The House On Mango Street Theme Essay

The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros portrays the life of Esperanza, a young girl from Chicago, who hopes to laugh at the carnival with her friend Sally. Instead, in the chapter titled Red Clowns, she is faced with the brutal sides of life. Esperanza is forgotten by her friend Sally, and left to stand at the carnival and wait for her to return. Esperanza’s lack of wisdom and experience causes her to misjudge the past actions of her own friend. Finally, she learns the ultimate lesson when she is violated by a man without reason. People are unpredictable and selfish, and trust is often misused in the hands of the innocent and inexperienced. All people misuse or misplace trust in one way or another. As Esperanza describes the traumatic series of events she says, “I was waiting by the red clowns. I was standing by the tilt-a-whirl where you said…but you never came, you never came for me” (99-100). By using the setting of the carnival, and then the character waiting alone, Cisneros creates a strong imagery that fosters a feeling of compassion in the reader. This compassion helps reveal just how selfish Sally acted. Esperanza ended up suffering for the mistake that Sally made, and by not returning for Esperanza, she abused her friends trust.

Berglin 2
Esperanza was also at fault because she decided to put her faith in Sally. …show more content…
She describes her torturous experience by saying, “Sally, you lied. It wasn’t what you said at all. What he did. Where he touched me. I didn’t want it Sally” (99). The author did not directly describe the experience, but flooded it with Esperanza’s thoughts of Sally. This made her agony so much more captivating for the reader. The man was selfish. He didn’t care about her feelings or listen to her. He just wanted what he wanted at her expense, and because of that, she may never be able to trust men in the same way ever