The House On Mango Street

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Taking Steps Through Adolescence Everyone experiences adolescence and gains a more mature and confident personality as they do so. In Sandra Cisneros novel, The House on Mango Street, the emotional development of a young girl, Esperanza is portrayed. First of all, towards the beginning of the novel, Esperanza is shown as rather immature and carefree, but was impressionable enough to let her apparel define her personality. Furthermore, nearing the middle of the novel, the reader observes Esperanza as a conscious adolescent, who is relatively more mature, yet still feels the need to have stylish shoes in order to maintain her mature image. Finally, the reader catches a glimpse of Esperanza as a fully developed adult, one that has matured past …show more content…
Towards the end of the novel, the reader sees a whole new developed side to Esperanza, in complete contrast to her personality before. When describing her life as an adult, Esperanza talks about how she owns, “A house all my own. With my porch, and my pillow…my two shoes waiting beside the bed…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,” (108-110). Analyzing Esperanza’s newfound confidence, when she proudly describes her possessions (“pillows” and “porch”) she also names her “two shoes” among them. Throughout the text, shoes have been an essential symbol to the theme of the novel as a whole, helping to develop and portray Esperanza’s maturity and personality. When Esperanza mentions that she has left her “two shoes waiting by the bed”, it indicates that Esperanza has undergone a vast amount of development, growing past her insecurities and dependency on her shoes by developing a stronger personality. This is reinforced by Esperanza’s overpowering confidence at the end of the quote when she asserts that she is “too strong for Mango”, hinting that has the power to do so. This relates back to the underlying theme of how her shoes connect her to her adult life and help to build her personality (as her dependency on shoes decreases). Now that Esperanza has been connected to her adult life and has gained maturity through her life experiences, she no longer needs her shoes as emotional or
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