Tiffany Scott
English 1020
Dr. Hall
5/10/2015
The House on Mango Street
The house on Mango Street was based on the life of a little girl named Sandra Cisneros. She wrote the book based on her life growing up. She was born in Chicago in 1954 where she had six brothers and was the only daughter. Growing up, her mother and father moved Cisneros and her brother around a lot. “Because we moved so much, and always in neighborhoods that appeared like France after World War II, empty lots and burned out buildings, I retreated inside myself” Cisneros said when explaining all her moves as painful experiences. She found a way to deal with her life by writing. This led her to writing the book, The House on Mango Street.
As the story began the writer explained why she had her name. That girl’s name was Esperanza. She was named after her great-grandma. She never knew her great-grandma but she would have really like to have known her. She never liked her named but it did have some meaning to it. Other than it being the name of her great-grandma it also means hope in English and sadness in Spanish. She then explained how they didn’t always live on Mango Street. Before that they lived on Loomis and before that they lived on Keeler Street. But even before that they lived on Paulina Street and that’s all she can remember.
This book is written in a very different manner, it seems a lot like a personal diary. The technique of the book is according to a story told from a girl's point of view. The narration of the book is organized into short chapters and the majority is dedicated to people who used to live on her same street. The story develops through these characters, their problems and difficulties. The writer reports how they are taken in by the protagonist's finest feelings. As a matter of fact, every section contains an atmosphere of desolation. Every character’s description is narrated with a bitter taste, even if the writer is never very explicit. Every character was explained in different ways.
Then, there are female characters imprisoned in a man's world. The book is directed a lot on man's dominance on woman, even when she talks about her personal experience. In fact, in the episode of her first job, she tells about an old man who forces her to kiss him and furthermore. She describes a feeling of hate when sees a woman yielding to man's rules and obeying them. All these experiences make her have feelings of anger and impotence, but more than this, she feels misunderstood. As a matter of fact, she doesn't find a place that belongs to her. Her house on Mango Street isn't her house. She explains how even the garden that they used to love doesn’t even feel like hers anymore. The story of The House on Mango Street is not exactly all based on what only happened in this place. More exactly it tells many similar experiences and many people pieces of life. The house on Mango Street is not only a house, but it represents a whole world, governed by man's rules and injustices. When the author thinks about the house of her dreams, she thanks about a house that she will own. It will now be a man or daddy’s house. She wants a world of her own and not a world of a man. For this reason she puts on paper her experiences, so that she could feel free and feel like she’s living in her own world and her own home. The author of The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros, wrote this book based on her life. She based it on experiences throughout her life. The book was mostly directed towards women needing to be free and men not having so much control. She felt that if she owned her own home one day, then she would feel more free and in control of her life. She felt as though owning her own home would mean she didn’t need a man or a daddy to control where she lived or what she did. She vowed to one day get a home far from Mango Street. But she would return to get those people that could not leave. I think she is referring to other women that are stuck on Mango Street.

Work’s Cited Page
“The House on Mango Street” Sandra Cisneros. Book.
Sagel, Jum. “Sandras Cisneros.” Interview. Publishers Weekly 29 March 1991. 74-75