Shame In The House On Mango Street

What is shame? When you experience shame, do you let it ruin you? Do you grow from it? These choices discussed in The House on Mango Street. The author of The House on Mango Street is Sandra Cisneros. This novel was published by Arte Publico Press in 1984. The House On Mango Street fits into the genre prose, the sub genre fiction, and the category realistic fiction; its literary style is lyrical prose because it is like a poem. The literary conflict in the novel is Man versus Society because Esperanza, the protagonist, wants to escape and grow beyond her community. She is a young girl who lives in a bad neighborhood in the 1980’s; she has to decide whether or not to fall apart from her shame like all of the other girls in her neighborhood or

She says, “The water pipes broke and the landlord wouldn’t fix them because the house was to old” (p. 4). But the shame of living in these poor conditions inspires her to dream of, “A real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn’t have to move every year” (P. 4). Esperanza also feels ashamed when the nun is shocked by where she lives asking, “you live there?” (P. 5). Being harshly judged by the nun makes Esperanza plan to have, “A real house, one I could point to” (P. 5). In the chapter “Boys and Girls,” Esperanza is ashamed by Nenny because she’s immature and doesn’t understand anything. The text says, “Nenny is too young to be my friend” (P. 6). Due to the fact that she’s ashamed of Nenny, she turns to her dreams, thinking up, “a best friend all my own” (P. 9). Even Esperanza’s own name makes her feel ashamed. She says, “In English my name means ‘hope.’ In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means ‘waiting’.” (P. 10). When she learns it means waiting in Spanish, she decided to grow from it and focuses on the fact that in English it means ‘hope.’ In the longest part of the plot, the rising action, Esperanza and the other people in the community are ashamed, but only Alicia and Esperanza decide to grow from the shame and not

This novel is about the shame cycle and whether Esperanza will chose to grow from it or to let it ruin her. Esperanza didn’t know this, but she had to go through the most shaming experience possible in order to be forced to make a choice about how to use that shame. Other major themes of the novel include Hoping versus Waiting, Finding Freedom through Marriage or Education, and the Anchors of Race, Poverty, and Gender. Cisneros ties these themes together using the theme of The Shame Cycle, making it the most important. Esperanza hopes for a better life and chooses not to let her anchors stop her. To earn a better life, Esperanza decides to find freedom through education. She decides not to get married young as an escape. She decides to keep hoping and dreaming by not letting shame ruin her.The resolution and escape from the shame cycle helps Esperanza chose education,the rel path to freedom. Additionally, the plot of the novel only comes to a resolution when Esperanza finally overcomes her shame and escapes the