The House on Mango Street

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Overall, I enjoyed reading The House on Mango Street. In the beginning, I did not know what to expect. I thought that I was missing the point of the novel because there was not a consistent storyline occurring. Towards the end I gained a greater insight as to how Cisneros meant for the novel to be read. Since it is a novel written with poetic lines, there is a lot of vibrant language. The intensely detailed wording and figurative language is my favorite aspect. Cisneros writes beautifully and expresses Esperanza's longing for self eloquently. One of my favorite lines from The House on Mango Street comes from the chapter "Sally." At the end of it Cisneros writes, "...all you wanted, Sally, was to love and to love and to love and to love, and no one could call that crazy." This run-on sentence is a great example of Cisneros' voice. It is expressive and genuine.

The House on Mango Street reminds me of the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. It is a novel that is almost written in Spanglish, much more so than the small hints of Spanish that The House on Mango Street has. Also, the protagonist is an adolescent that is trying to find himself. He suffers from not being able to fit into the environment around him and always being the one who sticks out, such as Esperanza. Oscar and she strive to find where they belong and as in Cisneros' novel, Oscar does not find his home either. Unfortunately, as he is reaching his peak in life, Oscar is murdered by a few Dominicans whom he owed a debt to. As adolescence is only a stopping point, Esperanza is steady trying to reach the other side of it. She acknowledges this and says, "One day I will pack my bags of books and paper. One day I will say goodbye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever. One day I will go away."

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