The House on Mango Street

I thought it was very interesting that pretty much everyone on Mango Street really did not have that much and the things that they did have were not grandiose. The amount of physical things that they lacked they made up for in the size of the family. Everyone was pretty family oriented, even Sally whose father abused her. I think that this concept is very big in the Mexican culture. I felt very sorry for Esperanza because she was always jealous of the beauty that she never had, unlike that of Marin and Sally. She wished she could get the attention that they did. In the book I do not think Esperanza had any one thing that she was extremely proud to call her own. She did not have a boyfriend or nice jewelry or shoes that she actually liked. I think this is why she was always dreaming of having her own home, one that she could be proud of and had nice draperies and things of that sort. Although Esperanza lived a menial life, her parents never guarded her like some of the other people. She got to go out with her friends and she was not bound to look out from the window. In this sense her life was very full. It is unclear to me whether or not she got the house she wanted but from the story one can deduce that she would be more appreciative of those material things because of her upbringing.