“House on Mango Street” by San Cisneros
The fiction novel, House on Mango Street written by San Cisneros shows a little girl named Esperanza who lives in a poverty filled area of Chicago called Mango Street. Esperanza wants to be an author. Esperanza and her friend Alicia believe that writing would lead to a better life. The author suggests through these characters that education would offer a kind of freedom.
Alicia, Esperanzas friend studies all night because she’s afraid of end up having a life similar to her mother.
‘You just remember to keep writing Esperanza. Just keep writing. It will keep you free and I said yes, but at the same time I didn’t know what she meant, ‘ (61). Esperanza loves and enjoys writing. For a woman to have freedom is a very important thing to Esperanzas aunt. Although, when Esperanzas aunt told her that her writing will keep her free she did not understand. Now that she is older she understands.
Esperanza understood that writing all of her thoughts down when she wants is a way of feeling free.
It will keep her happy.
‘Alicia, who inherited her mamas rolling pin and sleepiness, is young and smart and studies for the first time at the university. Two trains and a bus, because she doesn’t want to spend her whole life in a factory or behind a rolling pin,’ (31-32).
As well as Esperanza, Alicia wants to do whatever she wants and she craves happiness. She has a chance to reach her goals because she is still young. She keeps studying and writing so that she will not end up like her mother working in a factory. This in turn gives her a gateway to freedom.
