The House on Mango Street

Description

Twelve-year-old Esperanza Cordero spends a formative year in a poor Chicana neighborhood of Chicago, where her family’s run-down house on Mango Street falls painfully short of the home she imagined. In brief, closely observed vignettes, she studies relatives, friends, and neighbors while confronting the pressures placed on girls and women by poverty and a patriarchal community. Friendships and the changes of puberty bring new freedom, embarrassment, danger, and self-awareness. As Esperanza begins writing poetry, her observations become a way to understand Mexican American identity, race, class, sexuality, and her desire to leave. The novel’s compact form captures a consciousness learning that escape, belonging, and responsibility to one’s community may pull in different directions.

Themes