What are some 6 themes that House on Mango Street will cover?

1. The House on Mango Street written by Sandra Cisneros 2. Sandra is an U.S. Latina writer, born in Chicago, Illinois in 1954. 3. The House on Mango Street was written in 1984. 4. The story takes place in Chicago, Illinois. 5. The story takes place in 1980 and it was a yearlong.

6. The story is about Esperanza and her family who move a lot and they move into a house on Mango Street in Chicago in a poor Latino neighborhood. Her family consists of her Papa, Mama, Carlos, Kiki, Nenny and herself, Esperanza. She goes to a Catholic school which she lives near. Throughout the book she is meeting new friends and talks about her day to day life and what she does. She is trying to figure out where she belongs and feels as though she doesn’t

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Hopes and Dreams 1: Esperanza's central hope throughout the vignettes is to have a large, real, comfortable house; one that she is not ashamed to own, one in which she has complete control of her destiny. After she describes this house on Mango Street, Esperanza realizes that having her own house is her greatest dream.

Hopes and Dreams 2: Alicia is actively trying to achieve her dreams and goals. She attends the university so that she may have a better life. However, the dream is not fully realized as yet, for she still must live at home and be afraid of the mice in the kitchen.

Hopes and Dreams 3: Although Darius seems initially to be a rough kid who likes to taunt everyone, he truly has the same hopes and dreams as Esperanza. He expresses his dreams by looking up at the clouds. He believes he sees God in the sky and continues to look up, so that he may feel happy and at peace. Whether he realizes what he dreams are or not, he sees them in the clouds.

Hopes and Dreams 4: Esperanza hopes to eat in the canteen at school with the other girls and boys who live far from home. She wants this so desperately that she convinces her mother to write a faux note to the nuns. However, when she gets her wish, she realizes that it isn't all that great. She cries through the lunch hour and never gets to return.

Hopes and Dreams 5: When Esperanza visits Elenita to have her fortune told, she hopes to have a house one day. Elenita sees the dreaming in Esperanza's eyes and informs her of a large house one day.

Hopes and Dreams 6: Ruthie sits around in Edna's building reminiscing of her past dreams. She used to think she could be a song and dance girl. Now, those dreams are out the window, along with her marriage.

Hopes and Dreams 7: Sally comes from a family with no hopes and dreams and Esperanza wonders if she ever wants to escape. If Esperanza were in Sally's family, would hope to escape to another world. Esperanza secretly hopes to become friends with Sally, for she seems so interesting and pretty.

Hopes and Dreams 8: Esperanza hopes to have a large house on a hill one day, in which she can keep bums in the attic, instead of rats and mice. That way, she can tell people who wonder what the noise is, that she is housing bums. These dreams are to help other people, and not just herself, separating her wishes from those of others.

Hopes and Dreams 9: Esperanza's mama is a smart cookie with much talent. However, she never used it to better her own life. She desperately wishes a better life for her daughter and tells her so.

Hopes and Dreams 10: The three sisters tell Esperanza to make a wish. She does not reveal her wish, but they realize that she hopes to move away from Mango Street and find her own life - a better life. They instruct her to always remember Mango Street and the world from which she came.

Hopes and Dreams 11: Esperanza realizes that she is Mango Street and it is part of her. She longs to travel and find a new home of her own; however, she will always return to help those who could not achieve their dreams. She will always return.

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

Throughout The House on Mango Street, particularly in “No Speak English,” those who are not able to communicate effectively (or at all) are relegated to the bottom levels of society. Mamacita moves to the country to be with her husband, and she becomes a prisoner of her apartment because she does not speak English. She misses home and listens to the Spanish radio station, and she is distraught when her baby begins learning English words. His new language excludes her. Similarly, Esperanza’s father could not even choose what he ate when he first moved to the country, because he did not know the words for any of the foods but ham and eggs. Esperanza’s mother may be a native English speaker, but her letter to the nuns at Esperanza’s school is unconvincing to them in part because it is poorly written.

Esperanza observes the people around her and realizes that if not knowing or not mastering the language creates powerlessness, then having the ability to manipulate language will give her power. She wants to change her name so that she can have power over her own destiny. Her Aunt Lupe tells her to keep writing because it will keep her free, and Esperanza eventually understands what her aunt means. Writing keeps Esperanza spiritually free, because putting her experiences into words gives her power over them. If she can use beautiful language to write about a terrible experience, then the experience seems less awful. Esperanza’s spiritual freedom may eventually give her the power to be literally free as well.

The Struggle for Self-Definition

The struggle for self-definition is a common theme in a coming-of-age novel, or bildungsroman, and in The House on Mango Street, Esperanza’s struggle to define herself underscores her every action and encounter. Esperanza must define herself both as a woman and as an artist, and her perception of her identity changes over the course of the novel. In the beginning of the novel Esperanza wants to change her name so that she can define herself on her own terms, instead of accepting a name that expresses her family heritage. She wants to separate herself from her parents and her younger sister in order to create her own life, and changing her name seems to her an important step in that direction. Later, after she becomes more sexually aware, Esperanza would like to be “beautiful and cruel” so men will like her but not hurt her, and she pursues that goal by becoming friends with Sally. After she is assaulted, she doesn’t want to define herself as “beautiful and cruel” anymore, and she is, once again, unsure of who she is.

Eventually, Esperanza decides she does not need to set herself apart from the others in her neighborhood or her family heritage by changing her name, and she stops forcing herself to develop sexually, which she isn’t fully ready for. She accepts her place in her community and decides that the most important way she can define herself is as a writer. As a writer, she observes and interacts with the world in a way that sets her apart from non-writers, giving her the legitimate new identity she’s been searching for. Writing promises to help her leave Mango Street emotionally, and possibly physically as well.

Sexuality vs. Autonomy

In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza’s goals are clear: she wants to escape her neighborhood and live in a house of her own. These ambitions are always in her mind, but as she begins to mature, the desire for men appears in her thoughts as well. At first, the desire to escape and the desire for men don’t seem mutually exclusive, but as Esperanza observes other women in the neighborhood and the marriages that bind them, she begins to doubt that she can pursue both. Most of the women Esperanza meets are either trapped in marriages that keep them on Mango Street or tied down by their children. Esperanza decides she does not want to be like these women, but her dire observations of married life do not erase her sexual yearnings for neighborhood boys.

Esperanza decides she’ll combine sexuality with autonomy by being “beautiful and cruel” like Sally and the women in movies. However, Esperanza finds out that being “beautiful and cruel” is impossible in her male-dominated society when she experiences sexual assault. In her dreams about being with Sire, Esperanza is always in control, but in her encounter with the boys who assault her, she has no power whatsoever. The assault makes Esperanza realize that achieving true independence won’t be possible if she pursues relationships with the men in her neighborhood. She puts aside her newfound sexual awareness, rejoins Lucy and Rachel, her less sexually mature friends, and spends her time concentrating on writing instead of on boys. She chooses, for the present, autonomy over sexuality, which gives her the best chance of escape.

Women’s Unfulfilled Responsibilities to Each Other

Early in the novel, Esperanza says that boys and girls live in different worlds, and this observation proves true of men and women in every stage of life. Since the women’s world is often isolating and grants women so little power, Esperanza feels women have a responsibility to protect and make life easier for each other. However, on Mango Street, this responsibility goes unfulfilled. The boys and men in The House on Mango Street are consistently violent, exploitative, or absent, but their world is so foreign to the women that no woman rebels against the men or calls for them to change. Esperanza may call out for women to help each other in the face of the unchanging male world, but no one answers.

Esperanza accepts more responsibility for women as she matures, and as she does, she confronts other women’s indifference more directly. At first Esperanza is responsible only for her younger sister, Nenny, but her responsibilities grow when she befriends Sally. Esperanza tries to save Sally from having to kiss a group of boys in “The Monkey Garden.” However, when Esperanza tries to enlist one of the boys’ mothers to help her, the mother refuses. Later, Sally abandons Esperanza and leaves her vulnerable to male attackers in “Red Clowns.” Esperanza expects female friends to protect each other, and Sally does not fulfill this responsibility. Ultimately, Esperanza understands that even if and when she leaves Mango Street, she will continue to take responsibility for the women in her neighborhood. She feels the responsibility deeply and will not forget it.