Confinement in "House on Mango Street"

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     One of the major motifs I found when reading The House on Mango Street was characters being bound or kept to one place.  This is usually physical, such as Sally, who "sits at home because she is afraid to go out without his permission (102)," or Esperanza's aunt, confined to a bed because of her illness.  Esperanza herself is bound to Mango Street, both living with her family with no chance of moving away (yet), and even though "Mango says goodbye sometimes (110)," she acknowledges how she will never completely leave Mango Street.  To Esperanza, Mango Street represents a dead end, a place where the only residents are people with nowhere else to go.  Those who do have high hopes, such as Sally or Marin, are married off to live a life of misery.  Esperanza's mother is also confined to her role, working around the house all day, even though "she has lived in this city her whole life.  She can speak two languages.  She can sing an opera.  She knows how to fix a T.V. (90)."  The city, in the form of Mango Street has kept her from advancing despite her talents. 
     This confinement explains why Esperanza wants a large house of her own, "a house on a hill like the ones with the gardens where Papa works (86)."  To her, a large house represents freedom, where one can decorate rooms how they please, sleep in whatever room they like, and feel free to have guests over if they choose.  The house on Mango Street is not this house.  Many others feel this way about homes, such as Mamacita, who "still sighs for her pink house, and then I think she cries (77)."  Although Mamacita has left her home in Mexico for a better life in America, the house does not feel like a home, and she keeps waiting for her son to get them both into a home.  Perhaps like Esperanza, she will find "a home in the heart (64)." 
     To me, the home in the heart seems to be the sense of peace that Esperanza gains at the end of the novel.  She is able to move on past all of her negative experiences on Mango Street and take her stories with her.  Although she acknowledges that she will never truly leave Mango Street, the same is true of any place she has lived.  She will take her experiences with her wherever she goes, and although she is the sum of her past homes, there is a significant effort to move forward and live be her own means, and not those of others.

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