Response to House on Mango Street

Response to The House on Mango Street The main character in Sandra Cisneros’ novel The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is a complex young girl. From the outside I just pictured a young, Spanish girl that’s not very wealthy or amazingly beautiful. Just average. But then I got to know the character and learn that she wishes to be different from her grandmother. She was born in a year that is considered “bad luck” if female. Her grandmother was a wild woman and didn’t wish to marry. They share a name but she wishes for a new one. “I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees.” Esperanza always wishes to change herself and become something different, or unlike someone else. She looks up to Martin, an older, short skirt-wearing lady. “What matters, Martin says, is for the boys to see us and for us to see them.” Esperanza and her sister think of Martin as a role model and believe that what she does is what’s correct and that they should do the same. She wants to be noticed and act older, more mature. In the vignette A Rice Sandwich she wants to stay with the “special kids” that have a key to eat lunch. They got to wear the key so why should she? Esperanza also cares about her image and what she looks like to others. Honesty, who doesn’t? Lots of people say, “don’t listen to what other people have say” but it’s hard not to sometimes, even though we try so hard. She didn’t want to dance at the party because she didn’t like the shoes she had to wear with her new dress. “It doesn’t matter how new the dress Mama bought is because my feet are ugly” She feels unwanted and ugly. All she really craves is to feel wanted, needed. “I want to be all new and shiny. I want to sit out bad all night, a boy around my neck and the wind under my shirt.” She sees this fragile, beautiful girl staying out with a boy and wishes to have that. Esperanza doesn’t have very high self-esteem; no boys are chasing her or pleading for her