The House on Mango Street

I thought one of the most interesting chapters in The House on Mango Street was the chapter where Esperanza explained her name and where it came from. She was named after her great-grandmother, who was supposedly a free spirit,"a wild horse of a woman," but was forced to marry and be tied down by her great-grandfather. Esperanza says that her great-grandmother never forgave her husband. She said that, "She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women site their sadness on an elbow"(12). Espereranza then goes on to explain that although she has inherited her great-grandmother's name, she does not want to inherit her place by the window. Esperanza recognizes at such a young age what women go through not just in her culture, but everywhere. She sees that women often suppress their own identities in order to conform to what society thinks a woman should be like...submissive to men, meak, and most importantly a good mother and housewife. Esperanza does not want to end up like her great-grandmother and so many other women in the world. The whole book is describing Esperanza's identity-buliding and how she wants to break away from Mango Street and have her own house. She feels that if she gets away from Mango Street, she will not be sucked into the life that her great-grandmother once had. As Esperanza and her friends grow up, Esperanza witnesses first-hand what it is like to be tied down by a man. Sally gets married at such a young age and she is afraid to even go outside without her husband's permission. Seeing this even more in her Mango STreet society, Esperanza pushes harder and harder towards getting away from it.