The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros Plot Summary
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Early in the novel, Esperanza says that boys and girls live in different worlds, and this observation proves true of men and women in every stage of life. Since the women’s world is often isolating and grants women so little power, Esperanza feels women have a responsibility to protect and make life easier for each other. The boys and men in The House on Mango Street are consistently violent, exploitative, or absent, but their world is so foreign to the women that no woman rebels against the men or calls for them to change. Esperanza may call out for women to help each other in the face of the unchanging male world, but no one answers. The novel charts her life as she makes friends, grows hips, develops her first crush, endures sexual assault, and begins to write as a way of expressing herself and as a way to escape the neighborhood. The novel also includes the stories of many of Esperanza’s neighbors, giving a full picture of the neighborhood and showing the many possible paths Esperanza may follow in the future.
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At school, Esperanza feels ashamed about her family’s poverty and her difficult-to-pronounce name. She is not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one.” —The New York Times Book ReviewThe House on Mango Street is one of the most cherished novels of the last fifty years. As the vignettes progress, Esperanza matures and develops her own perspective of the world around her. Esperanza eventually enters puberty and changes sexually, physically, and emotionally, beginning to notice and enjoy male attention.
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At a neighbor’s funeral, three old sisters seem to read Esperanza’s mind and predict that she will leave Mango Street someday, but that she must not forget where she came from or the women still stuck there. By the end of the book, Esperanza is still in the same house, but she has matured and is confident that she is too strong to be trapped there forever. Her writing and story-telling lets her escape Mango Street emotionally, but it will also let her escape physically later through education and financial independence. And when she does leave, Esperanza vows to return for those who are not strong enough to escape on their own. The House on Mango Street is a bildungsroman (coming-of-age story) of a young Chicana (Mexican-American) girl named Esperanza Cordero.
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In lyrical language, a young girl discusses growing up in a lower-income Latino neighborhood. She tells her story in short vignettes, describing her friends, her family, and her neighbors, and her dream to have a "house all my own... Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem." Sally seems to represent the vicious cycle of domestic violence and repression felt by women on Mango street.
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Throughout The House on Mango Street, particularly in “No Speak English,” those who are not able to communicate effectively (or at all) are relegated to the bottom levels of society. Mamacita moves to the country to be with her husband, and she becomes a prisoner of her apartment because she does not speak English. She misses home and listens to the Spanish radio station, and she is distraught when her baby begins learning English words. Similarly, Esperanza’s father could not even choose what he ate when he first moved to the country, because he did not know the words for any of the foods but ham and eggs. Esperanza’s mother may be a native English speaker, but her letter to the nuns at Esperanza’s school is unconvincing to them in part because it is poorly written. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD.
Although the novel begins narrowly, with the immediate family and house as subjects, Mango Street itself, with its larger community, eventually occupies Esperanza’s life, with home and family constituting only the starting point. The first sections of The House on Mango Street introduce Esperanza’s storytelling style. Cisneros calls these short chapters “lazy poems,” because, like many poems, the chapters are short, do not tell full stories, and rely on the sounds of words for added meaning or emphasis. Some of the stories are just series of observations, while others contain more complete scenes.
The house, however, does have some significant advantages over the family’s previous apartments. The family owns this house, so they are no longer subject to the whims of landlords, and at the old apartment, a nun made Esperanza feel ashamed about where she lived. The house on Mango Street is an improvement, but it is still not the house that Esperanza wants to point out as hers.
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Cisneros, like Esperanza, dreamed as a child of having her own house, and she was able to achieve this dream through her literary successes. But the house she now owns in San Antonio, Texas has caused some controversy because of its bright purple color, which Cisneros chose herself. Some people argue that the color doesn’t fit with its historical neighborhood, while others support it as a statement of Mexican culture and Cisneros’s own creativity.
Revolving around a small house on Mango Street, the narrative explores themes of identity, women’s responsibilities, and the quest for self-expression. Esperanza’s journey is marked by a desire to escape the limitations of her environment and transcend the challenges faced by those in her community. Through her unique voice, Cisneros captures the complexities of growing up as a Latina in a society where economic and cultural factors intersect. Sally – She is one of Esperanza's closest friends and mentioned in several of the vignettes in the novel. The protagonist is attracted to Sally's way of being and considers her to be a true friend, she likes being around her. The House on Mango Street is considered a modern classic of Chicano literature and has been the subject of numerous academic publications in Chicano studies and feminist theory.
The character is impressed upon by these forces and they guide her growth as a person. Because the novel deals with sensitive subject matters, such as domestic violence, puberty, sexual harassment, and racism, it has faced challenges and threats of censorship. In spite of this, it remains an influential coming-of-age novel and is a staple piece of literature for many young adults. However, on one occasion she does not stay loyal to her and ditches her for a boy when a band of unruly men exploits Esperanza’s vulnerability. Taking this attack heavily, she starts telling about other such suppressive experiences. Specifically, the episode of the man older than her reminds her that sexual exploitation is an ill deeply rooted in the social psyche.
Esperanza is just a young girl from the barrio, hardly knowledgeable enough to generalize about the Chinese, and her observation suggests wisdom beyond her years. Most likely Esperanza heard such a theory from her mother or one of the other mujeres, or women, surrounding her. Esperanza accepts more responsibility for women as she matures, and as she does, she confronts other women’s indifference more directly. At first Esperanza is responsible only for her younger sister, Nenny, but her responsibilities grow when she befriends Sally. Esperanza tries to save Sally from having to kiss a group of boys in “The Monkey Garden.” However, when Esperanza tries to enlist one of the boys’ mothers to help her, the mother refuses. Later, Sally abandons Esperanza and leaves her vulnerable to male attackers in “Red Clowns.” Esperanza expects female friends to protect each other, and Sally does not fulfill this responsibility.
Esperanza's story is that of a young girl coming into her power, and inventing for herself what she will become. Dreams and beauty are spread throughout The House on Mango Street, and most often come as a means of escaping the harsh realities of life. The House on Mango Street is celebrated for its poetic prose, vivid imagery, and its investigation of universal themes. The novel has been widely studied in literature courses and has resonated with readers for its portrayal of the immigrant experience and the search for a sense of belonging. The house itself plays a very important part, especially in how the narrator reacts to it.
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