The House on Mango Street - Characterization Essay

On page 75, she says, “They are the only ones that understand me. I am the only one who understands them. Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong here but are here.” This quote shows that Esperanza no longer sees herself as a free person, and is forced to relate to the trees who are rooted to Mango street forever. We don’t seem to be the only ones who think this. Esperanza finally expresses her thoughts on Mango street at the end of the book, and tells Alicia. Her response was, “Like it or not you are Mango street, and one day you’ll done back too” (107). The way Cisneros created Esperanza’s personality allows us to see these things about

Hook: In the coming-of-age novel, House on Mango Street, the main character Esperanza narrates the story through her perspective of the situations she encounters as she grows older in her new neighborhood.

As a young girl, Esperanza is a young girl who looks at life from experience of living in poverty, where many do not question their experience. She is a shy, but very bright girl. She dreams of the perfect home, with beautiful flowers and a room for everyone. When she moves to the house of Mango Street, reality is so different than the dream. In this story, hope (Esperanza) sustains tragedy. The house she dreamed of was another on. It was one of her own. One where she did not have to share a bedroom with everyone. That included her mother, father and two siblings. The run down tiny house has "bricks crumbling in places". The one she dreamed of had a great big yard, trees and 'grass growing without a fence'. She did not want to abandon

In life many people set goals for themselves. For some people it maybe a goal such as obtaining a high test grade and for others it maybe to one day own a race car. Everybody has a different outlook on life and everyone has different goals in which they one day hope to achieve. The people who achieve their goals are those who are motivated and determined to do so. When these goals are achieved it is then when you are a hero to yourself.

Esperanza, a strong- willed girl who dreams big despite her surroundings and restrictions, is the main character in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Esperanza represents the females of her poor and impoverished neighborhood who wish to change and better themselves. She desires both sexuality and autonomy of marriage, hoping to break the typical life cycle of woman in her family and neighborhood. Throughout the novel, she goes through many different changes in search of identity and maturity, seeking self-reliance and interdependence, through insecure ideas such as owning her own house, instead of seeking comfort and in one’s self. Esperanza matures as she begins to see the difference. She evolves from an insecure girl to a

Esperanza always wanted to change her name, she felt it didn’t define the real her. “I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees” (111).This quote is the

Often in literature, authors create plot by writing about characters maturing throughout the story. One work that explores childhood to adulthood is The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. In this novella, Esperanza Cordero is a young girl who lives in a poverty stricken area in Chicago. During the story, Esperanza grows up from being an adolescent to a young adult. In the novella, the theme is that losing innocence brings about maturity. Cisneros expresses Esperanza growing up by juxtaposing vignettes. Tone is also used to enhance the change in Esperanza’s thoughts while maturing. Both the juxtaposition of vignettes and tone support the theme that the loss of innocence and the gaining of

She is just to use that identity to prove to others who her right self is, rather than the self that does not convey who she is. Near the end of the novel, Esperanza has come to the conclusion that she will not be someone who society had plan out for her, “... but I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain… in the movies there is always one with red red lips who is beautiful and cruel… I am one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate.” (Cisneros 88,89) Esperanza will not grow up to be ordered around like the other women in her neighborhood. She will be a woman that is beautiful, yet cruel and in the eyes of men, she will be the man. She decides that she will not follow the rules of society like the fact that all a woman can do to escape, is to wait for a man to sweep them off the street. Instead, she will be a “man” of her own self where she will be “beautiful and cruel.” Esperanza will be cruel as she will not “grow up tame” like the women who does so by being scared, afraid, and controlled by their husbands. She is to be beautiful as she will be the one who holds power, and independence where she will depend on her own self. Esperanza changes the use of her identity, from having an identity to only represent her true inner self, to an identity that will change both the rules and paths that society. With the

Esperanza is a shy but a very bright girl. She dreams of the perfect home now, with beautiful flowers in their luscious garden and a room for everyone to live in comfortably all because of the unsatisfied face the nun made that one afternoon--when she moves to the house of Mango Street. She thinks it’s going to be a “grand house on a hill that will have a bedroom for everyone and at least three washrooms so when they took a bath they would not have to tell everybody.” (Cinceros 4) Reality is so different for her when her dream is shot down in a heartbeat when she

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a coming of age novel of a young Mexican-American girl developing in a working class Chicago neighborhood. The author is much like the main character Esperanza in many different ways. One being that Cisneros was also a Mexican-American girl growing up in a Chicago working class neighborhood. Esperanza is a foil of Cisneros’ beliefs and opinions of her Mexican culture and heritage. While Esperanza is embarrassed of being a Mexican-American around white Americans, Cisneros is proud to be a Mexican-American girl. In Sara Rimer’s article, “San Antonio Journal; Novelist’s Purple

The family’s new home is located in the center of a crowded Latino neighborhood in Chicago, also very similar to the up-bringing of Cisneros. Chicago is important to the setting of the story and to understanding the underlining meanings, because Chicago is a city where many of the poor areas are racially segregated. As soon as she arriving to her new home Esperanza promises herself that she will someday leave Mango Street and have a house all her own, a house which resembles the American dream, white fence, and huge yard. During the year covered in the novel Esperanza matures significantly, both in a sexual and emotional manner. The novel as it is broken into chapters, short stories, almost charts and illustrates her life as she makes friends, develops her first crush, and endures sexual assault. The charting of Esperanza life is mainly done through the stories of many of Esperanza’s neighbors. The stories giving a full picture of the neighborhood and the life which Esperanza is living on a day to day basis. It’s interesting because many of the stories, specially of the women in Esperanza’s neighborhood, allows the reader to assume that the lives of these women, which include abuse, male dominance, and lack of freedom are all possible outcomes and paths of Esperanza’s future. After moving to the house, Esperanza quickly becomes friends with Lucy and Rachel, two girls whom are also Mexican-American and who live only across the street from her. Lucy, Rachel, Esperanza,

Esperanza’s culture shaped her identity In the “The house on Mango Street” written by Sandra Cisneros, a girl named Esperanza, shaped her identity because of everything she experienced while living in Chicago in 1984. Esperanza relates to the other hispanics who miss their home countries and struggle just to get by. She goes to a church and a school that nuns teach at. Esperanza is exposed to a lot of cultures and languages that help her shape her identity.   Esperanza's experiences with her culture have helped shape her identity.

With this in mind the internal conflict is important, because it shows Esperanza’s sensitivity about everything what concerns herself and her being insecure. One of the vignette that tells about is called “ Chanclas.” It recounts about her being non confident, because of her old shoes that she gets every year. For example, the quote says, “ Then Uncle Nacho is pulling and pulling my arm and it does not matter how the new dress Mama bought me is because my feet are ugly.” (Cisneros 46). This quote shows that she cares so much about one detail and even the prettiest dress cannot divert her attention. She does not pay attention to the dress, because she just thinks about her shoes and she assumes everyone will look at her feet. Another quote which supports her insecure, is “ Meanwhile that boy who is my cousin by first communion or something asks me to dance and I can’t. Just stuff my feet under the metal folding chair stamped Precious Blood and pick on a wad of brown gum that’s stuck beneath the seat. I shake my head no. My feet growing bigger and bigger.” (Cisneros 47) According to this quote Esperanza does not want people to notice her imperfection so she stays out of society contact. It is not because she does not want to she explains it as a cannot thing. She does not want to embarrass herself. The quote which stays for her having low self esteem is “Until my uncle who is a liar says, You are the prettiest girl here, will you dance, but I believe him, and yes, we are dancing. And Uncle spins me, and my skinny arms bend the way he taught me, and my mom watches, and my little cousins watch, and the boy who is my cousin by first communion watches, and everyone says, wow, who are those two who dance like in the movies, until I forget that I am wearing only ordinary shoes, brown and white.” (Cisneros 47) There is a clear statement that supports, that she thinks about

Death is a serious thing and it is very sad, especially if that person is love. The night before Esperanza’s birthday is when she was told, that her father was dead. At first, she was sad, as seen in this quote, “Have you not heard? My...my Papa is dead.” She gets passed this tragedy by staying calm and not thinking about it. At first, she doesn’t really believe that her father is dead. After a while though she realizes and gets over the fact, that she will never see her father again. Although, throughout the story memories of her father come to her. Esperanza becomes less hypersensitive and more determined, because of this. This is very good for her well being. For example, then she won’t be as upset if something unfortunate happens, or she has a problem. Also, after this, she is more and more determined to be there for Mama and more determined to impress her and help

The novel “The House on Mango Street” is written by Sandra Cineros. It deals with family, neighbourhood and dreams of a young Mexican girl, Esperanza Cordero growing up in Chicago. The novel begins when the Corderos move into a new house on Mango Street in the Latino section of Chicago. The fact that it is the first house they have ever owned, make them proud. But when Esperanza sees it, she is disappointed by the red, dilapidated house. It is not the one their