House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
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In the book House on Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros, a young girl named Esperanza has only one dream, to own a house of her own. She is a naive eleven-year-old girl who hasnt yet realized the darker side of the world. She learns that life isnt always easy and that it wont always turn out the way she wants it to. At the end of the book the reader are left wondering if Esperanza will ever return to the street that taught her so much.
There is a lot of evidence that shows that Esperanza will one day go back to her house on Mango Street in order to help her neighborhood. She knows what it is like to live in poverty. She will go help other people who are just like she used to be. It states in the vignette “Bums in the Attic”, she says “One day Ill own my own house, but I wont forget who I am or where I came from. Passing bums will ask, can I come in? Ill offer them the attic, ask them to stay, because I know how it is to be without a house.” (Cisneros 87) She will never forget the feeling of not having a stable home and she will always remember where she came from.
Many people believe that the character Esperanza is actually a young Cisneros and this book is a way to honor her life on Mango Street. In the vignette “Mango Says Goodbye” it states, ” They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out.” (Cisneros 110) This shows that although she moved on she still often thinks
about Mango Street, she will not forget the memories or the people that lived and were created there.
We are left, with the feeling that Esperanza will achieve her goals based on her dedication throughout the story and the vignettes. She never gave up on her dream of, one day, owning her own house. In the vignette “A House of My Own” it states “Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a mans house. Not a daddys. A house all my own.” (Cisneros 108) And all throughout the story she has shown that she will never give up on her dreams of owning a house of her own.