The house on mango street

Essay by Pab10College, Undergraduate December 2004

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Mainly, the characters in The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, are static, except for the main character, Esperanza. Nenny, Lucy, and Rachel are characters considered static because they don't change throughout the novel. They pretty much remain the same from beginning to end. At the beginning of the novel, Esperanza is a girl with a low self-esteem, and then she changes as the novel go on.

First, at the start of the novel, Esperanza was very naive. Like when Louie's cousin drove up in the new car, she never suspected anything was wrong. Later when the cops came and arrested Louie's cousin, Esperanza didn't understand what was going on and started waving as they drove away.

Second, a man asked Esperanza to kiss him at her first job and she agreed. He kissed her hard on the mouth and wouldn't let go. Esperanza didn't realize what was going on until it was too late.

Even after this incident was over, she was not mature enough to talk to somebody about it and never mentioned it again.

Finally, as you get closer to the end of the novel, you start to see a changed in Esperanza's character. Toward later part of the story, she gains understanding and become clear about her personality. She shows that when she knows that she was wrong for mimicking her sick aunt. The incident also illustrated that she understands the concept of heaven and hell. This is a big development from the way she acted earlier in the novel.

So in conclusion, we can see how Esperanza changes as the novel progresses. She went from being shy girl with a low confidence to a mature girl. It took her a while to realize what she was doing before she begins to change.