Coming of Age

Through various themes in The House on Mango Street Esperanza reveals herself as both a product of the community in which she lives and one of the only figures courageous enough to transcend her circumstances. Like all adolescents, Esperanza struggles to forge her own identity. In many respects, Esperanza's own keen observations and musings about the women in her neighborhood are her way of processing what will happen to her in the future and what is within her power to change. On the one hand, she is surrounded by adolescent myths and superstitions about sexuality. In the story "Hips," the adolescent Esperanza contemplates why women have hips: "The bones just one day open. One day you might decide to have kids, and then where are you going to put them?"

Esperanza boldly experiments with the trappings of womanhood by wearing high heels in "The Family of...