The House on Mango Street is a 1984 young-adult novel by Sandra Cisneros. It is structured as a series of vignettes told from the point of view of Esperanza, a young Mexican girl, who describes her neighborhood, her life and the people she knows.
The House on Mango Street contains the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Sally's dad beats her.
- Book Ends: Part of the first vignette appears in the final vignette, Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes. And yes, the part that's repeated ends after the comma:We didn't 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 Paulina,
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Esperanza's parents tell her she is being a brat when she stops participating in some family activities, out of frustration with their poverty.
- Character Title: The chapters "Marin," "Meme Ortiz," "Sire," and "Sally" are named after the characters who appear in the chapters.
- Cool Big Sis: Marin is this to Esperanza and friends.
- Death of a Child: Angel Vargas, Rachel and Lucy's baby sister, and possibly Geraldo- it's never mentioned how old he is.
- Forceful Kiss: The Oriental man in Esperanza's workplace, along with the boy in Red Clowns.
- Jerkass: Mamacita's husband. He complains about Mamacita only being able to speak Spanish, when he could teach her English himself.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Writing is Esperanza's means of escape.
- One-Word Title: The chapters Hairs, Laughter, Chanclas, and Hips have titles one word long.
- One-Paragraph Chapter: The book's chapters are rather short, with some being only two pages long.
- Rape as Drama: Implied. Esperanza is very clearly assaulted at a carnival by some random man, but it's never stated how far it goes. The reader knows that there was some very forceful kissing, but Esperanza doesn't elaborate. Was it too horrific? Did she block it from her memory? We don't know.
- Title Drop: A vignette title is repeated in the story. "The House on Mango Street" (which is actually a double Title Drop, given that it's the book's title).
- Wrong Side of the Tracks: Esperanza and her family live in the Latino part of Chicago, where most families are poor. She derisively describes how white people who go there are scared of her neighborhood, and she also says that it's scary for her people to go into a wealthy neighborhood.
