Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The House on Mango Street, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Language and Names
Gender and Sexuality
Foreigness and Society
Identity and Autonomy
Dreams and Beauty
Summary
Analysis
Esperanza explains that she likes to tell stories to herself. She makes stories about walking in her “sad brown shoes.” She says she is going to tell about a “girl who didn’t want to belong,” and then she repeats the parts of the first chapter about the other streets she has lived on. The house she remembers most is the house on Mango Street. She says that when she writes about the house, the writing sets her free a little bit. Esperanza knows that one day she will take her books and paper and say farewell to Mango Street, because she is too strong for it to keep her trapped forever. But she knows that even as she leaves, she will surely come back for the ones who are not strong enough to escape on their own, the ones “left behind.”
The style is more childlike in this section, and Esperanza repeats and rhymes phrases in a similar way to “The Family of Little Feet,” but now her ideas are much more mature. She has found that writing sets her free and helps build her identity – writing is the “home in the heart” that Elenita predicted. Esperanza also resolves to do what the three sisters and Alicia suggested – that is, leave Mango Street to become strong, and then return for the sad, trapped ones who cannot improve their lives on their own. Her strength is not just in escaping Mango Street, but in helping others who are still stuck.
Themes
