“Esperanza, in English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting…” Sandra Cisneros begins Esperanza‘s journey by introducing me to the house on Mango Street; a small one bedroom, one bathroom house in a Hispanic neighborhood. Her parents reassure to Esperanza the house is only temporary but to herself this was hard to believe. She has yearned for a house that you could only see on TV, one she could point out and not be ashamed of.

Throughout the novel Esperanza begins to discover herself. She makes new friends with Rachel and Lucy. They all like to play double Dutch and name clouds in the sky, before Sally came along. She influenced Esperanza to be an insensitive woman, and it wasn’t long until Esperanza got hurt.

Sandra Cisneros did an excellent job bringing each character to life and relating to the reality of a teenage girl. This book informed me that girls and boys live in two very different worlds, and most importantly to not grow up too fast. It was fascinating to me how fast Esperanza did grow up in one year…. maybe she didn’t quite get what she wished for but she discovered that the house on Mango Street is apart of her identity.