Ww2
...childhood to adulthood. It is no accident that the book takes place in approximately her twelfth year, when she is too old for children’s games but not old enough to be a confident adult. This confusion is in evidence in her thoughts about boys (she dreams about having adventures with them, but is afraid to talk to them and is unable to stand up for herself when they harass her.) She thinks about what kind of power womanhood will bring (she admires Sally’s control over boys and makes up rhymes about the kind of hips she wants) but does not understand the responsibilities that accompany that power.
She searches for role models in her mother and her older friends, but finds none. Her mother and aunts are too domestic, with ambitions for their children and husbands and none of their own. Older girls like Sally and Marin seem to be more in control, but Esperanza quickly realizes that their power comes from their sensuality, and is fleeting and too dependent on men. Thus, Esperanza finds that she wants to become a woman she has never met: strong, independent, and free. She does not want to worry about whether her dress is clean or about cleaning up after a man. In fact, her desire for her own house, which is perhaps the most repeated element in the book, has very much to do with her growing independence. She rejects the house on Mango, and wants a house of her own, far away, where she can become what she wants to be.
By the end of the book, Esperanza has become determined to leave--but also determined to come back for "those who cannot out," to never forget where she came from. This seems to suggest that the culmination of her maturity is her understanding that Mango Street is part of her--she can’t deny that--but it does not have to control her, or determine her destiny.
Home and Identity
Cisneros has said that she began writing "The House on Mango Street" after...
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