House On Mango Street

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a series of 44 vignettes describing the adolescence of Esperanza. These 44 vignettes, though at some points seem unconnected and unrelated, come back to the central symbol of the house. The homes described are a symbol of poverty and shame as well as a symbol of imprisonment, and this symbol reveals Esperanza’s future aspirations and themes of spousal abuse. The houses on Mango Street are a symbol of poverty and shame, and Esperanza realizing this starts her coming of age and ignites the longing for her own home. Esperanza’s house is “small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small [you’d] think there were holding their breath. Bricks are crumbling in places and the front door is so swollen [you] have to push hard to get in” (Cisneros 4). However, Esperanza wants a house that “would have running water and pipes that worked. And
Esperanza’s great-grandmother “looked out the window her whole life, the way so many sit their sadness on an elbow” (Cisneros 11) and Rafaela—her neighbor—“gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at” (Cisneros 79). Themes of spousal abuse arise as the home becomes a “prison…guarded first by domineering fathers, and second by domineering husbands” (Pagán). Esperanza does not experience this imprisonment herself, but vows to get “[A] house all my own…Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s” (Cisneros 108). This promise comes after Esperanza sees the other female figures in her life being oppressed, particularly Sally—a classmate—who “got married…young and not ready…she is happy…expect he won’t let her talk on the telephone. And he doesn’t let her look out the window” (Cisneros 102). Esperanza’s refusal to conform to her cultural belief is a result of the homes being a symbol for imprisonment and