Esperanza's Future

The future for Esperanza is Mango Street. I believe that after she left, she had to express everything that had happened, in order to help those she left behind. She overcame her problems, the things that held her back. On page 103, Esperanza talks about overcoming. “One night a dog cried, and the next day a yellow bird flew in through an open window.” (103) In a previous post, I talked about windows and what they symbolize. I discovered that windows symbolize being held back. In the whole story Esperanza is being held back because she lives on Mango Street. Here she says that she breaks away when she says a yellow bird flew in through an open window. Although Esperanza thinks that mango street held her back, I think it helped her future. She learned more about herself by living on Mango Street than anyone else. Others say Mango Street as who they were. Those people ended up “in alleys” as the book put it. Esperanza allowed Mango Street to define her, but not take her. She used it as a learning experience, and because she learned, she left. Someone who saves the world needs inspiration, if they grow up in a perfect family in a perfect house on a perfect street, they will think the whole world is perfect. Esperanza sees what is wrong with the world.

Now for the question what does Esperanza do in the future? There is a chapter that says a lot about this question. Author Cisneros writes in the voice of Esperanza “Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem.” (108) Esperanza later shares her ideas in the world. She says her house is clean as paper before the poem. This house in my opinion is a symbol. The symbol of a house also appears when she talks about her house on Mango Street. Houses, I think symbol growth. The house on Mango Street as been through much more, it has grown more than this new house. It has been shaped by Mango Street, it has inspiration. However this new perfect house hasn’t been shaped, it has a lack of inspiration, anyone growing up in it won’t change the world, they will grow up believing nothing needs to be changed. What Esperanza does in the future is she writes a book about everything that happens to her on Mango Street. She doesn’t write it for the others on Mango Street, she writes it for those who grow up in the houses that are quiet as snow. The ones who don’t see imperfection or problems. She writes to inspire those without inspiration. Esperanza realizes that living on Mango Street was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to her and her friends. In order to make the world a better place, she brings the one thing she always wanted to leave with her to the people of her future.