Esperanza's dream world is an accumulation of hopes and dreams of independence due to a childhood plagued with poverty and family frustrations. In " The House on Mango Street" Esperanza dreams of having a place all her own one whose simply decor would reflect her as a person. She is not struggling against her economic depression but rather her lack of independence. Esperanza's need for a home is very much related to her economic situation, her dreams for and frustrations towards her family, and her need to have a place of her own free from the constraints she finds both inside and outside her present habitation.
When describing her house, Esperanza's thoughts reflect her disturbed and turbulent emotions that she is experiencing. A description of her new house helps the reader understand the narrator's shame and understand the severity of her disappointment. "It's small and red with tight steps in front and the windows so small you'd think they were holding their breath. Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in." Her personification of the house reveals how crucial the issue of a home is to
the narrator. It as if the house has an agency of its own and is blocking Esperanza's path to happiness in a place of her own. Another reference to her dissatisfaction with her living conditions lies in the conversation between the nun and Esperanza. "Where do you live? She asked. There, I said pointing up to the third floor. You live there? I live there. I nodded." The short of question and answer adds a tone of tension to the dialogue. The repetition of the word "live" alludes to the overall theme of home, and the nun provides an unintentional verbal beating to her. Esperanza allows the reader to see the poverty that runs though Mango Street through her sharp perception through detail and dialogue. Esperanza's ideal house is not one of great beauty or elegance, but one of her own. She would relish the solitude and independence. At the ladder part of the story, Esperanza again gives the summary of the family's different addresses, but she stops at Mango Street because she remembers the "sad red house, the house I belong but do not belong to" the most. The painful emotions that Mango Street evokes in Esperanza are relieved when she fina
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