Category: The House on Mango Street

Leaving the Haunted House, Tasting the Mangoes

It seems that there is no other author than Cisneros who could describe the Life of the Mexican Americans with its moments of happiness and grief. Because of her incredible ability to create a mirage that resembles reality so much, readers can plunge into the world of make-believe and feel the salt drops of truth on their lips. Speaking both to the reader’s mind and his/her soul, Cisneros makes him/her believe in her vision of the world and see people with the eyes of a little Mexican girl in her novel The House on Mango Street.

The Stings of the Aching Pride: Between the Personal and the Cultural

There is hardly anything more painful than the scornful sympathy of strangers. Understanding that the rest of the people consider her environment filthy, Esperanza feels wounded to the quick and loses the rest of the hope that her heart still holds. Neglected children are, perhaps, the saddest phenomenon of modern society, and Cisneros understands it well.

I had to look where she pointed – the third floor, the paint peeling, wooden boards pap had nailed on the windows so we would not fall out. “You live there?” The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded. (Cisneros 128)

Cisneros raises a very important issue, noticing the thin border between sympathy and humiliation. Indeed, sometimes this line becomes almost invisible for people to spot it and not to hurt others’ feelings. This is the scorn of the adults that makes Esperanza feel so neglected and ashamed of herself, her life, and her parents.

Reconciling to the Hardship of Life: In the Lapse of Comfort

No matter how rich one’s life is, it is nothing without comfort, whereas a comfortless life spiced with a handful of miseries is unbearable. Making her character pass the ordeal of life without comfort, Cisneros makes the reader see the obvious pieces of the ordinary which (s)he usually passes without notice, and comfort is one of them.

What Esperanza dreams most about is comfort. Knowing that there is always a place where you can hide from all the problems for a while is rather soothing, but the girl does not have the opportunity to resort to it. What she is left with is only dreaming about the way an ideal house must look, which she does when she turns completely desperate and weary.

And our house would have running water and pipes that worked. And inside it would have real stairs, not hallway stairs, but the stairs inside like the houses on TV. And we’d have a basement and at least three washrooms so when we took a bath we didn’t have to tell everybody. (Cisneros 127)

One of the most touching parts of the book, the piece where Esperanza thinks of the way the house of her dreams must look like, is the symbol of all people’s hopes and aspirations. It brings tears to the readers’ eyes, both making them sad and comforting them. It sounds like the chime of the old clock in the dining room and speaks of the family values more convincing than the staunchest moralists of the world altogether.

Looking for a Shelter: All That It Takes to Safety

The house in Cisneros’s story is not merely a building of concrete and stone. It embodies the ruined hopes for safety that Esperanza lacked and which she needed so much. The desire to have what people call the real home is what every single line of the novel is shot through with:

They always told us that one day we would move into a house, a real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn’t have to move each year (Cisneros 127)

The wish to stay in the place where things will be fine and where there will be no dreadful feeling of hanging over the abyss. This abyss has a lot of names, among them: despair, fear, and agony, and falling into this pit is inevitable for Esperanza. Longing for the place which she will be able to call home and where she will feel safe, the girl becomes stronger, yet this strength costs her too much– it has taken Esperanza’s hope.

Although it took Esperanza time to understand that there is a place in her heart to cherish hope for a real home. Although her heart was still weak and aching, she still felt that this was the stronghold of her safety, her heart, and her home. The changing environment which she was so used to live in was not the place where she belonged; the real hearth and home were all that time within her reach.

I knew I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t. The house on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being, mama said. Temporarily, said papa. But I know how those things go. (128)

Mixed with despair, the wish to have a place where the girl could feel secure stings Esperanza, and she knows that she will not be able to stifle the pain until she finds the place where she belongs. Moreover, she is sure that she never will, and this is the most tragic thing about this child who became an adult so fast.

Works Cited

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on the Mango Street. Arte Publico Press, Houston, TX, 1988. Print.

Introduction

The House on Mango Street (1984) by Sandra Cisneros is a novel telling the story of Esperanza, a young Latina who moves to Chicago and grows up in a community of Puerto Ricans and Chicanos. The main goal in Esperanza’s life is to become a free and independent woman who makes her own decisions, and her dreams were fueled by observing the many people trapped in the slums of Mango Street. Since the novel is concerned with a girl growing up as a Chicana, it delves deep into the topic of cultural identity in the context of prejudice and suffering.

Esperanza’s Search for Independence

Esperanza’s ideas of autonomy are reflected in her desire to own a house. According to O’Reilly Herrera, the house represents the various structures of social, political, and economic power (192). For Cisneros, the house on Mango Street is a symbol of all forces that oppose Esperanza as a woman, a writer, and a member of a minority. The same way in which the main character struggles to be recognized as an individual of female, communal, and literary identity, the same way she wants to have a new house all for herself, not the one where she lives: “I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it.

The house on Mango Street isn’t it” (Cisneros 2). The struggles of the main character for identity and independence are even reflected in her attitudes toward her name. “In English my name means hope. In Spanish, it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting” […] “I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees” (Cisneros 4).

Discovering Identity

In the girl’s quest for becoming independent, she slowly discovers different symbols that made it possible for her to build an identity. The imaginary house is the first step towards finding Esperanza’s individuality because it gives her the courage to start writing. Her name, given after her grandmother who had an extremely hard life, also encourages the girl to stand against the bad treatment and avoid ending up as a failure. The new sense of identity and belonging to a community takes a new turn when Esperanza meets three sisters from Mexico, whose appearance is akin to those of fairy godmothers.

The three sisters teach the girl a very important lesson: “when you leave you must remember to come back for the others. A circle, understand? You will always be Esperanza […] You can’t erase what you know. You can’t forget who you are” (Cisneros 105). This advice is crucial to Esperanza’s understanding of who she really is. The self-knowledge about her present and past shape the girl’s identity, and the power of writing allowed Esperanza to retell and remember history, which gave her a sense of being special and independent.

Concluding Remarks

Esperanza’s life in The House on Mango Street came full circle: when searching for identity and autonomy, she forgot who she is. She overlooked her Mexican heritage, the importance of Chicana feminism, and the fact that who she is making her special. At the beginning of the novel, Esperanza’s protest against the orthodox encourages the search for identity. At the end of the novel, the search ends with the young woman gaining control over her talent for writing.

Works Cited

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. Vintage Contemporaries, 1984.

O’Reilly Herrera, Andrea. “Chambers of Consciousness: Sandra Cisneros and the Development of the Self in the Big House on Mango Street.” Bucknell Review, vol. 39, no. 1, 1995, pp. 191-204.

The interconnection between individuals, society and local communities is a network that defines life and choices people make.

Every situation is individual and people and their actions are framed by the conditions and circumstances of their personal lives, as well as those of people in the close circle.

“The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros describes the life of a child who goes through hardships of being poor, having personal dilemmas and understanding the surrounding world. It focuses on the great influence of community on an individual and vice verse.

From the very beginning, the reader is familiarized with the previous life and hardships of a character whose name is Esperanza. At twelve year old, girl talks about the constant moving that goes back far in the past, so that she does not even remember all the places of residence.

The start familiarizes the audience that both family and the little girl have grave financial problems, as well as problems with the community they reside in (Cisneros 4).

The close relationship between individual people and families is established within the community and it becomes one of the reasons people feel unable to continue living in the area.

In case of the family Esperanza describes, the financial resources do not allow them to move into a nice neighborhood or a house and thus, they are forced to find living quarters in communities that have detrimental life conditions and people are not very kind to each other.

As parents want best for their children, the reason for Esperanza’s family to move out in a search of a better place becomes obvious.

Another theme mentioned in the book is the relationship between people’s background, race and how the outside majority community views others. Hispanic population has often felt pressure and unequal treatment form the American population.

The United States communities felt that people with Hispanic background influenced the economy and the state of affairs of workforce and general market demands.

Esperanza describes whole communities of people that affect the way minorities feel about themselves and such conditions have a negative result on individual securities and happiness of people.

It is especially noticeable, having in mind the insecurities that a little girl already has because of her family’s financial condition. Racial alienation and segregation from the rest of community has a lot of pressure on Esperanza.

While grouping up, a young mind is very sensitive when the whole nation of people presses on the psyche of minorities and makes individuals feel unwanted.

An interesting connection takes place between the way Esperanza feels about herself and the surrounding women. She observes how women are treated and experiences the community by herself. She starts noticing boys and begins to feel a want to have their attention.

Esperanza is surrounded by girls who have had relations and this becomes a whole new world for her. This is the time when she looks deep inside herself to find out that she has matured.

It has been known that girls become developed earlier than boy and this is another issue that Esperanza has to understand and deal with.

Everything changes when she gets abused and she learns that reality can be extremely harsh sometimes. This has a direct connection to the way women are treated in her community.

One of the biggest examples is Rafaela and the way she gets treated by her husband. As she is not allowed to go out because she is beautiful, she is forced to be confined in her house (Cisneros 82).

This is representative of the society and how men have been dominating women for such a long time.

Esperanza understands her pain, just as other women’s. When she talks about Mamacita and her want to go back home, it is heartbreaking to the reader that she was unable to adapt to new conditions.

She becomes homesick and despises the new world and the English language. The fact that her child learns to speak American has a great effect on her self esteem and she becomes even more saddened (Cisneros 78).

Esperanza can feel the pain of all women in her community and she learns a lot by observing the social make-up and how women are treated.

The author draws a unique line between individuality, community and person’s independence. One of the signs is the way Esperanza talks about trees on Mango Street and how she admires them. This points to a theme of people feeling trapped and lonely, so far as to identify with trees.

The community that surrounds individuals becomes a heavy burden and a vicious cycle that does not allow anyone to escape. When Esperanza’s family moves to a house, she is still very much unpleased with the ways things are turning out.

Her dreams were filled with a beautiful house that has a garden, green grass and all the pretty images form themselves into the only goal Esperanza can think off. Her focus is to escape the life of poverty and buy the house of her dreams.

The home that the girl sees in her mind is an escape from the harsh reality of the world she lives in. It is representative of a sense of belonging and a corner where she can escape to.

All the major themes of the book unite into one that describes the external pressures on a young mind. Esperanza is an example of a person who notices everything around her but is unable to change things.

She becomes trapped by the community, the views of the society and personal understanding. As she spent her whole young life in moving and searching for a better place to live, she cannot compare any other way of life to her own.

All she has left is to imagine a beautiful house that is her only path out of the world she does not want to be a part of. Racial separation, poverty, social role of women and her personal determination to change the circumstances become a force that keeps reminding of itself.

Esperanza is unable to get used to such cruelties that people suscept each other to and she wants to get far away.

The book very precisely illustrates the lives of people who suffer all around. The majority of the population does not notice that a lot of families have to struggle to make ends meet and feed their children.

The governments are mostly helpless in changing the social order that has been established for a long time. In the modern world, conditions have become better for those less fortunate but nonetheless, it is far from perfect, so books like this are very valuable and needed.

Works Cited

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. London, Great Britain: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004. Print.