The House On Mango Street: Fitting In
Sandra Cisneros employs a thematic motif of “Fitting In” in her novel of vignettes entitled The House On Mango Street. She reveals this motif throughout the novel with stories about Esperanza’s home/neighborhood, her school and work life, and her friendships.
The first struggle that Esperanza has with fitting in involves a time when a nun from her school was walking around the neighborhood and asked Esperanza where she lived. Esperanza points to her and the nun is in disbelief, “You live there?” (Cisneros 5). This kind of response embarrasses Esperanza and makes her want to live in a nicer house that she is proud to call her home and will help her fit in with other kids her age. However, when Esperanza describes a few of the people in her neighborhood, “Joe the baby-grabber” and “Two girls raggedy as rats” (12), she explains that she lives in a neighborhood where anybody can fit in as long as they are not afraid of the people due to racism. Although Esperanza desires nothing more than to move far away from Mango Street, it is the one place where she belongs and is always accepted.
In the second section of Cisneros’s novel, Esperanza strives to fit in with the kids that she admires at school and eventually her coworkers at the Peter Pan Photo Finishers on North Broadway. Esperanza admires “the special kids”, because they “get to eat in the canteen” (43). Esperanza admits that it’s crazy for her to ask for permission to eat in the canteen, “I got it in my head one day to ask my mother to make me a sandwich and write a note to the principal so I could eat in the canteen too,” (43). However, she is willing to ask anyway, because she knows it will help her fit in with the other kids. When Esperanza begins her first job, she is very lonely and insecure, “I was scared to eat alone” (54). She befriends another employee who is very kind to her, “he said we could be friends…and I felt better,” (54-55). This reveals that Esperanza has a low self-esteem and just wants to be accepted by anyone wherever she goes. She doesn’t want to stand out as strange or be judged by people that she doesn’t even know.
In the final section of The House On Mango Street, Esperanza experiences fitting in with her friends. One example is “Ruthie, tall skinny lady…is the only grown up we know who likes to play,” (67). Esperanza and her young friends realize that Ruthie is more physically mature than they are, but they still accept her anyway, “We are glad because she is our friend,” (69). However, Esperanza learns how it feels to be excluded when Sally decides to kiss the boys in the Monkey Garden instead of playing with her, “But when I got there Sally said go home. Those boys said leave us alone,” (97). Esperanza is disappointed, because she can’t fit in with the older kids who behave so much differently than she does. Esperanza just wants to be accepted by anyone that she calls her friend despite how mature they are compared to her.
Overall, Esperanza learns about how difficult it can be to fit in both as a child and as an adult. She strives to be accepted by everyone outside of her community and forgets that she will always be accepted at home where she belongs, in the house on Mango Street.