Fang 1
The House on Mango Street
Quotation Assignment:
i.
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“Someday I will have a best friend all my own. One I can tell my secrets to. One who will
understand my jokes without my having to explain them. Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon
tied to an anchor” (Cisneros 9).
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“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. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how
those things go” (Cisneros 5).
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“Those who don’t know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we’re
dangerous....All brown all around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another
color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look
straight. Yeah. That is how it goes and goes” (Cisneros 28).
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These quotations emphasize Esperanza’s feeling of home through her need to have other people
to support her, seeing her desire for a true best friend. Esperanza also has a home in the House on
Mango Street despite not liking it; it’s shaped her to be the person she is and it is where she
belongs because the people around her make the house and the neighborhood Esperanza’s home.
Esperanza’s idea of home is thus not centered around the material or physical aspect of where she
lives, but rather where she belongs, and that is determined by the people around her and the living
conditions they create for her.
ii.
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“When you leave you must remember to come back for others. A circle, understand? You will
always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street. You can’t erase what you know. You
can’t forget who you are… but me I never had a house, not even a photograph… only one I dream
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of. No, Alicia says. Like it or not you are Mango Street, and one day you’ll come back too”
(Cisneros 105-107).
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“Her name is Marin or Maris or something like that, and she wears dark nylons all the time and
lots of makeup she gets free from selling Avon. She can't come out – gotta baby-sit with Louie's
sisters – but she stands in the doorway a lot, all the time singing” (Cisneros 23).
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“Sally got married like we knew she would, young and not ready but married just the same. She
met a marshmallow salesman at a school bazaar, and she married him in another state where it’s
legal to get married before eighth grade. She has her husband and her house now, her pillowcases
and her plates. She says she is in love, but I think she did it to escape” (Cisneros 101).
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Others’ ideas of home compared to Esperanza’s are similar because they are greatly affected by
the people that are in their lives and the desire they have to escape, but they contrast because they
haven’t necessarily struggled as much with the material aspect as Esperanza and they see value in
returning and visiting the places where they belong. It seems to be a universal theme that most of
the people in the story want to escape from where they reside as seen by Sally marrying
extremely early to escape her highly abusive father and Marin feeling trapped within her home
because of the responsibility of babysitting that she has taken on; this is similar to Esperanza
being ashamed of the home she lives in and constantly wanting to leave, perhaps in hope of a
better future just like others. Some of the differences they have are seen in Alice’s advice, telling
Esperanza that regardless of whether she likes the home she lives in, when she does leave, she has
to come back because it is the place that has made her who she is, and she cannot forget who she
is or what she knows, contrasting with Esperanza’s extreme desire to just leave.
Analysis Assignment:
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, has a misleading title leading readers to think
that it is about the house itself, but as it will be seen in the book, a home is not made by a house at all, but
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rather the people in one’s life. Esperanza, at the start of the book, does not have much appreciation for the
House on Mango Street, where she lives throughout the story. She emphasizes her desire for human
company in her home when she thinks to herself, “Someday I will have a best friend all my own. One I
can tell my secrets to. One who will understand my jokes without my having to explain them. Until then I
am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor” (Cisneros 9). This quote shows Esperanza’s lack of a true
best friend, someone she can fully confide in. This quote written by Cisneros shows how necessary a best
friend is in making a home or the feeling of belonging. In the neighborhood, Cisneros focuses on the
people, dedicating many chapters solely to describing the people surrounding Esperanza in her life. This
is shown in Cisneros’ clever connection between race and community through the quote, “Those who
don’t know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we’re dangerous… All brown all
around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go
shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah. That is how it
goes and goes” (Cisneros 28). This connection shows the safety Esperanza feels with her community,
expressing her feeling when she is with the people she knows and loves. The people around her and the
feeling she has signifies her true home, despite originally not liking her physical house. The experiences
she’s had and the hardships she shares with her community makes the neighborhood one of the most
significant settings in the novel and Esperanza’s life, making it a true home. The point that Cisneros is
making by including these details and emphasizing the people in the story is that the essence of a true
home lies in the significant characters in your life and the effect they have on you.
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