House On Mango Street Identity

Everyone has their own identity. Identity is the most essential factor for the reason every action is committed by an individual. However, finding ones true-self can be quite difficult since it is the strongest part of one’s personality. Many people identify themselves with ownership, whether it is devices, automobiles, or even a home. In the story, “The House on Mango Street”, Sandra Cisneros examines a young girl who has to deal with her family living in poverty. The family is constantly moving and they eventually have a home, but it isn’t the one the family talks about, more importantly, it isn’t the house the narrator dreams of. Throughout the story, there is a theme of identification which is portrayed by the ownership of a home. The narrator …show more content…
The narrator is the ideal person to tell the story since they are the ones that can give the utmost details, as Cisneros explains, “But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all. It’s small and red with tight little steps in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath”(119). As the narrator is discussing the house, she is embarrassed of, this direct connection of the story being told in first person point of view acknowledges a direct connection of believability. The reader trust the house is as the narrator describes it. When a story is told by third person point of view, some information can be misleading or exaggerated and the narrator can be unreliable. That is not the case for Sedaris, “My room was upstairs, and in letters home I described it as a ‘hunky-dory.’ How else to capture my peeling, unbuckled wallpaper, and the way that it brought everything together” (1334). Claiming the room, and owning it creates trust between the narrator and readers. As horrible as the room seems, the narrator claims it which is something one may be ashamed to own, but the narrator does and this makes the readers believe in him. The use of “my” and “I” gives this ownership of the home and how it defines the narrator. Ownership which is displayed in both stories when the narrators claim …show more content…
A home represents the person and whether it is a decent home or not, can convey a great deal about the individual. Ownership and one-self are intertwined and both stories have a theme of identity. The owning of a house assists the narrators in finding their true self. The narrator in “The Mango Street” did not like her house, but it revealed her true self, her family being in poverty and this home being the best they could at the time being. She had to accept that home and claim it as hers. In the story “This Old House”, the narrator’s identity is described in the home he wants and the apartment he has for a short time. It may not be a decent living place for many people, but it was for him. Everyone has their own identity and their living places reveals it. Both stories being in first person narration are beneficial for the readers as it offers intimacy, credibility, and a clear-cut