Home? (The House on Mango Street Blog)

I’ve always loved reading. Losing myself in a good book is something I can do for hours on end without even noticing the time passing. So, sitting on a bench across from my house on a beautiful spring day (since I was home for Easter), I begin to read The House on Mango Street expecting to get lost in its pages. But, I’ll admit it; I was more interested by the floating butterflies than on the book that I’m about to read. Despite my surrounding distractions, I slowly make my way through the first few pages of the book. Being only 110 pages, it should have only taken me a few hours to complete. But with my distracted mood, it took me the whole day. Even so, I think that made the experience of reading the story even better for me.

I think the reason I liked this story was for how I found a strange connection to Esperanza. On the surface, we seem to be polar opposites. But through reading the vignettes, I realize we are both so affected by our various homes and how we interacted with them. Esperanza has to deal with the fact that she does not consider her house to be her home, and similarly I have found it terribly difficult to find a home for myself. Esperanza moved from Paulina to Keeler to Loomis to the house on Mango. I myself moved from Hove to Leon to Firestone to Preston to Pistoia to Weymouth to my semi-home at TCU. I guess I never considered how significant it was that I moved so many times, and how I had never felt myself to be in a home. But that is the case.

            When I lived on Leon, I made all of my friends, like Angela. Just so, Esperanza made her friends like Lucy and Rachel. When I lived on Firestone, I mostly think of fighting and some sad family times, which is similar to how Esperanza had to cope with her Aunt Lupe’s death. But this place of sadness is a place of great growth for me personally, because that is when I learned what I wanted in life. Esperanza learned through watching others that she did not want the suburban boring life that many women have there. And these affects are just a few examples.

            This may seem like a lot to think about while reading this small book, but after each small story I found myself looking up at my surroundings, thinking of how the small things that happen in her life parallel things that have happened in mine. Maybe not in an exact way, but to the point where it made me continuously stop and contemplate.

            As the sun began to set around me, I realized I had been outside for a much longer time than I had expected. But, I ended up contemplating things that I didn’t realize I would ever think about. Just like Esperanza, I realized that even though I have moved onto a new home in Fort Worth, my home will always be with the people that have been with me throughout my life.