Summer Owens
Mrs. Arnold
Honors English 10
18 May 2015
The House on Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros
I read “House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros. The genre is non-fiction, and it is a story about a young Latino girl named Esperanza growing up in a poor neighborhood in America. The book was told in first person from the perspective of Esperanza, which I really enjoyed, because I got to know everything she was thinking when the event happened. This book is set in a poor Latino neighborhood in America around the late 1970’s and the early 1980’s. This was a time when Latinos were not looked upon as well as they are now, so there was discrimination against them as a whole, but especially the discrimination against Latino women is very prominent in the book. Even some of the Latino men in the book look down upon their wives. They make them stay in the house all day with nothing to do besides stare at the wall, and some of the fear instilled wives don't even want to leave because either their husband will beat them if they do leave or they do not speak English so they would not know what to do once out in the American world.
This book starts off with Esperanza and her family moving from different houses many different times throughout her life, but while living on Mango street she learns some very important life lessons and more about herself as a person. She has three younger siblings: Nenny, Carlos, and Kiki. Carlos and Kiki are Esperanza two younger brothers who she believes live in a different “boy” world and do not have to worry about the things her and her sisters do. Nenny is Esperanza’s little sister, although they are close and hangout, Esperanza does not consider her a best friend. She loves her sister, but she points out that one cannot choose their sister, and that is why they are not best friends. Esperanza goes to a school with many other American kids. They all pronounce Esperanza’s name weird, and this leads her to wish that she could change her name. Her name in English means “Hope” and personally I think that both the English and Spanish versions are very pretty. Esperanza meets her first friend in the neighborhood named Cathy. They agreed to be friends for about a week until Cathy moves out. Cathy is moving out because she believes the neighborhood is getting too rough, and clearly the reason she believes it is getting bad is because families like Esperanza’s are moving in. One day Esperanza and Nenny make friends with two other girls around their age their names are Lucy and Rachel. They become friends with them because Rachel and Lucy need one more dollar to buy a bike from a neighborhood boy named Tito. Esperanza gives them the money and they become great friends and bond over their new bike. A little while after Cathy moves out a new family moves in. They have a son named Louie and his cousin is named Marin. Marin is a saleswoman for Avon and she teaches the girls a lot about boys and many makeup tricks. One day another one of Louie’s cousins comes in a new Cadillac and takes the kids for rides, but as soon as he hears the police sirens he makes them get out and he drives away very fast. A few minutes later he crashes the car and leaves in handcuffs. The kids don’t realize what is happening so as he is riding in the back of the police car they are waving goodbye. Throughout the book Esperanza describes many of the people living in her neighborhood. One family that stuck with me was the Vargas family. Their mom is named Rosa and she has so many kids and no husband that she does not know what to do. Her children are out of control and at first the neighborhood tries to help, but eventually everyone just gives up. Esperanza grows up a little more as the book goes on and eventually gets a job at a photo developing store. As Esperanza gets older she starts to hang out less with Lucy and Rachel and more with a new girl named Sally. Sally comes from a very sad family. her dad beats her almost everyday and does not want her to grow up. Her mom is nice but also afraid of the dad and rubs lard on the Sally’s bruises. Sally is a girl very mature for her age. She is already off kissing boys and she gets married at a very young age in an area where it is legal to get married under 18. The book ends with Esperanza realizing that although she loves her family and friends she must leave, but must always look back on the wonderful qualities her home and family gave her.
I really liked a lot of the characters, but if I had to pick a favorite it would be Esperanza, but there were also some qualities that I did not really like about her. I admired how she cared for her brothers and sisters, she knew that being the oldest child in her that it was her responsibility to care for her younger siblings, and I believe she did a great job doing that. I also admired her for knowing that she wants to make more for her life than staying in that bad neighborhood, but that she will always look back on her home and her origins. The only quality that I did not admire about her was her ability to stand up for herself once she was older. She let people like Sally push her around and she let boys say things about her and do things to her, and she did not try to fight back. If I was in her situation I do not know what I would have done, but I wish she had just stood up for herself a little bit more. Overall, I do think that Esperanza was a great character.
There are many themes throughout the book. Some of the major themes include coming of age, the mistreatment of minorities and women, and the struggles that they go through each day. I believe the most important theme was coming of age, because that really helps her accept herself as a Latino woman, she accepts where she lives and remembers to always look back on where she came from, and she also realizes that she wants to make more of herself than those around her. Also tied in with the themes of coming of age and the struggles that women go through is how Esperanza is treated as she gets older. As she gets older men start to pay more attention to her and she is even sexually assaulted sometimes. Some examples include when she was a young girl riding bikes with Lucy and Rachel. An old homeless man said that he would pay them one dollar for a kiss, luckily they run away before anything happens. Another time Esperanza was sexaully asulated was when she was at work and she met a “nice” old man. He said it was his birthday and that he wanted a birthday kiss, and Esperanza did not think it was going to be a big deal, but then he grabbed her and didn’t let go, and this made Esperanza feel very uncomfortable. A final example of her being sexuallly asulated and men thinking they can just take advantage of her is when she is at a carnival and is waiting for her friend Sally. This big boy approaches her and begins to kiss her and hold on to her and Esperanza is screaming and crying and desperately trying to get away. This makes me very angry, because while he is saying, “I love you Spanish girl.” This led me to believe that he feels he can treat her this way, because her values and morals are not as high as other girls of a different race, and so if she had been a different race he would have not done this.
The writing style was in very short chapters. I really enjoyed this writing style, because it kept me more intrigued and interested as the book progressed. The only thing I think the author could have done better with is telling the reader about how old Esperanza was or at least how much time had passed throughout the book.
I think this book is definitely worth reading. It is told from the light-hearted perspective of a kid. It also sends across a great message that sometimes in our world that we live in is forgotten. We don’t think about not having a meal on our table each night or not wanting to go to school because we are embarrassed of our bruises. The book really made think about how much I have to be thankful to go to a nice school, have a loving family, and live in a nice house. That is why I would definitely recommend this book, it makes one think about what they have to be thankful and it also sends across a great message within a very short book.
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Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pyf89VsNmg
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