The Houseon Mango Street

Sometime in our lives, we have wished for things we don't have. No matter how hard we wished on the star or a candle, our wishes never seemed to be answered. We have all felt that bitter disappointment on Christmas morning when we finally realized that we were never going to be able to have what we want. This is the same exact feelings that the characters in Cisneros' The House on Mango Street. Unlike us, the disappointment for these characters last throughout their childhood. Esperanza, Rachel, Nenny, Sally, and Lucy are among the kids growing up on Mango Street. They all long for friendship, love, and a better life, but all these kids face are the harsh reality of the "real world." In the society that Esperanza and her friends live in, love takes a back seat when it comes to relationships.

"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." These are the longing words of Esperanza. Growing up on Mango Street, Esperanza finds herself in a community that she feels she doesn't belong to. With all her heart, she longs for a true friend that she can tell her dreams to and will understand her for it. These wishes seem easy enough to grant, but Esperanza soon finds out that there is more to friendship. "If you give me five dollars, I will be your friend forever." Esperanza discovers that she can not have anything for nothing. Rachel and Lucy sure enough become her friends, but only after she helped them pay for the bike. Esperanza never does truly find a real friend who shares the same goal as she does because all the friends she has have more problems than her. For instance, Sally was a friend for whom Esperanza cared for. When Esperanza was raped, Sally was not there to help her and when Esperanza tried to prevent Sally from making a mistake, Sally told her to leave. All Esperanza wanted was a friendship that would help her escape her life, but all she ended up with were friendships that reminded her of her broken dreams because in her society nothing was given for free and the people she was associated with didn't have the same goals as she did.

Another one of those broken dreams was the concept of love. Esperanza was not the only one who longed for a man's endless love. Marin, Esperanza, Rafaela, and Sally are all "waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life." These girls are all waiting for "prince charming" to come and sweep them off their feet. They believe that the right man will come and love them for who they are and take them away to a nice house. Marin says that she will move in and marry her boyfriend, but the harsh reality is that she will only be sent to a worse life. Cisneros uses the story of Rapunzel to describe Rafaela's life. She longs to be free of the "tower" and do as she pleases, but all she gets is a husband who keeps her locked up in the apartment and that is where she will remain. In Sally's case, she wants a man to love her and she thinks she can achieve that by using her body. Sally

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