The House On Mango Street Summary

This upsets Esperanza that they would exploit her like that, and so she runs off to tell the boys mother. “Your son and his friends stole Sally’s keys and now they won’t give them back unless she kisses them and right now they’re making her kiss them (Cisneros, 97). Esperanza can not believe that the mother would not help her friend Sally. When Esperanza goes back to try and save sally for herself, they all laugh in her face and tell her to go away. “They all looked at me as if I was the one that was crazy and made me feel ashamed (Cisneros, 98).”

With all of the bad things going on around Esperanza, she was very optimistic and made the best of everything she could. For example, in chapter one, Esperanza explain how she and her family had always grown up poor and that they always had dreams of one day owning a big beautiful house like the ones that they saw on television. One with a back yard and a basement. When Esperanza's family was forced to move her parents had purchased the first house that they could afford so they wouldn't have to continue paying rent. The house was nothing like what they had spoke of or dreamt about. But Esperanza states, "I then knew I had to have a house. One I could point to. But this isn't it. The house on Mango Street isn't it. For the time being, Mama said. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go.." Within this paragraph it shows that Esperanza isn't exactly happy about where she is living but she is going to make the best of it and do what she has to do to get out of there and have a house of her own. One that she can point to.

Esperanza is able to look at her great grandmother and realize what she does not want to become, but also she realizes what she does want: to become a strong, independent woman.

In chapter nine, we get to witness yet another of Francisco’s relocations, this time to Fresno, to a strawberry farm. We also get to see Francisco go to school again, this time in the sixth grade, and make a new friend. This new friend is none other than his teacher, Mr. Lema, and he helps him improve his English, whilst also agreeing to teach him how to play the trumpet. Francisco’s hopes to learn the trumpet are quickly shattered when he goes home to see all of his belongings packed into cardboard boxes.

Mama’s sickness gives Esperanza a huge wakeup call in which she is forced to grow up and fast. Her mountain is when she tells her mother “Don't worry. I will take care of everything. I will be la patrona for the family now.” This quote shows character development on behalf of Esperanza who is now strong and confident in her self and has set up a mission to pay the medical bills and get abuelita

Esperanza is faced with several major events that forces her to mature at a young age. In these events readers can see how she grows as her emotions change. In the beginning of the book, Esperanza’s father passes away (p. 22) and their family home on the ranch, El Rancho de las Rosas, catches on fire (p.40). This is the beginning of Esperanza's quickly changed young life. As a young girl she realizes life will never be the same. She once was wealthy and lived life with the help of housekeepers. Papa also had field workers to help with his needs on the farm. Raised with a positive perspective on life, her hopes and dreams are soon challenged. Esperanza is forced to leave everything she has ever known to move to the United States. The fire is symbolic because the family is forced start all over, in life, along with her social

Esperanza pricked her finger with a thorn and her blood dropped rapidly, that was a sign for bad luck. She thought that it might be true and worried about it. This means that she worries a lot, soon after she did that her papa had died out in the fields. Then Tio Luis came out to Esperanza’s house and asked Esperanza’s

As a young girl Esperanza is asked one day where she lived by a nun from her school who happened to be walking by. Now before this moment Esperanza never really notice her living situation, all she knew is that her parents loved her and wanted her to go to school. When the nun rudely said “You live there” (Cinceros 5) and pointed at the shoddy apartment building, it is then Esperanza started to build a dream inside of her head because of the look on the nun’s face, unsatisfactory.

It means sadness, it means waiting” (10). Not only is Esperanza’s name a way to trace her origin but it is also symbolic to the book as a whole. Her name illustrates how the Spanish inside her is sad and it is putting her in a position that is weighing her down and keeping her from becoming someone. The English counterpart is what is keeping her going and motivated to find a way to escape Mango Street and all it encompasses. Just like a genuine immigrants dream when they come to America, Esperanza’s name means “hope” and she uses this hope for a better life to “One day I will pack my bags of books and paper. One day I will say goodbye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever. One day I will go away” (110). Cisneros uses the name of her character to give her a place in a Latino setting and start expounding on her thoughts and feelings that come with that life.

Her father’s grief progresses to a domino effect as Esperanza establishes a stronger connection towards him and her family as a whole. Esperanza's realization of the importance of family and her growing mindset, interplays into the novel’s overall theme: the idea of home. The idea of home for Esperanza was initially introduced into the novel as a physical dream, but has transitioned into what exactly “home” feels like. Esperanza soon realizes that her ideal home includes a sense of family, in which her perspective begins to change. The grief that Esperanza observes by her father leads her into thinking about the loss of her father, recognizing that she can not do without her father and family. Esperanza’s detailed observations and thoughts of her father in this burdened situation advances her definition of home to an emotional reference which includes her connection to her

Esperanza does not want to be like the other women in her town, always locked inside and the only freedom they have is a small window. Her great-grandmother was a role model, she showed Esperanza the way she did not want to

Personally reading The House on Mango Street made me realize how much I truly relate to Esperanza. The beginning of the book is more to where I relate because for me as well, I moved around alot when I was younger. I definitely relate to the first chapter the most.

After Esperanza reads Aunt Lupe one of her poems, her aunt tells her that she might be able to use her writing to be set free and find her real identity; however, Esperanza didn’t figure out the real meaning of her aunt’s words until her aunt passed away. After her aunt dies, Esperanza is confronted by shame and guilt, which also happen to be the feelings that Aunt Lupe felt in the years that took her to pass away (she was embarrassed to be a burden on her family for so many

Esperanza said, “She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow […] Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window.” (11) Esperanza looks up to her mother and her many good qualities, but she wants no part in having a spot by the window her whole life. Esperanza wants to be independent, with a job, and a dream house of her own, but since she is a girl, she is doubted by society. This is a prime example of sexism in the story and it shows how people treated women unfairly back then and gave them less potential than which they would have today. This gives the women in Esperanzas society less hope of becoming what they dreamed of being, and giving them less drive to achieve their goals.

"She sits at become afraid to go outside". The leave home, she would need permission. She evolves from a victim of child abuse to a slave-like wife. Esperanza sees this despair throughout her story.