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Mango Street Symbolism

Sandra Cisneros tells the story of Esperanza through vignettes in her book The House on Mango Street. She uses symbols like a red balloon tied to an anchor and high heeled shoes to portray Esperanza as a lonely girl searching for stability and meaning in her life. Cisneros also personifies four skinny trees to represent Esperanza's need for companionship. Windows symbolize the desire for freedom that Esperanza and other women feel confined without. These literary devices help illustrate Esperanza's struggle with finding her identity living in an unsatisfying neighborhood.

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449 views3 pages

Mango Street Symbolism

Sandra Cisneros tells the story of Esperanza through vignettes in her book The House on Mango Street. She uses symbols like a red balloon tied to an anchor and high heeled shoes to portray Esperanza as a lonely girl searching for stability and meaning in her life. Cisneros also personifies four skinny trees to represent Esperanza's need for companionship. Windows symbolize the desire for freedom that Esperanza and other women feel confined without. These literary devices help illustrate Esperanza's struggle with finding her identity living in an unsatisfying neighborhood.

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Steinmann 1

Annalise Steinmann

PreAP English 9/ Period 5

Mr. Boyatt

4 October 2017

Literary Devices on Mango Street

In the book, The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros tells the tale of a young girl,

Esperanza, and her struggle to find meaning and contentment in her life on Mango Street.

Through fantastic, irregularly arranged vignettes, Cisneros tells the story of Esperanza’s year on

Mango Street by describing the experiences and people shaping her perspective on life. To

strengthen her novel, Cisneros uses many types of figurative language to illustrate Esperanza’s

thoughts and feelings. Cisneros uses symbolism and personification to embody Esperanza as a

confused, depressed girl floating adrift in an unsavory neighborhood that doesn’t support her

wants or dreams for herself.

Cisneros uses the symbol of a red balloon tied to an anchor to characterize Esperanza

as a lonely girl who is lost and searching to find better for herself, but is tied to her family and

poor wealth. Esperanza describes her dark and dismal loneliness when she confesses that she

feels like a “red balloon”(9) in the vignette “Boys and Girls”. She feels red because she believes

she stands out against others, that her irregularity is obvious compared to the other people on

Mango Street. Esperanza depicts herself as a balloon because balloons float in emptiness, as if

they’re in pursuit of something they don’t have. She feels as if she’s existing in her own

emptiness, searching for definition. Also, Esperanza considers herself “tied to an anchor”(9).

Weighed down by the identity Mango Street gives her, Esperanza finds it more difficult to be

accepted by others and accepted by herself. As a result, Esperanza is constantly looking for

different forms of stability in her life like the perfect friends and the perfect home.
Steinmann 2

Cisneros uses high heeled shoes to portray Esperanza as a young girl who couldn’t wait

to grow up until she learned about the consequences that come with womanhood. In the

vignette “Family of Little Feet”, Esperanza and her friends gawk at the fact that “[they] have

legs. Skinny and spotted with satin scars where scabs were picked, but legs, all [their] own,

good to look at, and long.”(40) when they try on the shoes given to them by a woman who also

lived on Mango Street. To Esperanza, the shoes represent her blossoming maturity and beauty.

Wearing high heels gives the mentality that she is growing up and is finally capable of exercising

some freedom. However, after being verbally attacked by a bum man, Esperanza and her

friends admit that they are “tired of being beautiful”(42). Esperanza experienced one of the cons

of being an attractive woman the hard way. Being stared at and verbally attacked turned from

exciting to scary and uncomfortable, forcing her to come to the realization that growing up has

its repercussions. Given the lesson learned, Esperanza discards the high heeled shoes.

The personification of the four skinny trees represent Esperanza’s need for a comrade to

relate to in her times of struggle. In the vignette “Four Skinny Trees” Esperanza compares

herself to the trees as they are “Four who do not belong [on Mango Street] but are [on Mango

Street]”(71). Esperanza herself believes she should reside in a big, welcoming home on the

right side of town rather than Mango Street. With the belief that the trees also don’t belong on

Mango, Esperanza has the comfort of knowing she isn’t the only one that shouldn’t be there and

the only one with the ambition to go beyond. When Esperanza is a “tiny thing against so many

bricks, then it is [she looks] at trees. When there is nothing left to look at on this street. Four who

grew despite concrete. Four who reach and do not forget to reach. Four whose only reason is to

be and be”(75). When Esperanza is feeling low and morose, she feels empowered by the

unwavering strength and persistence of the other four who do not belong. The endurance of

these trees inspire Esperanza to keep pushing forward regardless of the issues at hand.
Steinmann 3

Ultimately, Esperanza is able to withstand her life’s fluctuations because of the tree’s

encouragement.

Sandra Cisneros uses windows to symbolize the want of freedom and incapability to

exercise it. In the vignette “My Name” Esperanza’s regretful great grandmother “looked out the

window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on their elbow”(11).

Esperanza’s great grandmother wanted to live a life full of adventure until her great grandfather

“threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just like that, as if she were a fancy

chandelier”(11). Esperanza’s great grandmother was robbed of her freedom once her great

grandfather forced her to marry him, having lost the privilege to experience life on her own

terms. The window became the only glimpse of what her life could be like. Also, Esperanza’s

neighbor Rafaela who is locked in her house by her jealous husband longingly “leans out the

window and leans on her elbow and dreams her hair is long like Rapunzel’s. On the corner there

is music from the bar, and Rafaela wishes she could go there and dance before she gets

old”(79). Rafaela is involuntarily captive as well, the window being her only escape from her

tedious life. As a result, windows are coping mechanisms for these women to deal with the giant

disappointment that their lives have become.

In conclusion, symbolism and personification aid Cisneros in the construction of a self

loathing girl without a purpose. In different ways, everyone has fought in the relentless battle of

discovering self identity. Everyone has suffered from the wounds of losing, and never truly

discovering oneself. The literary devices Cisneros uses helps people connect with the feelings

of isolation and the perplexity of life.

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