Coming of age on Mango Street

In the second half of Sandra Cisneros’s House on Mango Street, 12-year-old Esperanza starts to grow up.  In the first half of the book, Esperanza was young, insecure and unaware of others.  In the second half of the book Esperanza grows physically and emotionally more mature and wants to figure out who she is.  She starts to express herself and understand others.

In the middle of the book, Esperanza’s body and feelings start to change.  She realizes she has hips, which makes her a woman, even though she’s not yet sure how to use them (pp. 49-50).  She gets her first job but ends up befriended by a coworker who forces a kiss on her (pp. 53-55).  She starts to get more interested in boys and likes when they’re watching her (p. 48) and starts dreaming about them (p.73).  Esperanza is growing up and changing but not sure how to deal with it.

Esperanza is trying to figure out who she is.  She feels like she doesn’t belong.  Esperanza doesn’t want to be from her community.  She describes all the different women in her neighborhood. There’s Mamacita who was brought to this country by her husband and is stuck because she can’t speak English (pp. 77-78).  There’s Rafaela who is locked in her house by her husband because she’s too beautiful (pp. 79-80).  There’s Minerva whose husband beats her, leaves her, apologizes and is let back home again and again (pp. 84-85).   Then there’s Esperanza’s own mother who was smart but quit school because she didn’t have nice clothes (pp 90-91).  To Esperanza, all these women are sad and misunderstood.  Esperanza wants to be “beautiful and cruel” and powerful (p. 88).

Towards the end of the book, Esperanza starts to express herself.  She knows what’s right and what’s wrong.  She gets mad when the boys are trying to take advantage of Sally and Sally goes along with it (pp. 96-98).   She learns whom she can trust after Sally leaves her and the boys attack her (pp. 99-100).  As hard and unpleasant as her community is for her and other women, Esperanza realizes that Mango Street is part of her and has made her the person that she is.  She learns that through her writing, she can tell her stories and show her feelings and help herself and others understand her community.  By writing about Mango Street, Esperanza releases her anger and hopes to inspire others to understand and help the people in her community.