Analytical Essay Sample on “The House on Mango Street”

In the book The House on Mango Street in MLA format, titles of books are always underlined., the main character Esperanza, goes from being a young girl with low self-esteem to being a young woman seeking independence. As the reader As readers, the novel allows us to participate in Esperanza’s life as she goes through life changes. Her identity changes, and she begins to change her views on life, herself, and the people that surround her. At the end of the book Esperanza has become more mature and has become more comfortable in her own skin. Good!

Esperanza is a young Latina girl that has no feeling of belonging. Her family has moved a couple of times, so she doesn’t get the chance to get close to people. She grows up with a sister and brothers but doesn’t feel too attached to them because of the age differences and because the boys can’t talk to the girls outside of the home. She has very few friends but none seem to be “true” friends. At the end of the novel Esperanza has done a lot of growing up and has decided not to conform to the stereotypes that are imposed on young Latina girls.

In the novel, it is evident that Esperanza is a very shy and insecure girl. She feels very uncomfortable with herself and this leads to the uncomfortable feelings that she experiences when she is around other people. Be careful about overusing “very.” In most cases you don’t need it at all. She worries a lot about what others think of her and about the house she lives in. When she is at school, she is scared to tell people where she lives because she is ashamed of her house.

Although her house is nicer than the place she used to live in, she does not feel content. An example of the inferiority that she feels can be seen in the chapter called, “The First Job”. Periods and commas are always inside the quotation marks.In this chapter she has begun working and has uncomfortable feelings about lunchtime. Since she doesn’t know anyone, she eats lunch alone because she is too scared to go make friends with her co-workers.

Timidness and fear allow for Esperanza to be very naive to others around her that who desire to cause her harm. Esperanza wants so much to have friends that she does just about anything for them. She even thinks about paying people to be her friends. In one instance in Esperanza’s life, she takes money from her younger sister so she can buy a bike with two other girls and they can share it. These girls didn’t want Esperanza to get in on the deal with them because she was there their friend, but because they were five-dollars short. Esperanza is so naпve that she doesn’t see this, comma splice she thinks that the girls want to be her friend.

Esperanza’s naivetй leads to some unfortunate situations of betrayal. Esperanza becomes very excited when Sally invites her to the circus. Esperanza thinks she will have fun because she is told that the circus is such a fun place by magazines, movies and Sally. Esperanza is deceived because instead of going to the circus to have fun, she goes to the circus and is raped when Sally leaves her alone with a boy.

Esperanza’s perception of herself is very negative. Although just about every young adolescent girl goes through a stage when they watch pronoun agreement, you have girl-they feel unattractive, brainless, and insecure Esperanza seems to feel all these emotions in a large degree. She seems so unhappy with her life that at times I thought avoid the “I” statements the book would end with her committing suicide. I think that a lot of the emotions that she is feeling are because she doesn’t seem to have any family support or any positive role models. It is hard to keep your head on straight when your family shines you off, you don’t have any close friends to talk to, and most of the time you hold things inside. She has such a pessimistic outlook on life that she is causing herself pain.

Esperanza comes to a realization that the world isn’t nice and pretty with the help of a music box. She thinks of it as a beautiful box with beautiful flowers painted on it and then realizes that the music box is also deceiving. It is just an old wood box with holes in it. She thinks of the music box as something synonymous to life. She blames herself for being stupid and thinking that life is great when in reality it is not.

Esperanza’s personality is also due to the gender separation that she experiences. Her brothers Kiki and Carlos are close run on sentence she says there their relationship is one of comrades, very different than the relationship she has with her sister Nenny. Esperanza describes her relationship with Nenny as them being playmates; Nenny is “too young to be my friend” (Cisneros 8).” Watch the placement of your quotation marks. The citation is inside the period, but outside the quotation marks. Esperanza is very aware of how alone she is when she compares herself to a “red balloon, a red balloon tied to an anchor” (Cisneros 9)”. She sees herself different from everyone and thinks she is raised high like the balloon so that everyone can see and judge her. The anchor that is tied to the balloon is Nenny. Esperanza isn’t just Nanny’s playmate but she is also responsible for taking care of Nenny, which she feels, is an anchor that is keeping from making friends.

Though Esperanza is a young girl with low self-esteem, she is still very optimistic of one day having a “house of her own”, one she can be proud of. She decides to fight the war against machismo and be a woman that doesn’t need a man to take care of her. She refuses to neither either tame herself nor or wait for a husband, and this rebellion is reflected in her leaving the “table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate (Cisneros 89).” By doing this Esperanza is maintaining her own power and is challenging the cultural and social expectations one she is supposed to fulfill. She wants to create her own individuality by making the decision to not “ lay (her) neck on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain (Cisneros 88).” Esperanza is not like the typical Latina who grows up in a big city whose goal is to grow up to be a wife and mother. She doesn’t want to fit the typical role instead she wants to become independent from the stereotypes that are imposed on her by Latin society.

Through out the story Esperanza begins by having an “anchor”, and then as she grows up and matures she refuses to have a “ball and chain.” She changes in the story and goes from being a young shy girl that doesn’t belong to a young self-empowered woman. She well not allow herself to fall into society and will fight the war against machismo.

Although through the whole novel Experanza wants to leave her house on Mango Street, at the end we find out that she does want to come back. Esperanza wants to come back and help those that won’t be so as lucky as she is to leave Mango Street. She is aware that she can never leave Mango Street because it is part of her roots and has influenced her dreams and her personality. The fact that she now realizes this shows how much she has matured.

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