How Living In Mango Street Has Changed Esperanza's Life

1069 Words3 Pages

How Living In Mango Street Has Changed Esperanza’s Life Esperanza is the heart and soul of this story. She changes and develops new habits over the course of the book. Because of how the book is written, she’s also the main character who gives the story it’s unity. Everything in the story is told in her perspective anyway so she could be the narrator and the protagonist. Even the stories about other characters have some sort of connection with Esperanza. She is The House On Mango Street, she is Esperanza. 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 …show more content…

When Esperanza tries to help Sally she tells Esperanza to go away and that she doesn’t need to be rescued. Esperanza feels ashamed and hides in the garden to cry by herself. At the carnival, Esperanza arranges to meet Sally to hang out, but Sally never shows up to meet with Esperanza. While she was waiting for Sally to show up, a group of boys show up out of the blue and grab her, and one of them decides to rape her. Esperanza is really young so she doesn't understand what sex is like yet and gets mad a Sally for lying to her what it’s really like. Esperanza meets up with 3 elderly sisters at a wake. One of the older women affirms Esperanza’s secret wish to leave Mango Street, but makes her promise that she will come back one day. Esperanza tells Alicia that she feels like she doesn’t have a home but Alicia convinces her that like it or not that Mango Street is her home and no matter what she will have to come back to make Mango Street a better place because the mayor is

Show More
Related

  • The House on Mango Street and Esperanza’s Relationship with It

    536 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the course of Mango Street, Esperanza’s relationship towards her house change. As time passes her feelings about the house itself change and the emotional impact of the house of her changes as well. Esperanza’s house on Mango Street symbolizes her Mexican culture. For so long she has wanted to leave it. She envisions a different type of life than what she is used to - moving from house to house. “this house is going to be different / my life is going to be different”. One can look at all the things she envisions - the "trappings of the good life" such as the running water, the garden etc. as symbols for the new life.

    Read More

  • House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    Esperanza sees all of the women around her, and most of them are the same. The overall idea of the women on Mango Street is they are property to their husbands. They cannot do anything unless their husbands allow them to. It also starts out at a young age. The young girls like Esperanza see the women that live around them and think that is the way to live. They admire them so they start to mature faster than they should. Sally is one of them. Sally loves the attention that she gets from boys, but her father does not like that. Sally grew up and got married at a young age.

    Read More

  • Imprisoned on Mango Street

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    Esperanza realizes just how trapped she is are a treasure in a furniture shop that they

    Read More

  • The House On Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros

    1577 Words  | 4 Pages

    Women are seen as failure and can’t strive without men in the Mexican-American community. In this novel you can see a cultural approach which examines a particular aspect of a culture and a gender studies approach which examines how literature either perpetuates or challenges gender stereotypes. Over and over, Esperanza battled with how people perceived her and how she wished to be perceived. In the beginning of the book, Esperanza speaks of all the times her family has moved from one place to another. “Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler.

    Read More

  • So Far from God by Ana Castillo

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    Esperanza, the most liberated of the sisters, devoted her life to make other people’s lives better. She became a reporter and later on died while covering the Gulf Crisis. She returned home, to her family as a spirit. At first, she spoke through La Llorona, a messenger who informed La Loca that her sister has died. All her family members saw her. She appeared to her mother as a little girl who had a nightmare and went near to her mother for comfort. Caridad had conversations with her about politics and La Loca talked to her by the river behind their home.

    Read More

  • Beauty in The House on Mango Street

    927 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Someday, I will have a best friend all my own. One I can tell my secrets to. One who will understand my jokes without me having to explain them” (9). These are the longing words spoken by Esperanza. In the novel The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is young girl experiencing adolescence not only longing for a place to fit in but also wanting to be beautiful. This becomes complicated as Esperanza becomes more sexually aware. Throughout the novel, Cisneros argues the importance of beauty and how Esperanza deals with beauty as a part of her identity. When Esperanza meets Sally a new friend, Esperanza’s whole world is turned upside down. Esperanza’s views on beauty change from a positive outlook to a negative one by watching how beauty has damaged Sally’s life.

    Read More

  • Poverty In The House On Mango Street

    798 Words  | 2 Pages

    " They always told me that one day we would move into a real house, that would be ours. A house with trees, a white picket fence, real stairs and running water. The house on Mango Street isn't it. " (Cisneros, 4). This quote gives the reader a better understanding on why Esperanza is so frustrated with her poverty. Esperanza is constantly being let down because her poverty gets in the way. Her parents make all these promises to her that they cannot keep, because they do not have the money. Esperanza is still young and so far her life has been full of disappointment. When Esperanza's family moved into The House on Mango Street Esperanza's was excited, she expected to be moving into her dream house. Yet, once again her family's poverty gets in the way and they move into a shabby house. Esperanza's constant disappointment causes her a great deal of emotional pain, and all this pain leads back to her family's

    Read More

  • The House on Mango Street Cultural Values

    415 Words  | 1 Pages

    Sandra Cisneros' strong cultural values greatly influence The House on Mango Street. Esperanza's life is the medium that Cisneros uses to bring the Latin community to her audience. The novel deals with the Catholic Church and its position in the Latin community. The deep family connection within the barrio also plays an important role in the novel. Esperanza's struggle to become a part of the world outside of Mango Street represents the desire many Chicanos have to grow beyond their neighborhoods.

    Read More

  • House On Mango Street Expectations

    312 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the book, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, almost everyone has their own expectations to what they’re supposed to be or that they can’t change who they already are.

    Read More

  • Loss Of Innocence In House On Mango Street

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    When Esperanza was starting to mature, she started to like guys and cared about what she wore. Esperanza was suppose to go to a dance, but she refuses to dance because she thought her heels were ugly. Another scene that shows the theme “loss of innocence” was when Esperanza got her first job. During her job, she met a man and they started to talk about the man’s birthday and he asked for a birthday kiss. When Esperanza went to go kiss him in the face, he grabbed her face and kissed her on the mouth and doesn't let go (Cisneros 55). As the result of this, Esperanza matures emotionally because she cares about how she looks and physically because she is growing

    Read More

  • Sally In The House On Mango Street

    359 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis of Esperanza in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    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....

    Read More

  • Loneliness In The House On Mango Street

    774 Words  | 2 Pages

    “I was so scared to eat alone in the company lunchroom with all those men and women looking.”(Pg. 54) She is worried about being judged by others that she can’t eat alone. She doesn’t think she belongs. “Most likely I will go to hell and most likely I deserve to be there.”(Pg. 58) She doesn’t believe in herself and doesn’t think anyone believes in her. Later in the story, Esperanza and Sally were hanging out with a few boys. Esperanza wasn’t comfortable and told Sally to come hang out with the younger kids. Sally ignored Esperanza and got into some trouble. The boys took Sally’s keys and said she could only have them back if she kissed all of them. Sally, being her daring self decided to kiss all the boys. Esperanza did not want Sally to kiss all the boys and went to one of the boy’s mother’s. The mother didn’t do anything and left Esperanza. When Esperanza came back they all told her to go home. Esperanza having no confidence to stand up to them, ran away. “I wanted to will my blood to stop, my heart to quit it’s pumping; I wanted to be dead, to turn into the rain, my eyes melt into the ground like two black snails.” Esperanza’s self esteem was so low that just one person can make her burst into

    Read More

  • Importance of the Monkey Garden in The House on Mango Street

    845 Words  | 2 Pages

    Esperanza's overwhelmed tone reveals her fear and doggedness to adversity when sally's game defiles the garden's innocence/purity, exposing Esperanza to the realization that she cannot remain a kid forever.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Essperanza Rising

    2119 Words  | 5 Pages

    As a final thought, the novel of Esperanza Rising tells an amazing story that is full of emotions and life events that impact the character of Esperanza, a young lady who was forced to grow and mature very quickly. In addition, this book describes Esperanza’s journey from being born into a privileged, wealthy life to a life of hardships and homelessness. Throughout the book her character transforms from a selfish child who grew up having it all with no demands and no responsibilities into a determined, empathetic, hard worker who now lives to help the well-being of her family. To say, Esperanza learned to appreciate everyone as well as her new life, the life of a

    Read More

More about How Living In Mango Street Has Changed Esperanza's Life

Open Document