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Definition of Personification
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the... read full definition
Chapter 1: The House on Mango Street
Explanation and Analysis—House Holding Its Breath?:
The reader is introduced to the house on Mango Street, for which the novel is named, through an instance of personification in the very first chapter:
But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all. It’s small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath.
The house is akin to a person who is holding their breath, red in the face as they struggle for air. The use of personification highlights how tight the house is, not quite as spacious as the one Esperanza and her family dreamed of prior to moving. The literal house on Mango Street represents Esperanza and her family's dreams, as the story describes her father, before moving, holding a lottery ticket and talking of a house with "real stairs" and "stairs inside" and "three washrooms." Likewise, the novel ends with Esperanza dreaming of a future with her own house—hers and hers alone.
The fact that the novel begins with a house that is holding its breath, which conveys a sense of being uncomfortable with an anxiety-inducing tightness, reflects Esperanza's current feelings. Esperanza is figuratively suffocating, in a foreign place surrounded by people she doesn't know in a house that others look down upon.
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Chapter 38: The Monkey Garden
Explanation and Analysis—Forgetful Monkey Garden:
Esperanza personifies the monkey garden, a whimsical and magical junk-filled garden, through simile:
Things had a way of disappearing in the garden, as if the garden itself ate them, or, as if with its old-man memory, it put them away and forgot them.
The Monkey Garden is far from the first place to be personified in the story: the house on Mango Street, for instance, holds its breath. By comparing the garden to a person eating lost items or a forgetful old man, Esperanza makes the garden more magical than it is in actuality. While in reality nothing can truly disappear into the garden—things can get lost or forgotten but not completely disappear—Esperanza positions the garden as something that consumes and engulfs everything in its vicinity.
The fact that Esperanza highlights these properties of the garden in particular calls attention to her desire to be engulfed (and thus forgotten) herself, as she lies down in the garden after a mortifying experience with Sally. After trying to protect Sally from getting exploited by the boys, Esperanza is made to feel "crazy," so she tries to get swallowed up by the garden. This act is emphasized by Esperanza's personification of the garden into that which could actually swallow her. Esperanza, wanting to disappear, attempts to permanently fix herself in space. This counterintuitive act makes Esperanza's dream of leaving her neighborhood that much more powerful. For Esperanza, to be forgotten would be to remain where she is forever. Esperanza concludes that the monkey garden "didn't seem mine either": more than anything, Esperanza wants a physical space she can make her own and where she can be herself.
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