Importance of the Monkey Garden in the House on Mango Street

Life as a kid is effortless, where the only motive is to have fun. Some people never want to have responsibility and complexity that comes with being an adult as they realize they must take accountability sometime. Likewise in "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza tries her best to avoid is renegade against the normal expectations of women on Mango Street. Esperanza's only way to avoid having to become part of the adult world around her, is by entering The Monkey Garden where she gets to be a kid. Esperanza's depiction of the serene and carefree descriptions of the garden contrast the confused and disturbed attitude Esperanza has towards Sally and the boys' game. As she finally realizes she cannot remain a kid forever, Esperanza feel alienated and alone.

Esperanza's overwhelmed tone reveals her fear and doggedness to adversity when sally's game defiles the garden's innocence/purity, exposing Esperanza to the realization that she cannot remain a kid forever.

Esperanza's syntax reveals that innocence is irrevocable. Reminiscing of the Monkey Garden Esperanza "suppose[s], the reason why [they] went there" was because it was "Far away from where [their] mothers could find [them]"Cisneros (95). In the garden the kids were able to play without any adults around. The garden became a place of rejuvenation for Esperanza, where only kids were allowed and the horrors of the adult world remain unnoticed. Esperanza observes, "Things had a way of disappearing in the garden, as if the garden itself ate them, or, as if with its old-man memory, it put them away and forgot them."(95). This shows that the garden was a place where things easily went unnoticed and it was not uncommon to loose things. For Esperanza, this represents the place where she is forced into her loss of childhood, and comparing this to a forgetful old man makes sense since when people mature they loose their innocence and childlike attributes. When the boys stole Sally's keys "they were all laughing" and "[Sally] was too" however, "It was a joke [Esperanza] didn't get"(96). The boys take advantage of Sally by stealing her keys so Sally seizes the opportunity to be able to flirt back with them. Esperanza is the only one that doesn't like the game, and to her it does not seem the least bit humorous or enjoyable. Once pure and carefree, the value of the garden and Esperanza escape is destroyed by sally and the boys' rotten game.

Esperanza's point of view proves that although she would like to, she cannot avoid her inevitable progression into an adult. Esperanza is unsure of what just happened and she "[doesn't] know why, something inside [her] wanted to throw a stick."(96) Esperanza's anger is at its peak and she is so worked up that her only way to relieve her anger is by the physical satisfaction of throwing a stick. Instead of being pragmatic about the situation Esperanza still gravitates toward childish ways of dealing with life and isn't