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Chapter 33
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The House on Mango Street, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Language and Names
Gender and Sexuality
Foreigness and Society
Identity and Autonomy
Dreams and Beauty
Summary
Analysis
Esperanza wants so badly to have a nice suburban house on a hill with a garden, like the ones where her father works. On Sundays the family visits these houses and imagines living in them, but Esperanza feels ashamed of her family looking so desperate on these trips, so she has stopped going. She imagines that people living so high up have forgotten about the poorer people below. Esperanza resolves to have a nice house someday but to never forget where she came from. When bums pass by, she will invite them in and let them stay in her attic, because she knows what it’s like to not have a house. Her guests will think rats are squeaking in the attic, but Esperanza will happily tell them it’s bums.
Esperanza begins to get more practical in realizing her goals – she no longer wants to just dream about a house, but to actually work and get one for herself. This chapter is also the first time that Esperanza promises to remember “where she came from.” Before, she just wanted to escape Mango Street and never return, but now (perhaps after describing all the trapped women) she realizes she must help those who aren’t as strong as she is. She realizes the privileged world of the suburbs is unfair to people like her.
Themes
