The House On Mango Street Identity And Identity

Everybody has their own identity, it is something that is specific to each individual, and describes who one is, and how they fit into society. This identity develops throughout the entirety of one’s life. Many psychologists such as Freud, Piaget, and Kohlberg have created theories explaining this identity development. They divide this development into distinct stages that all people go through. One theory that is particularly effective in explaining the stages of life is the one by Erik Erikson. In his theory, Erikson states that the development of personality and identity in people is strongly influenced by the culture surrounding them. He says that people develop in eight distinct stages, spanning the entirety of their lives. In each stage,

This novel is a series of vignettes, which tell different stories from a year of Esperanza’s life. The novel captures a major portion of Esperanza’s development. In the beginning of the novel, she is simply a little girl who enjoys playing with her little sister and her friends. Her only real desires for the future are of someday leaving Mango Street and living in a house all to her own. She does not think of herself of someone that is from Mango Street. Esperanza wants to forget about ever living on Mango Street, and never come back once she leaves. Sexually, Esperanza is not ready to emerge from childhood, where sexuality is not a problem, at the beginning of the novel. This causes her to suffer from role confusion. However, she goes through stage five of Erik Erikson’s theory of development, entitled Identity vs. Role Confusion, within the novel. This stage is all about figuring out where one fits in society, and who they want to be. This occurs both emotionally, and sexually. Emotionally, one must figure out occupationally what they want to be, and how they want to fit in with society. Sexually, one will go through changes with their body during this stage, and they must become comfortable with these changes, and learn to accept their body, (McLeod, p.4). Esperanza deals with these problems throughout the