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Chapter 42
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 describes the house of her dreams – it will not belong to a man, but only to Esperanza herself. It will have flowers, a porch, her books and stories inside, and her shoes by the bed. The house will be silent and safe, “clean as paper before the poem.”
Esperanza brings together what she has learned and expands upon her dream. The house is her own now, with her own autonomous sexuality (her shoes) next to her own bed and her materials for reading and writing. Her house, like blank paper before the poem, will be something she will create.
Themes
