House on Mango street review

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is the story about her in the United States of America as a Latina written in villents. She lives in the “Latinos” part of Chicago with Nenny (her sister), Kiki (her other sister), Carlos (her brother), and her mom and dad. Although her name is Sandra she uses the name of Esperanza, meaning hope in Spanish as she lives in her house that she isn’t proud. Esperanza’s first sight of the house on Mango Street isn’t what she neither hopes nor wants. What she would like is all that The House on Mango Street isn’t, small peeling painted walls with no yard in front and hallway stairs with one bathroom and two people per room, that is The House on Mango Street. She knows she can obtain better so she lives with high hopes of living in a “house on the hills” meaning a house like the rich. A house that nobody is ashamed to point and say I live there.

As the story unfolds she tells us she is coming to realize the cultural differences and daily sexism or machismo that take place and judge her daily. U.S.A. citizens have a better opportunity of a better life and when a different citizen is presented with the opportunity too many obstacles stand in their way. For example making mistakes like having a baby too early or dropping out of school.  Then part of the Hispanic heritage and the time period in wich women weren’t greatly appreciated men preferred their women not to be too smart and not too tough wich Esperanza was. This initiated Esperanza’s inner war against

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machismo. At this point she decides to no longer let men do what they want although sometimes it is unavoidable as in a part in wich she is held against her will and kissed by a stranger.

In Esperanza’s community there are all types of people but none of them are rich. She categorizes them as lucky and unlucky as well as unhappy by how they deal with their living for example Minerva is described as a person who’d lost all hope because she has to raise two kids in her own with  a husband who left that she later forgive because of her vulnerability. Minerva can only write poems to relieve her sadness. Her neighbors are mostly people who’ve lost hope and Esperanza is surrounded by them daily from bums in the corners who hit on her friends to abused women and unwelcoming neighbors. Yet she isn’t the type to lose hope as I’ve stated before. What she does is she uses the depressing setting to give her hope and relates to them to keep moving forward. As a motivation she uses four skinny trees to wich she can relate to her same hope of never letting anything bring her down. As she is obtaining friends she realizes more and more who this is not the environment she wants to live in. Through the book Esperanza becomes more and more decided in pursuing her dream. Her dream would let her escape Mango Street, escape from the sad future that awaits her and her race. It would let her become someone in that society.

I must admit that the book is lovely and the message is well expressed but for me it was unattractive and boring. The way she described the setting was great but for me it was lacking a bit more action and dialogue wich is what made it unattractive and boring.  Although I love the fact that she wrote in villents I still find it dry in content. The title of the memoir The House on Mango Street means that like a mango matures so did she on that

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tiny place in Chicago, she came to understand more about herself and others life. Besides the House on Mango Street played an important part in her life because if she wouldn’t of lived there she wouldn’t be who he is today. The title itself too is powerful because it doesn’t give enough inside on the book to turn it down but gives enough inside to pick up the book and read it.

 When one thinks of a house one expects to think about family, fun times, friendship, and neighborly surroundings but for Esperanza it is totally different. There are not enough fun times or neighborliness around. My favorite line is “Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s. A house all my own… A space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem.” Page 180. This is my favorite part of the book because it is the one that best expresses her dream as well as everyone living on Mango Street’s dream for a better life.