Theme of Innocence in 'The House on Mango Street'

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In-between Innocence In the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza is a young teenage girl who talks about her growing up in a place that she does not really like. One of the reasons why she does not seem to like the place in which she lives in is due to her loss of innocence. Esperanza experiences several situations that make her realize that life is not all spring and blossom, in other words life is not perfect. Some situations she goes through have a greater impact in her life than other situations that don’t really affect her daily life. Many remarkable experiences that we go through can change our life and way of thinking, sometimes this being for the good and sometimes for the bad. Many times girls get taken advantage of and that influences with their thoughts and views of life. In the novel The House on Mango Street, Esperanza experiences some tough situations which make her conscious about things she didn’t think of. In this quote Esperanza experiences a forced kiss which makes her wonder about all males. “He had nice eyes and I didn’t feel so nervous anymore. Then he asked if I knew what day it was, and when I said I didn’t, he said it was his birthday and would I please give him a birthday kiss. I thought I would because he was so old and just as I was about to put my lips on his cheek, he grabs my face with both hands and kisses me hard on the mouth and doesn’t let go.” (Cisneros 55) This demonstrates how Esperanza is taken advantage of by an older man; he kisses her by force and this makes her wonder if all guys are like this, or at least wonders why he had done that. Also Esperanza goes through a similar situation where another guy who was younger takes advantage of her and rapes her; this impacted her way of thinking, “Sally you lied. It wasn’t what you said at all. What he did. Where he touched me. I didn’t want
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