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The House on Mango Street

Image result for the house on mango street cover
by Sandra Cisneros

PLOT SUMMARY

Esperanza, the protagonist, is about twelve years old at the novel’s opening. She lives in a small Chicago community where most inhabitants are of Latin descent. Her house is situated on Mango Street; however, Esperanza would hardly call her abode a house. While the house is much better than her previous place, the dwelling is a small flat with crumbling brick and mismatched materials. In this small apartment, Esperanza has no space specifically dedicated to her. Cisneros’s dreamt-up neighborhood creates the perfect, cramped lifestyle in which Esperanza is forced to turn to her neighbors for experiences, new thoughts, and inputs: good and bad. Esperanza quickly makes friends with Rachel and Lucy who enter puberty right along-side her during this year in Esperanza’s life. The group of friends, plus Esperanza’s tag-along kid sister, Nenny, explore the neighborhood and have many adventures including wearing high-heels around town, buying a bike, and playing car-tag in a junkyard near Mango Street.

The second half of The House on Mango Street details Esperanza’s transition into adulthood. As the year goes on, Esperanza meets Sally. Sally shares Esperanza’s age and neighborhood; however, the surface comparison stops there. Sally’s escape from her abusive household is pursuing boys. Her beautiful hair and mature attitude make her pursuits successful. Esperanza quickly befriends Sally for her mature nature but is not completely comfortable. Signaling the turn toward early adulthood, Esperanza’s friendship with Sally and the death of two adults in her family, Aunt Lupe and her grandfather, bring her closer to the adult world. She is kissed by an older man at her first job and sexually assaulted by a group of boys when Sally leaves her alone at the fair. During and after her friendship with Sally, Esperanza investigates the women of her community and learns from their past and present to develop her future.

Esperanza’s experiences being Sally’s friend and her observations of older women in her neighborhood make her desire for a house and space of her own stronger than ever. While she has wanted an actual house for a long time, Esperanza wanted it for a different reason like having to share a room with her sister or wanting her bathroom. After the year in The House on Mango Street, Esperanza wants her own space because she has seen what being corralled does to a woman’s mind and soul. She realizes her own space to think, learn, and write will be her best coping mechanism.

RATING AND REASONING

The House on Mango Street is the typical school read: short, but deeply meaningful. While I only moderately enjoyed the book upon first read, I believe that delving into the book with a class, reading club, or group of people will make it more enjoyable.


LINKS

Surface Summary by SparkNotes - https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mangostreet/summary/

Videos with Sandra Cisneros about her inspiration for the novel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXO8a6HYttw & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pyf89VsNmg

Penguin-Random House’s teacher’s guide to The House on Mango Street -  https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/27844/the-house-on-mango-street-by-sandra-cisneros/9780679734772/teachers-guide/

SparkNotes full book practice quiz - https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mangostreet/quiz/


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