House on Mango Street Essay example -- essays research papers

Esperanza is torn between deciding whether she wants to escape MangoStreet. She is embarrassed by the superficial display of her identity,but appreciates her roots. Her house is a wreck and the neighborhood,probably not much better off. However, she has loving family and friends.Although marriage has caused the suffering of many of the wowork force in herneighborhood, she realizes that she needs men to fulfill the new desiresshe attains as she hits adolescence.Through the novel, Esperanza matures both physically and mentally. Thefirst thing that struck me about this novel was that the chapters werevery short. I realized that the fibber is young and has a shortattention span, judging from her fragmented observations. However,Esperanza begins to mature and to develop a desire for men. While shesenses that many women are caged by men, they cannot be truly freewithout them.Most of the women Esperanza knows on Mango Street are either trapped intheir marriages or tied down by their chil dren. For example,Esperanzas grandmother. Esperanza does not want to inherit her placeby the window. She neither likes what she has already inherited fromher grandmother her name. Esperanza plays with words when she firstexpresses her dissatisfaction with her name. She says that in Spanish,her name means too many letters. It means sadness from the oppositeof esperar, which is desesperarse, it means waiting from the verbesperar. She settles on changing her name to Zez...