How is Esperanza’s Identity Shaped by her Community?

In Sandra Cisnerosr's novel, The House on Mango Street, the motif of community is presented throughout the whole book. Esperanza, the main character, goes through a lot of things and is affected by the people within the community to help her mature, and grow. Esperanzar's community help forms the way how mature she is. Esperanza talks about a kid named, Darius, who chases girls with firecrackers or a stick that touched a dead rat and thinks he is tough. (33) Esperanza talks about Darius who lives on Mango Street and describes what he is like. What this means is Darius is shown to be an immature person different to Esperanza who probably doesn't want to be like Darius and this changes her by being more able and mature for her age. Esperanzar's maturity changed by the way the community around her moves.

To start, Esperanzar's community helps her grow. Ever since Esperanza was young she has been moving around from house to house, never being able to call her house a home. We didnt always live on Mango Street. Before that, we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that, we lived on Keeler. Before Keeler it was Pauling, and before that, I cant remember. (pg. 3) This shows how often Esperanza and her family moved. I believe that this was hard on her and her family. This helps Esperanza grow because she has to persevere through constantly having to meet new people and starting a new life in so many new communities. Another way that it helped her grow as she had to learn and realize that that was the way it was going to be and there wasnt anything she could do about it. It taught her that sometimes in life there are things you cant control and you just have to learn how to be happy with the way things are. It also teaches her to never give up. It is probably tiring for her and her family to move than often and they easily could have just given up on trying to find a home. A way that this could have directly impacted Esperanzar's life is she would have had to work hard as she grows up. Esperanza is affected by the community making her more mature and help grow her in many ways. The community is able to make you change in many ways as you grow. The people and things around help create the person you are able to be.

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