A Dream House
In the story “The House on Mango Street”, by Sandra Cisneros, the narrator moves from house to house, in order to find the perfect house to fit the entire family. In searching for the ideal house, the family finds their identity by living in each house, and searching for an upgrade for their next house. The narrator believes that in each house her family moves into, their dream of getting a large is getting closer. For a family of six including the Mama, Papa, Carlos, Kiki, Nenny, and the narrator, a small house would just not be large enough. The narrator gives us her honest assessment on how her family paid for rent on each house her family owned, but every time they had to move was because the house was breaking down, or it was too small for the entire family to live in. After reading the story however, the narrator’s family was poor, and did not have enough money to buy a dream house they always dreamed about owning. By not being successful in obtaining the dream house the family dreamed about, the narrator seems depressed about her living situation.
The narrator did not seem to be happy living on the third floor on Loomis. “The water pipes broke and the landlord would not fix them because the house was too old” (525). The family was so poor and the narrator didn’t like the house much at all due to the lack of running water. She seems embarrassed to have to live in such a rundown house. When the nun from her school passed by and saw her playing out front, she seems ashamed for having to tell the nun that she lives on top of a boarded up laundromat. The nun seems sarcastic by saying “you live there?” (526). After telling the nun she lives on Loomis, the nun makes her feel like she’s a no body for living in such a rundown place. From carrying water in her house from the wash room next door; the narrator seems to not appreciate leaving so fast and having to move the whole way across town. The mood of the family seems at its lowest living in...