How Does The Direct Characterization Of The House On Mango Street
The House on Mango Street shows the reader the life of a Mexican-American girl through the character's eyes. Only, the story isn't just about her ethnicity and poor environment, it's about finding a home and growing up. Everybody could learn a lot from her. She teaches people of determination, inner strength, and connections that can't always be explained. Cisneros' vignettes read like individual stories with one big purpose and that in itself is beautiful. In The House on Mango Street she creates a person with their own thoughts and ambitions that she has to actually work for, something most of us take for granted. "Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a man's house. Not a daddy's house. A house all my own," (108). She is dead set on having her own house. She has a goal in life and while it may seem simple to most people, it's just as important.
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When Esperanza, Cisneros' character, finds out her grandfather has passed and her father is devastated, she is the one who has to tell her siblings of his death.
"Because I am the oldest, my father has told me first and now it it my turn to tell the others. I will have to explain why we can't play. I will have to tell them to be quiet today," (56). Instead of wallowing and wishing to undo what cannot be undone, she supports her father and I think that is just one of the instances where she shows us how strong she is as a person. "Their strength is secret," (74). While she is described as a lonely girl with disobedient hair (6), she has enough willpower and brains to take her
far. Esperanza is jealous of her neighbor for having a place to call home. Alicia, who is only scared of mice and fathers, calls Guadalajara her home land while Esperanza cannot remember every house they've ever lived in. "I like Alicia because once she gave me a little leather purse with the word GUADALAJARA stitched on to it, which is home for Alicia, and one day she will go back there. But today she is listening to my sadness because I don't have a house," (106). While Esperanza is ashamed of her house, it is still somehow home. "No, Alicia says. Like it or not you are Mango Street, and one day you'll come back too," (107). As people we form connections by experience and living and loving. As much as Esperanza thought she hated her life there, she still connected to it; it became familiar. It became a part of her. So, like I said, everybody could learn something from Cisneros' character Esperanza. While she comes from a poor family, she is determined, strong, and loving. Esperanza leaves Mango Street, now a woman, and vows to return and make the neighborhood better.
When Esperanza, Cisneros' character, finds out her grandfather has passed and her father is devastated, she is the one who has to tell her siblings of his death.
"Because I am the oldest, my father has told me first and now it it my turn to tell the others. I will have to explain why we can't play. I will have to tell them to be quiet today," (56). Instead of wallowing and wishing to undo what cannot be undone, she supports her father and I think that is just one of the instances where she shows us how strong she is as a person. "Their strength is secret," (74). While she is described as a lonely girl with disobedient hair (6), she has enough willpower and brains to take her
far. Esperanza is jealous of her neighbor for having a place to call home. Alicia, who is only scared of mice and fathers, calls Guadalajara her home land while Esperanza cannot remember every house they've ever lived in. "I like Alicia because once she gave me a little leather purse with the word GUADALAJARA stitched on to it, which is home for Alicia, and one day she will go back there. But today she is listening to my sadness because I don't have a house," (106). While Esperanza is ashamed of her house, it is still somehow home. "No, Alicia says. Like it or not you are Mango Street, and one day you'll come back too," (107). As people we form connections by experience and living and loving. As much as Esperanza thought she hated her life there, she still connected to it; it became familiar. It became a part of her. So, like I said, everybody could learn something from Cisneros' character Esperanza. While she comes from a poor family, she is determined, strong, and loving. Esperanza leaves Mango Street, now a woman, and vows to return and make the neighborhood better.