House on the Mango Street

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House on the Mango Street

Introduction

Sandra Cisneros, the author of the novel, The House on Mango Street, comes from a Mexican family who are immigrants residing in Chicago and raising their children in the city’s poor section. The family just like other immigrants is in the United States for a better means of living. Cisneros quotes in the book, “I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it. The house on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go” (Cisneros, 5). This happens as they move around the city since the family does not have much money to settle for the expensive houses. They finally end up getting their own house on the Mango Street. Throughout the book, poverty comes out as an underlying theme as the family of the Cordero’s tries by all means to survive. Esperanza, the poor community in the setting, affects the children more and in different ways compared to the adults due to the community’s naivety. The safe haven provided by the community on the emphasis of relationships becomes the driving force behind the family’s exit from the Mango Street house. This essay tries to go deep into analyzing the theme of poverty that is evident from the beginning to the end of the novel. The author Cisneros, tries to bring out the theme of poverty by giving a clear outline of the life the Cordero’s family is living. To them, life in the mango street is not a bed of roses but a daily hustle that has be taken to make both ends meet.

Growing up in Poverty

Throughout the novel, money appears as a provider which makes it look just like another character in the book. Money is portrayed as an essential need which without it poverty will be very evident. Esperanza is given some two dollars by her sister Nenny and adds her three dollars she had saved to buy a bike. This clearly shows the level of poverty that the family is to an extend that a bicycle would require them to save for such a long time.  This high level poverty is what acts as the driving force for Esperanza and even makes her to break away from all the other girls in the hood in search of a better life. She is determined to get out of the poverty around her and even quotes, “one day I will say goodbye to Mango. One day I will go away” (Cisneros, 110). Her reason to get away from the Mango Street life is to try and get a better life so that she can one day come back and help the less fortunate she left behind. She says, “they will not know I have gone away to come back. For those I left behind” (Cisneros, 110). She vows to come back after leaving since she is so determined to have the level of poverty in the street reduced.

Cordero displays some breakthrough to Esperanza her youth in vignettes entitled “cookie which is smart” she talks on how she became the way she was and what influenced her. Her mother was in capability of speaking at least two languages, she was a good singer where she sung opera and technician who was able to fix televisions (Cisneros, 111). Once she came out of her mother’s home, Cordero changed the routine ethics followed in their home and followed what was happening in new era of the world. She realizes that she has eroded her original character and that is why she does not want Esperanza to follow her ways. She goes ahead and tells her to shift to school and study hard in order to pass her exams. She does not expect Esperanza to be like her or her like colleagues. Esperanza comes in to realization that poverty was the main causative for Cordero to follow the direction of the world issues simply because she lacked the school requirements such as school uniform.

She had no clothes but she was very clever. The fact that she was under poverty situation during her study time, she had to quit the school and followed what world was offering by then for satisfaction of her needs although it seems likes she regrets a lot about the decisions she took at her first step of life. Poverty acted as the barring stone on success of her life especially the school based life (Cisneros, 120). The relationship of Esperanza with Cathy crops up simply because she takes the initiatives to move to other different communities. The reason that she gives about on her movement is that her neighborhood was bad. Alicia who is sexually abused is not willing to progress on the same kind of life anymore and she wishes to life a good life of no struggle. She is not willing to stay in the street and she wishes to have successful kind of life which is not from man. Esperanza is largely affected by kind of life led by the women who life on mango street and she feels it good to advice women to come out of there and seek for better kind of life. The poverty acts as attraction force that prevents those who are in the street not to think of better way of life but only living by the street (Cisneros, 126)