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Chapter 4
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
Cathy is one of Esperanza’s neighbors who has lots of cats and claims to be related to the queen of France. She talks to Esperanza about the neighbors on Mango Street, and insults almost all of them. Cathy agrees to be Esperanza’s friend until the next Tuesday, when her family is moving away. Cathy says the neighborhood is getting bad. This offends Esperanza, as families like hers just started moving in.
Cathy shows how the racist views of Anglo-American society views toward the Latinos moving onto Mango Street which holds that the neighborhood is deteriorating simply because the Latinos are arriving. Meanwhile, Cathy’s family is no better than Esperanza’s, and Cathy must also create a dream of a better life for herself – that she is related to royalty.
Themes
