User:Truth Projected

"The House on Mango Street" Theme Analysis

“The House on Mango Street” talks about a young Mexican teen from different cultures and has faced many different situation within these cultures and places written by Sandra Cisneros who has a similar background as the author is also from Mexico.In “The House on Mango Street” there are many distinctive themes like “relationships”, “Hope” and  “Shame and Poverty” that show us the mood and tone of each unique vignette.

A theme that occurred in “The House on Mango Street” is“relationships” and it is mainly eventuated in the vignette: “Hairs” where Esperanza refers to the “relationship” between her and her family as “hairs.” For instance, when she says that everyone in her family has different “hair”meaning different personalities which lead to different relationships. Another example suggesting the theme “relationships” is when she start talking about her mom: “But my mother’s hair, my mother’s hair, like little rosettes.” This suggests that she prefers the relationship between her and her mother over other relationships within her and her family.

Furthermore, another main theme that eventuated in “The House on Mango Street” is “Hope” and thoroughly takes place in the vignette “My Name”; when Esperanza starts talking about how she hopes that she wont inherit her grandmother’s place “by the window”,another example suggesting the theme “Hope” is when Esperanza starts talking  about how she would like to baptize herself to change her name that apparently is “bad luck”this suggests that since she can’t re-baptize herself she “hopes” that her name is not really bad luck since she was born on an evil day which represents “bad luck”.

Finally, the third and final theme that occurred in “The House on Mango Street” is “Shame and Poverty” and it mainly eventuates in the first vignette: “The House on Mango Street” for instance, when an old lady Esperanza previously knew passed by the street and stopped to acknowledge Esperanza was unimpressed to see where Esperanza lives: “Where do you live? There,I said pointing up to the third floor.You live there? There.I had to look where she pointed-the third floor, the paint peeling, wooden bars Papa had nailed on the windows so we wouldn’t fall out.You live there?The way she said it made me feel like nothing.” this represents shame and poverty because the condition and description of the house is extremely bad which suggests poverty and also as for the shame aspect of the vignette  it is when  the old lady was encountering Esperanza and indirectly shaming her because of where she lives so this made Esperanza fell shameful and like “nothing”.Another example representing “poverty” is when Esperanza starts talking about how small the house is and how the bricks are crumbling and there is no yard.

Overall, the three themes “relationships”, “Hope” and “Shame and Poverty” are completely different compared to each other  and show us the different types of situations Esperanza has been through ,also, showing us Esperanza’s personality in handling each and different situations that Esperanza has been going through giving us an impression of Esperanza…