House on Mango Street Case

Everyone has people that they look up to and inspire them. Some people need more guidance than others. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza needs help establishing her own identity. In the community she lives in, it is difficult to be who she really wants to be. She meets a lot of different people on Mango Street, but Alicia and the three sisters really help her become who she truly is.

Alicia is just another women that grew up on Mango Street. The majority of women at this time period grew up to be house wives or factory workers but Alicia knew that she didn’t “want to spend her whole life in a factory or behind a rolling pin.” Esperanza looked up to Alicia because she was different from the rest of the women because she was actually trying to do something productive with her life. Alicia studied all night just to get farther with her dreams. She disobeyed her father just to follow her dreams. Alicia tells Esperanza that “like it or not, you are Mango Street, and one day you’ll come back too.” Esperanza was ashamed of growing up on Mango Street but Alicia told her that instead of being ashamed of it, she should use what she learned from it and later come back and help the next generation. Alicia really inspired Esperanza to make the most out of what she had and to become herself.

Esperanza meets three sisters for a very brief period of time, but in that small amount of time, they managed to inspire her. The first time the sisters saw her they said “she’s special. Yes, she’ll go very far.” They knew from the beginning that Esperanza could do something with her life and make something special out of it. They told Esperanza that she will always be Mango Street and that she can’t erase what she knows. They told her not to forget who she is and that made Esperanza think about who she really was. When Esperanza was leaving them they told her she “must remember to come back. For the ones who cannot leave as easily as you.” They were making a point that Esperanza is lucky because she has so much potential that she will find a way out of Mango Street to adventure somewhere else. It is not as easy for some of the people living on Mango Street to just leave because they have nothing else to do besides being house wives. Esperanza needs to use her abilities to come back and help the people that will have a harder time leaving. The three sisters knew that Esperanza would do something great with her life if she just put in the hard work and they inspired her to really think about who she was becoming.