The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros 

rating: ★★★★ / 5

“marin under the streetlight, dancing by herself, is singing the same song somewhere. i know. is waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life.”

the house on mango street follows esperanza, a young chicana girl living in the latino section of chicago. each chapter is a vignette portraying her and her chicanx neighbors’ lives: cathy, whose family quickly leaves the neighborhood as chicanxs start to move in; lucy and rachel, two mexican-american sisters who live across the street from esperanza; and sally, who marries at thirteen to escape from her abusive father, just to land with another abusive relationship with her husband. 

like sally’s, these descriptions about esperanza’s neighbors shed light on the problems of male dominance. most of the female characters in house on mango street are oppressed and abused in one way or another. rafaela’s husband does not let her out of the house because she is ‘too beautiful’; alicia has to stay up all night studying because of her father, who forces her to take the place of their deceased mother; sally is objectified and sexualized by older boys and men, who take advantage of her– she is also beaten by her father because he fears her eloping with a man and ‘shaming’ their family as her sisters did; esperanza is sexually assaulted by a group of boys, which completely strips her of her innocence.

towards the end, the story returns to esperanza as she envisions chasing her dreams as a writer and leaving mango street behind—a physical embodiment of the restrictions placed upon her since early life, due to her social caste and ethnicity. but ultimately, she realizes that she cannot erase mango street from her completely. it has become a part of her, like everything it embodies has. she also realizes that she has to come back for the ones who did not have the power to escape their oppressive environment on their own.

♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣

one of the reasons i enjoyed reading the house on mango street so much was the adeptness with which the house on mango street manages to convey large societal issues like male oppression, racism, and socioeconomic disparity, through the lenses of a young girl. the novel seamlessly merges these heavy social themes with the common themes of a buildongsroman– identity, belonging, and the slow waning of childhood innocence. in many books with a young narrator and mentions of societal problems, the narrator’s voice is distorted so that it feels too mature and defined. however, this isn’t the case with the house on mango street.

but the ultimate reason why i love the house on mango street for its universality. it is relatable to anyone who has experienced the plight of being placed in two different cultures and expected to uphold both values. the novel explores the duality of cultures through esperanza and her mexican-american heritage, which clashes with the foreign american environment she is thrown into. in this vein, i think the house on mango street is as much a classic as any hemingway or john steinback is.