The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros | Teen Ink

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

March 8, 2011
By Marissa13 BRONZE, Phoenix, Arizona
Marissa13 BRONZE, Phoenix, Arizona
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros and published by Arte Publico Press in 1984, is truly a phenomenal book to engage yourself into. Cisneros tells the story of a girl that is extremely relatable to any type of teen. She goes through many journeys and deals with personal struggles throughout her childhood and teen years.

Esperanza, an about 12 year old Chicana girl and main character, moves into a house on Mango Street with her family of six. It is located in the middle of a poor Latino neighborhood in Chicago. Living in a one room, one bathroom house was not quite the dream she had in mind. Esperanza has a hard time coping with this situation, but she is a







































































strong girl and overcomes it. In the beginning she said, “I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it. The house on Mango Street isn’t it.” Esperanza feels ashamed of her family’s poverty and out of place feelings, so she secretly writes poems to escape from her life.

Soon after moving in, Esperanza gains a couple of friends. She tells of her many adventures with them exploring her neighborhood. She also tells what interesting yet eccentric people that live on her street as well.

As time goes on, Esperanza becomes more of a woman rather than just a little girl. After her maturity, she had to go through being sexually assaulted by a group of boys. In addition, she goes through the death of two of her family members. These traumatizing events that took place made her scared and vulnerable. Even though Esperanza wanted to leave Mango Street behind, she knew that everything there made her the person she was: a strong independent woman. Because of her experiences, she matured emotionally too.

I honestly enjoyed reading this book. I liked the unique way Cisneros wrote it. The series of short stories really made me connect with Esperanza and her life. The way some of the short stories were random, but somehow made sense in the long run made this book very interesting. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who enjoys reading about personal growth and courage.


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christy1234 said...
on Aug. 29 2017 at 2:53 pm
christy1234, Sylmar, California
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The house on mango street is one of my favorite books. It's a clean book that I would recommend to any age to read. I like this book because it has a story. I got kind of annoyed through some of it because of the chapter they would be so short I wanted more. If the book was able to be longer I would have loved it. this was m first time reading it and I would read it again. I love how this book is very relatable. anybody reading it can get something out of it. and they can go away saying I enjoy that book because I can relate to it I recommend this book so much. this should be a book you should read in your lifetime. This is a must. The house on mango street is the greatest book out there.

Chris said...
on Jul. 7 2017 at 5:06 pm
This book is named, “The House on Mango Street”. The author is Sandra Cisneros and I think that everyone should have the chance to read this book.
The reason I think this book should be read is because it has clean comedy and has a nice story about a the main character, Esperanza. Esperanza is the main character of the story and passes through many adventures while in Mango street.

What I liked about the story is that at the start, the characters are clearly described and develop during the story. For example, Louie is known for his humbleness and is a best friend of Esperanza. Another example of a character is Louie’s cousin which is known as a thief because he stole a Cadillac and got arrested. Last, Sally is known for prudence and prettiness.
Note: Not all characters are listed.
Last, I liked the places added in the story because they give it a certain mood to the story. For example, the dark webby scratchy walls give it a scary mood and suspenseful mood. What I would like added into the story is more words because each page usually has below forty words.

In conclusion, it is a great book in my opinion that everyone should read

on Oct. 14 2016 at 6:09 pm
AlexisAmeliaP,
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This book was a good one, I really liked it. I love how Esperanza stated that the girls were in their wold and the boys were in their's. People should read this if they like a good book to read and also if readers have a latino heritage they can relate to this. Esperanza really does not like her name in the first part of the book. She thinks its too long. Also she doesnt really have any friends. people she lives around are really weird how she described them. like "the two raggedy as rats girls" and "joe the baby-grabber." Some things that I did not like about the story was that they talked about a one thing and quickly to the next thing but it was okay.I liked how the story was and how she put some of the events into the book that actually happened in her life. Readers should definently read this book. Such a good classic one..