It is quite possible that Esperanza’s innovative intelligence that motivates her to question the traditional path to adulthood, early marriage and dating. Of course, like a lot of girls, she feels herself viewed as a sexual object. It makes her eager to escape home and get her own, much suitable and bigger place and be her own person with a life that she chooses. However, completing this task in the accepted way, might be risky, seeing how she is from a rather traditional background. Finding another life-style could prove to be lonely and challenging, so she must turn the tide. Unlike other kids her age, Esperanza is highly ambitious and possesses serious skills that will allow her to break free from the anchors of Mango Street holding her …show more content…
With the kind of determination and and ambition Esperanza possesses, there is no doubt that she will be able to achieve this goal. Her willingness to help others in future shows her selfless-ness. For example, in "Bums in the Attic”, she describes how she will let bums sleep in the attic of her house one day, "because I know how it is to be without a house." In "The Three Sisters," Esperanza foreshadows that she might one day leave Mango Street, however, she will return to help those who need it. "You will always be Mango Street," three ladies tell her. "You can't erase what you know. You can't forget who you are." She also makes sure the reader knows that despite her wishes to leave and start her own life, she will not forget her roots. To a certain extend, I can strongly relate to Esperanza. Like her, I also have desire to flee home as soon as possible and find a place of my own. Also, personality-wise, Esperanza and I are both considered “juvenile” or “adolescent”. Even though my family is not as ‘traditional’ as hers, nor as strict, I still feel like I am chained down to one place, which is ironic considering how we travel a
As Esperanza develops amid the year that makes up The House on Mango Street, she encounters a progression of arousals, the most vital being a sexual arousing. Toward the start of the novel, Esperanza isn't exactly prepared to rise up out of the asexuality of youth. She is totally uninformed about sex and says that young men and young ladies live in totally extraordinary universes. She is so much a tyke that she can't address her siblings outside of the house. When she turns into a pre-adult, she starts to explore different avenues regarding the power she, as a young lady, has over men. Marin shows her principal actualities about young men, yet the primary real advance in Esperanza's consciousness of her sexuality is the point at which she and
Esperanza is a young girl who struggles with feelings of loneliness and feeling that she doesn’t fit in because she is poor. She always wanted to fit in with the other kids and feel like she was one of them. She loves to write because it helps her feel better about herself writing about her life and her community. Writing helps her with
Esperanza was a cowardly child who transformed into a brave woman. Alicia and Esperanza had a conversation about Mango Street and Alicia says, “Like it or not you are Mango Street, and one day you’ll come back too,” (Cisneros 107). Esperanza replies with, “Not me. Not until somebody makes it better,” (Cisneros 107). Alicia tells Esperanza that even though she does not like Mango Street, she will still come back, but Esperanza says she will not until someone makes it better. Esperanza does not want to go back to Mango Street even though she is a part of it. Esperanza wants to leave Mango Street for good. Although Esperanza knows she is a part of Mango Street, she does not want to be. The ignorant child believed she could leave Mango behind and forget about where she came from, but little does she know that someone will. When Esperanza decides to leave Mango Street, she says, “They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out,” (Cisneros 110). Esperanza will leave Mango Street to come back and help those who cannot escape. Esperanza is leaving not for herself, but for others. She grasped the understanding that nobody would do anything to help Mango Street, or care about what happens to it, and decides to take matters into her own hands. Esperanza realizes that she has to be the one to change Mango Street. Throughout the story
In an earlier chapter, Esperanza meets with a witch, whom she hopes will tell her future only to be told, “Come back again on a Thursday when the stars are stronger” (72). However, when speaking to The Three Sisters toward the end of the story, they tell her to make a wish and say “You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street” (113). Rather than seek out her fate, the Fates (three sisters from Greek Mythology) have come seeking Esperanza. It has been confirmed that her wish to leave will come true, but remind her to remember her experiences as they have shaped who she is. In the article, “Interview with Sandra Cisneros”, Cisneros will tell her students to “make a list of the things that make you different from anyone in this room...in your community...your family...your gender (1). Cisneros uses this very idea in her writings of Esperanza: Her individuality is key- Esperanza’s identity as a writer and her background give her a unique voice that will allow her to speak up for those who have no
At the novel's end, Esperanza declares that she is too strong for Mango Street to keep her forever. What is the nature of her strength? How does Cisneros establish this characteristic elsewhere in the book?
Esperanza dreams of someday having a satisfying life. She doesn't want her path of freedom to be cleared by having a baby or finding a husband. She has no desires to fall into the trap of dependency. As the author writes, "Her power is her own. She will not give it away" (Cisneros 89).
...working, caring young woman, through hardship and misfortune. This transformation shows that anyone can adjust, and that it is never too late to change your ways and become a different person. Anybody can become nicer if they try, and everyone should, just like Esperanza. By the end of the novel, she realizes how much she has changed for the better, as is shown on the last page of the book (253). “Esperanza smiled and reached over and gently pulled the yarn, unraveling the uneven stitching. Then she looked into Isabel’s trusting eyes and said, ‘Do not be afraid to start over.’” This line, the final line of the entire book, demonstrates that Esperanza realizes that she is different from the person she used to be, and has learned that it was a good transformation. She recognizes that it is a good thing to start anew, and that change should not be feared, but embraced.
In the book, Esperanza doesn’t want to follow the norms of the life around her; she wants to be independent. Esperanza states her independence by stating, “Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s. A house all my own,” (Cisneros 108.) The syntax of these sentences stick out and are not complete thoughts, yet they convey much meaning and establish Esperanza’s feeling of not belonging. Esperanza’s feeling of not belonging is also emphasized when her sisters tell her that the events of her life have made her who she is and that is something she can not get rid of. Her sisters explain that the things she has experienced made her who she is by saying, “You will always be esperanza. You will always be mango street. You can’t erase what you know” (105.) What her sisters are trying to tell her is that the past has changed her but it doesn’t have to be a negative thing; it can be used to make her a better person who is stronger and more independent. Esperanza realizes that the things around her don’t really add up to what she believes is right, which also conveys the sense of not
In the story the house on mango street there are both young girls, Sally and Esperanza. Both girls desire adventure, love, and beauty. However, Sally is more outgoing and confident than Esperanza. She has confidence that she is beautiful. She play the role of a strong female that never get hurt by any boys. Esperanza admires and looks up to Sally. Esperanza does not want to be a "weak woman" and she sees Sally as her role model. Their home lives contrast also Ironically. Sally is physically abused by her father each time he catches her with a boy. On the other side Esperanza and her family communicates well. Sally sees her self as a women and not the type of women a person that isn't confident of herself and that's what Esperanza likes.
At first, Esperanza is young, insecure, and immature. Her immaturity is apparent when she talks about her mom holding her, saying it is, “sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you and you feel safe” (Cisneros 6-7). This shows Esperanza’s insecurity because her mom is still a big comfort source to her. She feels a false sense of comfort because her mom is there and will protect her. In addition, Esperanza’s immaturity is shown through her dislike for outsiders of the neighborhood when she says, “They are stupid people who are lost and got here by mistake” (Cisneros 28). This indicates how defensive and protective Esperanza is towards her barrio by calling outsiders stupid for reacting the way they do, even though she dislikes Mango Street....
...will pack my bags of books and paper. One day I will say goodbye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever. One day I will go away.” (Cinceros 110) This shows how Esperanza needs to break free of Mango Street and move on because Mango Street has nothing more to offer a young free mind like Esperanza. She will move far away so she can continue on with her American Dream as one person and not have the weight of her family’s American Dream on her shoulders.
Esperanza, a Chicano with three sisters and one brother, has had a dream of having her own things since she was ten years old. She lived in a one story flat that Esperanza thought was finally a "real house". Esperanza’s family was poor. Her father barely made enough money to make ends meet. Her mother, a homemaker, had no formal education because she had lacked the courage to rise above the shame of her poverty, and her escape was to quit school. Esperanza felt that she had the desire and courage to invent what she would become.
Throughout The House on Mango Street Esperanza learns to resist the gender norms that are deeply imbedded in her community. The majority of the other female characters in the novel have internalized the male viewpoint and they believe that it is their husbands or fathers responsibility to care for them and make any crucial decisions for them. However, despite the influence of other female characters that are “immasculated”, according to Judith Fetterley, Esperanza’s experiences lead her to become a “resisting reader” in Fettereley’s terminology because she does not want to become like the women that she observes, stuck under a man’s authority. She desires to leave Mango Street and have a “home of her own” so that she will never be forced to depend on a man (Cisneros 108). During the course of the novel Esperanza eventually realizes that it is also her duty to go back to Mango Street “For the ones that cannot out”, or the women who do not challenge the norms (110). Esperanza eventually turns to her writing as a way to escape from her situation without having to marry a man that she would be forced to rely on like some of her friends do.
Although Esperanza is constantly reaffirming that she wants to move away from Mango Street, we know by the end novel that she will one day return to help those who will not have the opportunities Esperanza has had in her life. Indeed, in the closing pages Esperanza admits that she cannot escape Mango Street. She can never again call it home, but it has influenced her dreams, formed her personality, and she has learned valuable life lessons from its inhabitants. That is why, explains Esperanza, she tells stories about the house on Mango Street, revealing the beauty amidst dirty streets and unveiling her true inner self, the peace of knowing that her “home is where her heart is.”
Esperanza is a very strong woman in herself. Her goals are not to forget her "reason for being" and "to grow despite the concrete" so as to achieve a freedom that's not separate from togetherness.