House On Mango Street Identity Essay

Many children’s self identity change when they transfer into adulthood. In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the protagonist, Esperanza, realizes she is becoming an adult. This transition greatly affects the way she identifies herself. Esperanza’s concept of identity changed within the novella The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros because she no longer views herself as a child and now views herself as an adult. One way Esperanza is shown as becoming an adult is through her growing interest in boys. Towards the beginning of the novella Esperanza is shown as not yet being interested in males. In the vignette “Boys and Girls”, Esperanza explains that she believes “The boys and the girls live in separate worlds. The boys in their universe
In the first vignette “The House on Mango Street,” Esperanza's is not able to accept that her house will always be part of her. When she is confronted by a nun outside of her house, the nun said “‘You live there?’ The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there.” (Cisneros 5). The way Esperanza feels embarrassed about looking at her house shows her not accepting the house as part of her. She is ashamed of how the house looks from the outside and disregards how this is the house she is growing up in. On the contrary, In a last vignette “Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes”, Esperanza is able to accept that the house on Mango Street will always be a part of her background. While dreaming about leaving Mango Street, Esperanza's notes that her old neighbors “will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out”(Cisneros 79). Esperanza showing how she would return to Mango Street after leaving to help people she left behind shows her growth into adulthood. This idea displays that Esperanza is accepting her