An Analysis of the Concept of Escape in The House on Mango Street

In the book, The House on Mango Street, each individual character has to face the concept of escape. Whether the characters escape from simple things, such as a controlling relationship to things that are more complicated, such as how to escape a lifestyle. Although all of these conflicts are very important, I believe that one of the biggest people to mention would be Esperanza, who simply needs to escape from Mango Street.

In my opinion, Mango Street is not just a place, but rather something that governs the way of a life.

Mango Street allows for a different style of life that Esperanza doesn’t seem to want to conform to as she feels she doesn’t belong. “”I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it. The house on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go”(Pg.

5) When Esperanza states this when she was young, she realizes from a young age that she needs to escape Mango Street, and have a life that belongs to her.

For Esperanza, escape is not easy as she is constantly conflicted by the issues going on in her life, and avoiding becoming a lasting part of Mango Street, and the issue of no support. Esperanza realizes early on that she needs a friend and so she decides to find anyone who will be her friend. “You want a friend she says.

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I’ll be your friend” (Pg.13).

She originally finds Cathy to be her friend, but only for a week, as Cathy’s family realized that they needed to leave Mango Street while they still could”. That’s when we move away. Got to” (Pg.13). Esperanza also faces the conflict of identity issues in which she struggles to do the right thing with her sister, and the friends that she had to buy. She truly has a hard time just to figure out who she is, and how she fits into the grand scheme of Mango Street.

Esperanza also faces problems because of puberty, and meeting of friends like Sally, and living with the sad problems that come with adulthood. Esperanza, during this stage, starts to understand what’s going on around her, and why the issue with Sally is so important. “The stories the boys tell in the coatroom, they’re not true.

You lean against the schoolyard fence alone with your eyes closed as if no one was watching, as if no one could see you standing there, Sally. What do you think about when you close your eyes like that? And why do you always have to go straight home after school”(Pg. 82). As Esperanza gets older she starts to realize that she needs to escape Mango Street, to escape problems such as what Sally faces.

Eventually though, Esperanza does find a way to escape Mango Street. She eventually escapes by going to college, which in my opinion, truly saves her. Mango Street is becoming a harsher place as she becomes older, and it’s not fair to ask an innocent, young girl to cope with what has happened. After college though, Esperanza is truly able to escape Mango. “Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s. A house all my own. With my porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias.”

Instead Esperanza has a house that is “small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath”(Pg. 108). As Esperanza finally has a new home, and is able to live on her own, away from Mango Street, she is truly able to reflect back and realize, that unlike many others, she escaped.