Most of Esperanza’s female neighbors are abused or oppressed by their fathers and husbands, so Esperanza knows she wants to escape such a male-dominated society, but at the same time she must deal with her own emerging sexuality and her desire to be loved by men. There is also Minerva, who writes poems like Esperanza, but is already married with two children and a husband who beats her.Įsperanza goes through puberty and matures sexually during the book, beginning with an adventure walking around in high-heeled shoes with the other neighborhood girls. Rosa Vargas is imprisoned by the impossible task of taking care of her many unruly children. Alicia must stay up all night studying so she can graduate from college and get a good job someday, but her father makes her wake up early to make tortillas and do the chores. There is Mamacita, who does not leave her apartment because she is afraid of the English language, and Rafaela, whose husband keeps her locked up because she is beautiful. While some of these portraits involve eccentric or memorable men ( Meme Ortiz, Geraldo, or Earl), most of them involve women who are trapped in some way. While exploring her world, Esperanza experiences the shame of poverty, the unfairness of racism, and the beauty of poetry and music.Īlong with chronicling Esperanza’s growth, the book’s vignettes also move through brief descriptions of her neighbors. These three, along with Esperanza’s little sister Nenny, have many small adventures in the first part of the book, including searching through a labyrinthine junk store and learning from an older girl named Marin. Esperanza makes friends with two other Chicana girls of Mango Street, Rachel and Lucy. Over the course of the year Esperanza grows emotionally, artistically, and sexually, and the novel meanders through her experiences with her neighbors and classmates. The house on Mango Street is an improvement over Esperanza’s previous residences, but it is still not the house she or her family dreams of, and throughout the book Esperanza feels that she doesn’t belong there. The story encompasses a year in Esperanza’s life, as she moves to a house on Mango Street in a barrio (Latino neighborhood) of Chicago, Illinois.
The book is told in small vignettes which act as both chapters of a novel and independent short stories or prose poems.
The House on Mango Street is a bildungsroman (coming-of-age story) of a young Chicana (Mexican-American) girl named Esperanza Cordero.
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