Character Analysis of Esperanza in 'The House on Mango Street'

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Andrea Munoz The House on Mango street. In the book House on Mango Street, sections 1-4. We are introduced to a young girl named Esperanza. Cisneros creates a picture of Esperanza’s world in a very unfortunate way. This girl is young, who has seen her family move in different occasions. She doesn’t have much and wonders why her mother tells her they will move soon from their small apartment, if she knows they will be there for awhile. She has noticed that in the barrio she is now living in, boys and girls don’t communicate outside from their homes, and she has questioned herself to why her name has two different meanings. She despises the way her name is said in english . The only woman who shares her name is her grandmother, whom she’s never met, but compares her to a wild horse. She’s an uncomfortable individual who seems to be lost, and feel self- conscious with her own self. Esperanza has a strong infatuation with her family’s hair and takes time to describe each and every persons hair. She doesn’t like hers but loves all others especially her mother’s because it has an odor of bread. Imagery, similes, and metaphors, that are very well used in section 1- 4, is when Esperanza takes time to describe the different types of hair all the members of her family has. She describes her own as “ lazy,” hair that never seems to do what she wants. Her father’s hair looks like a broom, while Carlo’s is full of hair and straight. Nenny’s is slippery, and Kiki’s is like fur, while her mother's is like candy circles and smells like fresh bread. She finds comfort in her mother’s hair. Although she loves the hair of all her family members, she has an attachment to the smell her mother carries. At night, she sleeps next to her mother just so she can have the pleasure of smelling her hair all throughout the night. She lives with a big family where they all share a
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