The House on Mango Street

¶ … house is the symbol in the House of Mango Street.

The title of the novel A House on mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, is both straightforward and deceptive. The name of the street suggests a quiet street in a nice neighborhood, a street lined with trees in a lazy afternoon. As soon as the first chapter begins, the reader will find out that the street and therefore the house in question are anything but. Houses do indeed symbolize in the novel stability, anchors in childhood memories, family life, and shelter.

The narrator introduces a grim series of houses she has spent her childhood in, culminating with the house that will give the title of the novel. Houses are for the adult remembering childhood memories a symbol of a life style, reminders of a harsh or sometimes, happy reality. A house stands there for the one remembering the days she spent in it and around it, as the place filled with the laughter of children, the crying of babies, parents' voices, keeper of night dreams and day dreams, dreams of escaping and dreams of change.

In the section titled "A Good Day," the narrator describes the happy moments she had spent after chipping in for the purchasing and sharing of a new bike. She and her two new friends, two sisters from the neighborhood, ride their new bike together and forget about everything else for the brief time they enjoy their ride: "We ride fast and faster. Past my house, sad and red and crumbly in places, past Mr. Benny's grocery on the corner, and down the avenue which is dangerous. Laundromat, junk store, drugstore, windows and cars and more cars, and around the block back to Mango"(16). The children escaped for a short while from the universe of their sad houses and street only to go back to it soon after.

The first section with the same title as the novel, announces a house on Mango Street that stands for disappointment. Along with the house she has lived part of her childhood in, the narrator introduces the girl who heard stories from her parents to sooth their sad life spent so far in all sorts of rented flats with broken pipes, shared yards and nasty landlords. The stories were about the house they will finally own, a nice big house in a nice neighborhood. The house they finally managed to buy is nothing but the one in their dreams. Children do not need a lot to be happy, but children need stability and a home in order to have a sense of constancy. Moreover, the appearance of a nice house allows the child to show it to anyone and announce with pride that she or he lives there.

The narrator remembers the shame and sadness she felt once when she had to point to a flat over a laundromat, after a nun from her school had asked her where she lived. Children can fabricate stories and live in their dream world as long as they want, unless they are forced to meet reality. A poor sad looking flat or house will bring the moment of truth about and it will hit a child with the brutality of something immutable.

The house on Mango Street appears to be even a bigger disappointment since it should have finally put an end to the constant moving from one cheap flat to another cheap flat. The biggest disappointments anyone will ever be able to remember will be those first moments when parents will prove to be unable to keep their promises. Esperanza is big enough to realize that the House on Mango Street represents her stability, much to her chagrin. When she lived with her family in those rented flats they had hope for a better house they would eventually own. Once they moved to that stage of owning their house, the house painfully continued to be the representation of their poor living conditions, even if it stood on its own and had no landlord attached. It did not bring about the sign of change they were all hoping for.

In the section "Laughter," the narrator introduces the symbol of a house in a completely new, fresh way. The representation of a house means this time sisterhood, shared thoughts, empathy, a common state of mind: "One day we were passing a house that looked, in my mind, like houses I had seen in Mexico. I don't know why. […] Look at that house, I said. It looks like Mexico. Rachel and Lucy looked at me like I'm crazy, but before they can let out a laugh, Nenny sais: "Yes, that's Mexico, all right. That's what I was thinking exactly. "(18) In this case, the two girls shared memories of Mexico and the house that reminded them of it spoke to them in a code they were the only ones who could decipher it.

In the section titled "Meme Ortiz," the narrator uses the memory of the boy Meme just as an opportunity to talk about a house from a different angle: that of its builder. In this case, the builder, architect and everything else related to the building of the house was the man who owns and lives in it: "Cathy's father." The house he built is standing and providing shelter to his family and to the additional boarder, like Meme and his mom, but it is the very image of the unprofessional who built it without knowing anything about design or architecture: "It is wooden, inside the floor slants. Some rooms uphill. Some down. And there are no closets. Upfront there are twenty-one steps, all lopsided and jutted like crooked teeth (made that way on purpose, Cathy said, so the rain will slide off) and when Meme's mama calls from the doorway, Meme goes scrambling up the twenty-one wooden stairs, with the dog with two names scrambling after him."(22) The house on mango Street will make its own appearance in this picture, soon after this description: "…and there, at the end of the block, looking smaller still, our house with its feet tucked under like a cat."(22) Although the image has not changed, by comparing it with a cat, the narrator gives it a personality suggesting a cozy atmosphere.

In the section "Marin," we're introduced again to the house as a symbol of a good life, the object of day dreaming, the finality: "Marin sais that if she stays here next year, she's going to get a real job downtown, because there's where the best jobs are, since you always get to look beautiful and get to wear nice clothes and can meet someone in the subway who might marry you and take you to live in a big house far away."(26) The act of marrying someone is not the finality, but the big house that man is going to take the girl he has married, is. Since it is about a phantasy, the location of that big dream house is of course, like in a fairy tale, "far away."