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House On Mango Street

Decent Essays

Kurt Wechsler Ms. Sonnenberg English 2 (H), Period 6 12 April 2024 Home The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a deep, wonderful, and powerful title, demonstrating the terrible truths that poverty and discrimination can hold. The book follows Esperanza, a young Chicano living in the ghettos of a city. Through Esperanza, Sandra Cisneros sheds light on the lives of those in poverty. She highlights the community formed by these experiences, the blooming and the home that it becomes. One theme in the book is that home is not a place, but the people in it. This is demonstrated in the vignettes “Our Good Day”, “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark”, and “Alicia and I talking on Edna’s steps”. Vignette 6, “Our Good Day” displays the theme that home is not a …show more content…

This is further shown as while Esperanza debates buying the bike and considers the people asking, she thinks, “But I like them. Their clothes are crooked and old. They are wearing shiny Sunday shoes without socks. It makes her bald ankles all red, but I like them” (Cisneros 14-15). This quote shows that it doesn’t matter how well off you are, friends will be made just the same. Homes are made by the experiences you have with the people around you, not by what you have. This is demonstrated later, as the three girls take the bike for a ride and Esperanza narrates, “Down, down Mango Street we go. Rachel, Lucy, and me. Our new bike. Laughing the crooked ride back” (Cisneros 16). In this quote, we can see that even though the bike was old and crooked, they still enjoyed themselves just the same because they were with friends. Another Vignette that shows the theme home is not a place but the people in it is Vignette 22, “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark”. During this vignette, Esperanza recalls the moment she was told her grandfather was dead, and narrates, “Your abuelito is dead, papa says, early one morning in my

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