The House on Mango Street

The "House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros is a memoir book that will take you on a journey on the main character's, a Mexican girl named Esperanza, life living in Chicago. This book has gained its title by being the street were Esperanza lived her childhood, teenage years, in Chicago.

This memoir is written in fabulous vignettes that will not only teach you about how hard it is for a Mexican to live in the United States, but in a metaphoric way, it will teach you about how Esperanza felt about being Mexican, her relationship with her family and friends, not having much friends because of were she was, how she matured, what happened to her in her teenager years and how Mango Street changed her and her way of seeing life.

Esperanza comes to realize how she has separate more from her home. How she has mature and become a more responsible girl through time, and how even though she still thinks she hasn't found a real home of her own, writing this story and living in Mango Street has make her realize some secrets about herself she didn't know.

"The House on Mango Street" is a really good memoir. I like how you have to re-read and actually think deeply in to Sandra's words, to really know what she is meaning. I had fun reading it because each vignette contains a story in which you could really realize how difficult it is for a Mexican girl to live in the United States.

Lines I Loved:


- "In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting."
-  "Sally, you lied, you lied. He wouldn’t let me go. He said I love you, I love you, Spanish girl."
-"She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn’t be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window."