The House on Mango Street - Essay Example

Before Keeler it was Paulina, and before that I can’t remember. But what I remember most is moving a lot” (Cisneros, 2009). This shows how Esperanza’s previous life experiences have blurred into one big experience—and not a very nice experience at that. Esperanza’s feelings of poverty and limitations are confronted in the crumbling bricks, small windows, ordinary stairs, and overall house structure. The strong feeling of disappointment in Esperanza is stronger than her illusions. Subsequently, this leads to Esperanza to believe that she does not fit within her own space.

In the short story “The House on Mango Street,” Sandra Cisneros initially describes a strong and persistent desire the family has for owning the house they have always dreamed about. The family didn’t always live on Mango Street; they had previously been moving around a lot, renting from place to place. This house is a completely new experience for Esperanza and her family because it is the very first house that they have ever owned. Esperanza described her feelings about finally moving into their own home: “The house on Mango Street is ours, and we don’t have to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with the people downstairs, or be careful not to make too much noise, and there isn’t a landlord banging on the ceiling with a broom.

But even so, it’s not the house we’d thought we’d get” (Cisneros, 2009). This shows mixed feelings of relief and disappointment all in the same instance. Esperanza’s family had been constantly living in a cycle of poverty and depression because they had to leave their previous apartment because the water pipe got broken and the landlord refused to fix it. Esperanza’s parents had always promised her that they would one day live in a real house with all the bells and whistles. Also, despite the fact that this family finally moved into their own house and achieved financial stability and better