No Place Like Home

The House on Mango Street is a short novel about a year in the life of a Mexican American adolescent named Esperanza. She and her family (parents, two older brothers and a younger sister named Nenny) have moved into a house of their own in Chicago for the first time. In a series of vignettes, Cisneros paints a deeply moving picture, or series of pictures, of life on Mango Street and of Esperanza’s hopes and fears. Cisneros’ background as a poet comes through in her spare but evocative prose, and her introduction/dedication is both touching and an informative background to the writing of this novel.

From the outset, Esperanza makes it clear that her one wish is to have a house of her own. We learn that she feels ashamed of the places her family has lived before and of the house on Mango Street. She recalls an incident when she was younger, when a nun from her school walking through her old neighborhood asked Esperanza where she lived. When Esperanza pointed to the apartment above the burned out laundromat, the nun said,

“You live there?

“The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there.”

The house on Mango Street disappoints Esperanza, too.

“It’s small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath.”

Esperanza’s dim view of her new living arrangements is confirmed by a neighborhood girl named Cathy, who says,

“… I’ll be your friend. But only till Tuesday. That’s when we move away. Got to. Then as if she forgot I just moved in, she says the neighborhood is getting bad.”

Identity and shame are themes running throughout the novel. Most of the neighbors we encounter through Esperanza are Hispanic females, many of whom face serious limitations due to their gender and/or family circumstances. Esperanza’s mother is a woman of many talents who “could have been somebody.” She then tells her daughter,

“Shame is a bad thing, you know. It keeps you down. You want to know why I quit school? Because I didn’t have nice clothes. No clothes, but I had brains.”

Esperanza’s friend Sally is beautiful but suffers beatings at the hands of her father, who worries that she, like his own sisters, will run off and shame the family. Sally and another neighbor Rafaela, who is a grown woman and married, become prisoners in their own homes due to fear and jealousy.

Throughout the course of this year, Esperanza matures and while her dreams of owning a home and having true friendship remain, they are also transformed. Esperanza, unlike Sally, is not interested in boys and marriage:

“… I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain.

“In the movies there is always one with red red lips who is beautiful and cruel. She is the one who drives the men crazy and laughs them all away. Her power is her own. She will not give it away.

“I have begun my own quiet war. Simple. Sure. I am one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate.”

One of my favorite scenes in the novel deals with three sisters, older women, who visit Mango Street for a funeral. They behave like seers toward Esperanza, predicting that Esperanza will go far and that her dreams will come true. But then they add,

“When you leave you must remember to come back for the 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.”

Esperanza’s friend Alicia repeats these words to her later, that she is Mango Street and will return to it. Esperanza insists,

“Not me. Not until somebody makes it better.

“Who’s going to do it? The mayor?

“And the thought of the mayor coming to Mango Street makes me laugh out loud.

“Who’s going to do it? Not the mayor.”

Sandra Cisneros has not forgotten who she is or where she came from. Her beautiful and sometimes sad stories demonstrate a genuine love, concern and appreciation for her family and her home. This is a wonderful choice not just for teen readers but for anyone who appreciates fine writing and the perspective of someone whose pursuit and realization of her dreams brought her back home again.

For the 2014 Cannonball Read, 50 of my 52 reviews will be of books written by women. I am doing this as part of the #ReadWomen2014 campaign and as a way to mark my upcoming 50th birthday. Among the books to be reviewed, I have decided to include a book written by a woman in the year I was born (1964), as well as for each subsequent 10 year anniversary of my birth. This is the third installment: 1984