The House on Mango Street

About the Book

The House on Mango Street follows a twelve-year-old girl named Esperanza as she grows up in the city of Chicago. Throughout the book, Esperanza learns about family and friendship as she goes through her daily life as pre-adolescent. She meets a girl named Sally, who can be described as promiscuous and learns about some of the harsh realities about living in the city. Despite being the popular girl the boys love, the book later reveals that Sally has been abused by her father and eventually her husband, whom she marries at the age of fourteen. She notices that Sally has success with the boys that she envies throughout the book, and wants to be like Sally. However, she learns the harsh realities of sexuality, and is eventually raped. Furthermore, she learns the harsh reality of betrayal as Sally does nothing to help her as she is being assaulted. At the end of the book, she meets psychics who tell her that she will eventually leave the city of Chicago to become a writer, which she is so desperate to leave, and come back for “the ones [she] left behind”. In other words, she will come back and advocate for those who are not fortunate enough to leave the city and make charitable efforts to change the city’s condition, particularly Mango Street, where she lived.

Impact

This book has been in my life since I was in fifth grade. From fifth to eighth grade, I did not actually read the whole book, but several parts of the book, and I always thought to myself, “What is the point of reading this?” because I would read about her wanting to eat in the canteen or her hair, and that was all I got. In my middle school opinion, one could not understand what contribution this would make to the world. I did not read the book as a whole until my freshman year of high school, and I did not really like it until I read the end of the book because I thought the end was the most interesting part. I also liked Esperanza’s perseverance and that despite all her traumatic experiences in the city, she was going to be successful. I read this book again for my literature of childhood class, and I learned to appreciate it even more because I saw myself in adolescents just wanting the boys to like me and wanting to be popular. Unlike Esperanza, I never had that popular friend like Sally who got me into trouble, but I knew what it was like try and be popular. Like Esperanza, I learned later in life that there are bigger dreams one must pursue than popularity. Esperanza is striving to be a writer, and I am striving to be a fifth-grade teacher. Both of us have bigger contributions to make to the world than being popular.

Values

The House on Mango Street teaches the importance of perseverance as it pertains to following one’s dreams. No matter how bad one’s situation is, he or she will always find a way to achieve his or her dreams if he or she keeps trying. Furthermore, it teaches to pursue those dreams that will help one contribute to the world. Esperanza wants to contribute to the world by writing that people will help people find solace. Not only does she want to contribute to the world by writing, she wants to contribute by using her notoriety to help others living on Mango Street as well. In other words, she is making a contribution by trying to make Mango Street better.

Finally, it teaches people what it means to come of age. Coming of age is the moment when an adolescent realizes that his or her dream is more important than being popular, and unfortunately, Esperanza has this moment when she is raped, but she learns what it really means to contribute to the world. In the novel, we see the focus shift from her being popular to her focusing on her dream to be a writer. Although she expresses wanting to leave to pursue a dream early in the novel, her desire to leave is for selfish reasons, and it is simply because she does not want to be there. However, she still wants to leave in the end, but as she matures, she comes to the realization that she must not be so selfish, and come back for the people who are not as fortunate to leave. In addition to coming of age, Esperanza’s experiences help form her identity. Her desire to leave the city make her perseverant, and the fact that she find solace in writing makes her want to become a writer. The horrible city life makes her realize that she should come back to Mango Street to help change the city, which makes her very selfless and charitable. All these experiences shape her identity, and shows how she will contribute to the world.

Significance to My Students

The House on Mango Street teaches a similar lesson to what Looking for Alaska teaches, the development to one’s identity based on experience. Miles and Esperanza both have traumatic experiences that contribute to their identity and coming of age. However, their trauma is a little different. While Miles experiences death, Esperanza experiences sexual assault. Here, we see Esperanza learn how the harsh realities of what a city like Chicago can cause someone else trauma. From the beginning of the book, she is so eager to leave the city because she wants a better life. However, at the end, she knows she has to come back for “the ones [she] left behind” to help make a change to the city. This teaches students growing up in a lower socio-economic area, in which I probably will teach, that although they might want to leave their neighborhood or town, they should never forget where they came from. Furthermore, they should not forget the experiences their city or town brought them to make them who they are, no matter how traumatic. In fact, they should make where they came from a better place, so they can help “the ones [they] left behind become successful”. With this said, it is important to teach children to never forget where they came from throughout their K-12 schooling, and keep instilling in them that idea of home, and help them remember how that city or town has made a contribution on them.