The House On Mango Street Analysis

Register to read the introduction… Esperanza lives in a small, rundown house on Mango Street. Throughout the story, Esperanza loses her innocence and matures. As the story begins, Esperanza is portrayed as innocent and young. She explains to the reader how the boys and the girls in her neighborhood seem to “live in separate worlds” (Cisneros 8). Esperanza does not seem to have an interest in the opposite sex. However, as Esperanza’s life continues on, she transforms into a young adult. She explains that someone “can never have too much sky. [Someone] can fall asleep and wake up drunk on sky, and sky can keep you safe when you are sad” (Cisneros 33). Esperanza shows the reader that she understands that she should make the best of what she has because she does not have much. Esperanza’s view about her life shows us that she has a mature voice. The theme of the novella is that the loss of innocence and the gaining of knowledge is what define …show more content…
In “The Monkey Garden,” Esperanza realizes that Sally is talked into kissing the boys. Esperanza brings out a brick in hopes of saving Sally from the boys, but Sally does not want to be rescued because she is flirting with the boys. Esperanza says that she does not understand why they laugh and “it was a joke [she does not] get” (Cisneros 96). The fact that Esperanza is unable to understand the idea of flirting, relates to the theme of losing innocence. In the next vignette, “Red Clowns,” Esperanza is sexually abused against her will at a carnival. Esperanza exclaims that she could not make the man stop when he says, “I love you, Spanish girl, I love you, and [presses his] sour mouth to [hers]” (Cisneros 100). Juxtaposed to “The Monkey Garden,” the vignette, “Red Clowns” shows the reader Esperanza’s loss of innocence because readers infer that she is raped. By juxtaposing these vignettes, the author heightens the contrast between innocence and adultery and gives Esperanza’s knowledge and