Shoes In The House On Mango Street

The Darkness in our Soles Shoes and feet are something that everyone has in common, so how can something so simple and everyday represent the darkness in our hearts? In the novel The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros uses shoes and feet to represent the negative emotions such as embarrassment, lust, and despair that the self-conscious girl Esperanza feels about herself. The vignette “Chanclas” gives an instance of how shoes reflect the shame that Esperanza feels about herself deep inside. When her Uncle Nacho drags her over to dance during a party, Esperanza says, “My feet swell big and heavy like plungers…” (47). Since plungers have suction, Esperanza’s simile implies that her shoes are stuck to the ground, just like a plunger unclogging …show more content…
The description of the shoes a neighbor gives Esperanza, Lucy, and Rachel already says a lot on its own: “...one pair of lemon shoes and one red and one pair of dancing shoes that used to be white but were now pale blue” (40). The colors “lemon yellow” and “red” are bright, eye-catching colors that stand out, representing the girls’ newfound confidence. However, those two shoes are later mentioned as high heels, which might signify superiority and arrogance. The dancing shoes that “used to be white but were now pale blue” represent their delight and lust for the attraction of men. White is a symbol of cleanliness and purity, so if the shoes changed from white to pale blue, it symbolizes tainted innocence. This means that the girls have become impure after putting on the shoes. Their overconfidence and pride causes them to make bad decisions, such as ignoring adults with experience, and enjoying catcalls. After a traumatizing incident with a homeless drunk man, Esperanza says, “We are tired of being beautiful. Lucy hides the lemon shoes and the red shoes and the blue shoes that used to be white but are now pale blue… until one day her mother… throws them away. But no one complains” (42). This quote shows that Esperanza and the girls are “tired” of being oversexualized. They realize that they made a mistake that day because they didn’t stop Lucy and Rachel’s mother from throwing the shoes

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