The house on Mango street

  “The house on mango street” is a beautiful and pure novel, more specifically, it is a “poem novel”. It is a story about growing up, looking for realistic and spiritual destination.

  It is made up by many short stories, each of the story portray a person, an event, a dream, several clouds, several trees, and some feelings.  The world the author use is as clear as flowing water, with some scattered rhyme and new analogy. Just like the songs with different length of tunes, each tune has its own rhyme but connect together at the same time, together they join a clear world with different lives of different people.

  Esperanza, means hope in Spanish. She lives in the Mango street which is a Latin American immigrant neighborhood in Chicago. Esperanza was born with the insight of others’ pain and a sympathetic heart, as well as the perception of beauty. She uses her clear eyes observe the world around her and use her juvenile tune like a poem to describe growth, to explain vicissitudes, to explicate the beauty and the tough of the lives, to express the dream and the ambition you have when you are young. You dream about you will have a house by yourself, you are going to find yourself in your writing, gaining freedom and the ability to help others.

  Like other American novels, she is independent, strong, as well as full of contradictions. In the reality, she is just a child. A girl born in Mexico who hasn’t recognize the kindness of the people from east, a girl who haven’t tasted enough the local food, being brought to America by her parents.  She went to a country with the air she is not familiar with, the land with the people she doesn’t know but seems “ dumb”. Immigration brought her all those contradictions. Regardless when her dad told her that her grandpa died or Guadalupe turned to the black and white photo, though she still looks pretty in that picture.

  The whole book is expressed by a child’s tune, but with the content that not a little child can stand. It use Iceberg theory to reflect the people and the society, just like using a white cloth to cover a glass with water, you can feel the transparent but cannot see the water inside clearly. Interestingly, this book doesn’t have the humor like typical American book, but filling with the romance a kid can have, maybe they don’t even know what is romance. Some metaphors are really cute and suitable, like her mom’s hair is like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty.

  Sometimes the author talks about the dependence of life. Form here you can know the imagination of a kid, the attitudes towards life, and the compassion a kid has. The way she takes things seriously, her ideas and her thoughts are fully expressed in the life and society.  However, adults cannot understand those. They an explain a formula, a new noun, or a story with a ending, but they can never explain the thoughts of a kid.

  Life is as difficult as this. It can let people with the same language gather together. It can let the other group of people lost. But it’s wonderful. It tries to let a person stand on the edge, what behind him is a empty land.