Coming of Age in The House on Mango Street

Coming of Age in The House on Mango Street

In Sandra Cisneros’ novel, The House on Mango Street, the main character, Esperanza, has many experiences on Mango Street that contribute to her growth and development as she comes of age. Esperanza’s maturity arises due to her exposure and difficulties in different aspects of her life. These include learning about her identity as a Mexican-American, understanding her role and expectations as a woman, and living in a lower class position. These struggles result in the developing maturity of Esperanza.
According to Dr. Tim Elmore of Growing Leaders, there are seven characteristics of maturity. The first identifier is that they are able to commit to something and complete it, also known as maturity. Signs two and three cover humility, and four includes values. Five is the ability to have gratitude for things big and little. Six is being able to put others before themselves and seven is a search for wisdom, and knowledge that they don’t have all the answers (Elmore “Artificial Maturity”). In this book it is apparent that Esperanza has many of these identifying traits that are difficult for even adults to master.
One of the first trails Esperanza is confronted with is the difficulty of being a minority. Esperanza comes from Latino decent. Early in the book when Esperanza tries to make friends she faces discrimination that she can barely understand (Trinh Moser, and West 223). Her best friend ‘until Tuesday’, Cathy, will be moving soon due to ‘the neighborhood getting bad’. This is because of ‘people like (her family) moving in’. This discrimination takes her best friend, and will lead her to the realization that ‘people like us’ are considered different because of their ethnicity. This is especially noted in the chapter “Those Who Don’t” which is about Esperanza taking note of outsiders who come into her neighborhood and her being afraid of getting stabbed, or particular characters who look scary. Esperanza and everyone else know that there is nothing to be afraid...

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