In the novella The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros uses characterization in her vignette titled “The Monkey Garden”. She uses characterization to emphasize Esperanza’s goal to fit in both with her young friends and with Sally and the older boys. Cisneros compares the behavior of Esperanza and the younger kids with Sally and the older boys, “I only remember that when the others ran, I wanted to run too, up and down and through the monkey garden, fast as the boys, not like Sally who screamed if she got her stockings muddy,” (Cisneros 96). This reveals the energetic and immature side of Esperanza. She wants to run around and have fun and doesn’t care about getting her clothes muddy. She thinks it’s strange that Sally doesn’t want to do the same thing and wishes that Sally would loosen up and join in on the fun. However, Esperanza also wants to fit in with the older kids and be accepted specifically by Sally. She admires Sally even though she doesn’t always understand why Sally looks or acts the way she does. Esperanza doesn’t understand the fact that Sally enjoys the attention from the older boys in the monkey garden, and she attempts to save Sally when they are hiding behind the truck, “ran back down the three flights to the garden where Sally needed to be saved…But when I got there Sally said go home. Those boys said leave us alone,” (97). Esperanza is very embarrassed and disappointed when she is rejected by the older kids to the extent that she tries to run away and kill herself. This exposes Esperanza’s sensitivity and lack of self confidence. She aches for approval from the people she admires and wants to be accepted by everyone she meets.