She dreams of both marrying read full character analysis. Characters of the house on mango street novel summaries. Esperanzas sense of selfidentity is also interwoven with her familys house. The house on mango street chronicles a year in her life as she matures emotionally and sexually. A benign presence compared to most of the abusive father figures in the book. Marin sells avon makeup and spends most of her days babysitting, and so cannot leave the house. Esperanza cares for nenny, though she also finds her annoying because of her dreamy, childish attitude.
Character analysis esperanza cordero the house on mango street. Esperanza meets lucy and rachel shortly after moving into the house on mango street. Esperanza the house on mango street is written through the eyes of. Sallys father, sallys father makes sally come straight home from school. The house on mango street chronicles a year in her life as she matures emotionally and. Shoes in the house on mango street frequently evoke images of sex and adult femininity, and for esperanza they illustrate the conflict she feels between her emerging sexual attractiveness and her desire for independence. Nenny understands esperanza in a way that not many other people do, though esperanza does not want nenny to.
Esperanza is the most fully developed character in the book. Throughout the book, we see esperanza reject her chicana. See a complete list of the characters in the house on mango street and indepth analyses of esperanza, sally, and nenny. A young girl esperanza befriends the same year she moves to mango street. Notes on characters from the house on mango street bookrags. Esperanza makes the connection between shoes and sex for the first time when she, lucy, and rachel try on highheeled shoes a neighbor gives them. The most notable thing about sally is that shes a bombshell.
Originally published in 1984, the novel enjoyed immediate critical acclaim, winning the before columbus foundations american book award in 1985. The house on mango street character analysis litcharts. Esperanza does not want to belong to her impoverished neighborhood and dreams. She cant play with those vargas kids or shell turn out just like them. The house on mango street is a classic or so i have heard, based on a teenager living in mango street. Esperanzas mother, is a selfless caretaker, as evidenced by the comfort esperanza seeks by. Esperanza is the narrator of the story and an adolescent chicana girl who is trying to find her place in the world. The house on mango street is a bildunsgroman, or coming of age story, so the reader can observe esperanza mature throughout the course of the book.
The novels heroine and narrator, an approximately twelveyearold chicana mexicanamerican girl. Now in its 25th year of publication, the house on mango. The house is a huge improvement from the familys previous apartment, and it is the first home her parents actually own. Based in part on cisneross own experience, the novel follows esperanza over the span of one year in her life, as she enters adolescence and begins to face the realities of life as a young woman in a poor and patriarchal community. Mexican american author sandra cisneross novella the house on mango street is the story of a latina girl named esperanza cordero who grows up on the mean streets of an innercity neighborhood. Structured as a series of vignettes, it tells the story of esperanza cordero, a 12yearold chicana girl growing up in the hispanic quarter of chicago. Her adventures, her dialogue exchange with eccentric characters l it says a lot about a book when your favorite part is the authors foreword and im not kidding when i say the effort put into those few pages before the actual book starts was more obvious than that given to the stories. Esperanza is the heart and soul of this story shes our protagonist and narrator, and the. Esperanzas aunt lupe used to be beautiful like joan crawford, until she was struck down by a. Other minor characters including some, like lucy and rachel, nenny, even esperanzas. Nenny understands esperanza in a way that not many other. The house on mango street is a 1984 novel by mexicanamerican author sandra cisneros. Every book on your english syllabus summed up in a quote from the office. House on mango street character list esperanza cordero.
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