They play games such as skipping rope and ride their shared bicycle around the neighborhood, as well as explore the local junk shop. Ultimately her beliefs and her perception of people are changed.įor the first half of the year, the girls are still firmly rooted in childhood and are more than excited to make the very most of their youth. Marin is viewed as someone who is lives a fun rebelious lifestyle, and Esperanza looks up to her superior knowledge of womanhood. Esperanza goes on to describe all the things that Marin teaches her, “She is the one who told us how Davey’s the Baby’s sister got pregnant and what cream is best for taking off moustache hair and if you count the white flecks on your fingernails you can know how many boys…” (Cisneros 27). Esperanza describes one of her friends who influences her in more ways than she knows when it comes to understanding her sexuality. Esperanza doesn’t speak of this again, but her adolescence is tainted by it. In “The First Job” Esperanza talks about how she is taken advantage of by her boss at work, “I thought that I would because he was so old and just as I was about to put lips on his cheek, he grabs my face with both hands and kisses me hard on the mouth and doesn’t let go”. (Burcar, High heels as a disciplinary practice of femininity in Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street 9).Įsperanza experiences this sexual vulnerability first-hand when she is kissed by a much older man at her first job. On the verge of adolescence, the girls feel sexually vulnerable at times, such as when they stroll around their neighborhood in high heeled shoes. She, alongside her sister and her newfound friends, explore the neighborhood and have many adventures in the process. On moving to Mango Street, Esperanza makes new friends, among them Rachael and Lucy, who live along the same street. Although she is glad that they own a house, she is disappointed by it because it is not what she expected, even though it is a significant improvement from their previous residence. The family has lived in many different places, and Esperanza ponders on how much they have moved around throughout the years. It is the first house that they own as a family, and is located in an impoverished section of Chicago, Illinois. The House on Mango Street is a coming of age novel that explores the challenges of being different and the drive to carve out a place for yourself in the world as a young Latino woman.Įsperanza and her family, comprised of her father, mother, her younger sister, and two younger brothers moved to a house on Mango Street. The house that she and her family move into is the very first house they have owned, but Esperanza is disappointed with its dilapidated state and longs to own her own house.
The story deals with relationships, family, neighborhood and the aspirations of the main character to own her own house. It was published in 1984 and details a year in the life of a young girl, Esperanza Cordero, who moves to Mango Street, a Mexican enclave of Chicago, at the age of twelve. The House on Mango Street is a piece written by Sandra Cisneros, an American of Mexican Heritage.
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