In the story, Esperanza states at the end of the book, "...but what I remember most is Mango Street, sad red house, the house I belong but did not belong to." This statement means that Esperanza lived in Mango Street but did not want to …show more content…
Sally was a terrible friend even though Esperanza tried to keep Sally safe. Sally is a beautiful girl and is raped by her own father. Esperanza always tries to protect Sally, but Sally is not very appreciative of it. An example, "But when I got there Sally said go home. Those boys said leave us alone. I felt stupid with my brick. They all looked at me as if I was the one that was crazy and made me feel ashamed," (page 97). Sally continues to leave Esperanza to go with boys, but Esperanza recieves a major consequence that reveals the truth about her and Sally's friendship. Esperanza stated, "Sally Sally a hundred times. Why didn't you hear me when I called? Why didn't you tell them to leave me alone? The one who grabbed me by the arm, he wouldn't let me go. He said I love you, Spanish girl, I love you, and pressed his sour mouth to mine," (page 100). After that tragic incident, Sally gets married to a marshmallow salesman and moves to another state that allows marriage before eight

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    Sometimes, individuals arrive at a particular stage in their lives where they get a chance to benefit socially and academically. This is due to assistance from persons who care. Young people especially, are introduced to situations which help their development. On reading Toni Cade Bambara’s, “The Lesson”, it is clear that characters in the story need to be exposed to various aspects of life. Miss Moore makes this possible.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Characters within The House on Mango Street are very caring and appreciate the little things because they do not have a lot of money. They live in an overpopulated neighborhood in which six people live in a small three bed and one bathroom house while sharing everything. Esperanza Cordero experiences living up to many societal standards relating to poverty, abuse, and stereotypes. The author explains that the house that Esperanza Cordero and her family live in "Is small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you would think they were holding their breath.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The House on Mango Street is a novel written by Sandra Cisneros,it details the life of a young girl named Esperanza. Showing a point in Esperanza's life that is both troubling and confusing. She faces struggles with boys,school,and even her own family illuminating that Esperanza doesn't have life quite figured out yet. Mango Street also being a place where most women can't get out, those who do often leave with a man. Furthermore, through the strategy of syntax, Sandra Cisneros establishes that male dominated cultures can lead to women feeling powerless.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Esperanza Stereotypes

    • 180 Words
    • 1 Pages

    “Sally, make him stop. I couldn’t make them go away. I couldn’t do anything but cry” (pg100). Esperanza also tells Sally how it wasn’t like it was in the movies, magazines she had read or even what she has told her. Esperanza thought sex or even anything sexual would be something beautiful, romantic and intimate with the person you love the way the movies, magazines and people make it seem.…

    • 180 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the novel The House on Mango Street, protagonist Esperanza is discontented due to her unfulfilled expectations and her unwillingness to belong, but eventually learns to accept her place in Mango Street. Esperanza’s initial expectations for her new house were raised too high, and dealt a heavy blow to her morale when they went unfulfilled. When Esperanza recalls her parents saying that one day they would have a house with “at least three washrooms” and “a great big yard and grass growing without a fence” but then realizes that the house “is not the way they told it at all” (Cisneros 4). Esperanza's hopes were raised for nothing.…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    House On Mango Street

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Her expectations of how things should be are out of her actuality. This is where the trying to find herself part comes in. Esperanza struggles with self-definition. This is a theme in a coming-of-age novel, and in The House on Mango Street this can be seen as Esperanza struggles to define herself, which leads her to indicate every action she takes and encounter she comes upon. Throuhgout the novel Esperanza goes through physical changes which lead her to proceed in finding herself as the woman she is becoming.…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the vignette “Sally” sally is being emotionally abused by her father due to his strict religious beliefs. Sally’s fathers’ religion doesn’t support the way she dresses or how she wears her makeup. This is shown when Esperanza says “You’ve become a different Sally. You pull your skirt straight, you rub the blue paint off of your eyelids. You don’t laugh, Sally.…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To prove my effort, “‘One day I’ll own my own house, but I won’t forget who I am or where I came from. Passing bums will ask, can I come in? I’ll offer them the attic, ask them to stay, because I know how it is to be without a house’ (Cisneros 87). This quote shows that Esperanza is caring and considers the people who are less fortunate that her.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Esperanza lives in a small, rundown house on Mango Street. Throughout the story, Esperanza loses her innocence and matures. As the story begins, Esperanza is portrayed as innocent and young. She explains to the reader how the boys and the girls in her neighborhood seem to “live in separate worlds” (Cisneros 8). Esperanza does not seem to have an interest in the opposite sex.…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the three texts “Where Worlds Collide”, “Everyday use”, and House on Mango Street the reader gets to see how people live and perceive America from a different perspective rather than a white person’s. Usually one would be looking through a white person’s eyes because everyone seems to think that white people’s opinions are the only one’s in America that matter. Throughout these texts the reader gets to know what it’s like to see what America is like not through a rich and healthy white person’s eyes but through someone who actually has ethnic minority struggles they have to deal with on a daily basis. Through these texts the main characters develop different senses of understanding and a more culturally expanded mentality. They get different…

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Last of all, she starts making her own choices in her life. In the beginning of the novel, Esperanza is a young insecure child who is insecure about her new life on Mango Street. The first time we see Esperanza’s insecurity is when she talks about her new home, and when she talks about the house on Mango Street. She says “I knew I had to have a house.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sally is relying on her husband to take her away from her father so she will not be abused anymore, but she is still in control by a man. She is afraid of him and will not disobey him with out. By being fearful of him that makes Sally vunerable so she is easier to control and she is more likely to not do anythig that could get her in trouble. Esperanza is not like Sally or any other girl from her communtiy because she does not rely on men to safe her or control her. Being…

    • 1615 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Michael Perry, the author, once expressed, “Never mock a pain you have never endured or judge a situation you have never been in.” As illustrated, it is wrong to judge someone based on their life experiences. The theme of House on Mango Street is prejudgment, it proves the point that to prejudge someone is unfair, because contributing factors in everyday lives of many people are uncontrollable such as income class, gender, and race. Starting off, to prejudge someone based on their social class is unfair, considering it is an uncontrollable factor in their life. Throughout the vignette, “The House on Mango Street”, the author characterized Esperanza’s house by saying, “ Paint peeling, wooden bars papa had nailed on the windows so we wouldn’t…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Every human being is born with a desire for a sense of belonging. Whether it is at their jobs, schools, or amongst their friends, people will always search for acceptance. The House on Mango Street, a novel beautifully crafted by author Sandra Cisneros depicts a young Latino girl's prolonged search for an identity. Cisneros portrays the young girl's evolution throughout the book by using ethnic and thematic elements. Through many hardships and life-changing experiences, Esperanza slowly blossoms from an innocent child into a mature young woman.…

    • 1171 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Esperanza is inclined towards a life of marriage and self definition, but through the women she encounters she realizes it may be unattainable. Ruthie for example, owns a “pretty house outside the city” (69) and is married. It is mentioned however, that “there were many thing’s Ruthie could have been if she wanted to” (68), but she gave up her future for wedding vow. Her childlike characteristics are a by product of her failed marriage and a representation of a nonexisting happiness and naiveness Esperanza wishes to have.…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays