Summary and Review of 'The House on Mango Street'

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The House on Mango Street goes through the life of Esperanza, the narrator. The twelve year old Spanish girl moves out of the family's old broken down apartment and into the upgraded one bedroom, one bathroom house. She does not have a hard time realizing that her new home is not what she wanted nor expected. Esperanza battles to find herself part of Mango Street. In about one year, Esperanza matures mentally and physically and knows that she does not want to stay in the poor neighborhood in Chicago on Mango Street. She is always dreaming of the house she would rather live in. Esperanza feels self conscious of her name; in English her name means "hope" and in spanish it means "sadness," "waiting" and "too many letters". She did not want to tell her new friends her name. Esperanza received her name from her great-grandmother; Esperanza and her great-grandmother were both born during the Chinese year of the horse, which means strength. For women, this was considered "bad luck" but Esperanza did not believe in "luck", she wanted to be strong. Esperanza wanted to be strong enough to leave Mango street. Her great-grandmother was forced into marriage and although Esperanza got her grandmother's name, she did not want to be forced into marriage and she promised herself that she wouldn’t. Esperanza had a little sister named Magdalena but she was called Nenny. Nenny was Esperanza's responsibility. Since Nenny was younger then Esperanza, she could be embarrassing when they were around Esperenza's friends. Esperanza does not have a hard time making friends when she moves into her new house, the first house her parents had ever owned. Her first friend was Cathy, and although Cathy was not around for long, she tried to persuade Esperanza not to be friends with Rachel and Lucy. Cathy was not like Esperanza, Rachel, or Lucy; Cathy was an all around American girl whose family

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