The House of Mango Street

The House On Mango Street
The book I’ve chosen for this assignment is called The House on Mango
Street by Sandra Cisneros, published in 1984. It talks about a little girl named
Esperanza and how she starts her journey with an ugly red house on Mango Street.
As soon as she sees the house, she wants to move out and wishes for another
home, a prettier one at that. From there, Esperanza narrates her memories of how
she met her neighbors and her friends. As you continue throughout the book, you go
along Esperanza’s childhood up to her teenage years. You meet important people
who left her a mark, including places where she describes them perfectly in a way
you can transport yourself into them. You also get to experience her hardships,
struggles, and disappointments. This book is like a small movie tape where
Esperanza narrates her life, it is so beautifully written you can imagine every single
detail and feel her every emotion.
“I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the
window.” (Chapter 4) Esperanza is named after her great-grandmother, she is
described as “a wild horse of a woman” who became tame after marrying. Here you
can see the Mexican cultural reference to family and patriarchy. The name
Esperanza is truly a blessing to her, although she dislikes the name. She mentions
that in English it means hope, but in Spanish, it has a sad tone to it. She is right that
since the colonization the Mexican culture has been submitted and enslaved, and as
a Chicana, it reflects her heritage as an outsider in another country. Her name is a
promise that things will hopefully turn out better in the future. She also mentions how
she doesn’t want to be like her grandmother. She doesn’t want to look at the world
from her window, as many women in Mango Street are subjected to after marrying
their husbands, including their fathers. It shows how patriarchy is woven into our
culture and how much it shapes Esperanza’s life and all the surrounding women.
“They will not know I have gone away to come back.” (Chapter 44) I truly love
this quote, for me, it's the perfect culmination of this story. In this chapter, Esperanza
realizes what she needs to do, her mission. She realizes that Mango Street is part of
her and part of her heritage. She realizes she has a possibility that no other girl has
in her community, she gets a chance to go to college and actually get out of poverty
and ignorance.Unlike the other girls whose only future is getting married and having
children.
“My father says when he came to this country, he ate ham and eggs for three
months.” (Chapter 30) Esperanza narrates the Chicanos and immigrant life in the
US. Many Americans just know the stereotype of an immigrant or Chicano, they
really don’t know the struggles and difficulties they go through. I myself have lived in
the US for most of my life, and it really is hard coming out of a stereotype they label
you with. Esperanza describes how she constantly has to move from different
houses due to unstable work, I know this because I have lived in her shoes and seen
her perspective of that life. She also mentions how an outsider who comes into her
neighborhood is scared, but not her; she feels she’s with her people, “All brown all
around, we are safe”. (Chapter 12).
“You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street.” (Chapter
41) In the end, Esperanza realizes her purpose in life, she must become the woman
she yearns to be unlike all the women who have endured hardships, so she can
save them and give them an opportunity for a better life. She yearned to move out
since the day she got to the ugly red house. But in the end, Mango Street has taught
her important lessons, and she’s learned from all the people (mostly women), and
she strives to do better and help her community. I deeply admire Esperanza
throughout her journey.
Bibliography
The House on Mango Street Quotes | Course Hero. (2020). Retrieved 13
June 2020, from
https://www.coursehero.com/lit/The-House-on-Mango-Street/quotes/
Street, & Cisneros, S. (2020). The House on Mango Street. Retrieved 13 June
2020, from
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/139253.The_House_on_Mango_Street

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