Esperanza

“The House on Mango Street” is a novel by Sandra Cisneros telling the tale of Esperanza, a Latino girl growing up in Chicago’s Latino section. I believe that Esperanza will go back to Mango Street. She will go back and help them. She will go back and “rescue” them from the place that she felt trapped and oppressed in. Esperanza would not be able to leave them there. She needs to fulfill herself before she can do that though.
    On page number 5, Esperanza says “I knew then that I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it. The house on Mango Street isn’t it.” Here, in the very beginning of the book, Esperanza sets out her goal for everyone to see. She wants a house. Her own house, though, not just any house, as you can tell from how she describes the one on Mango Street. This goal ends up being one of the only tangible things she can hold on to throughout the story.

The very last page, 110, in “The House on Mango Street,” Esperanza says “They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones who I left behind. For the ones who cannot out.” Esperanza knows that she can’t leave her family and friends behind, with out any trace of her. She wants to be able to help them. She can not help the people of Mango Street while she is still in Mango Street, so she has to leave. She must help herself before she can be of any use to others.

As said before, Esperanza wants to help herself and her family and friends. One of her main goals is to leave Mango Street, and she has to fulfill that goal first. If she does not, then how could she focus on other people? How could ANYONE focus on other people when they have something as big as that hanging on their mind?