In “A House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, a theme of poverty is expressed in three sections through the living conditions and lifestyle of Esperanza and her family as well as others around them.
In the beginning of the book, Cisneros utilizes the family’s house to express to the reader how poor the family was. For example, she employs the quote “[The family was] using the washroom next door and carrying water over in empty milk gallons (Cisneros 4).” Through this Cisneros indicates that the family was suffering through a terrible amount of poverty based on their current living conditions and expresses to the reader that the family couldn’t afford common necessities that are needed in everyday life. Also, she explores further into the family’s financial troubles when she states that “[They bought a used refrigerator from [the old man] once, and Carlos sold a box of magazines for a dollar (19).” This emphasizes how the family was struggling to get through day to day life and had to settle for the worst of things. From this it is clear to the reader that the family couldn’t afford anything but the cheapest and had to do everything in their power just to get and save a little bit of money.
By the middle of the book, Cisneros moves on to portray Esperanza’s lifestyle by exaggerating how little the family could afford. For example, she states that “[Esperanza got] to go to school with [her] mother’s letter and a rice sandwich because [they] don’t have lunch meat (44).” This expresses how the family couldn’t even buy lunch meat for their children and is important because it gets the point across that the family could afford nothing’ not even good food to eat. In addition, she utilizes the quote “The old saddle shoes [Esperanza wore] to school, brown and white, the kind [she got] every September because they [lasted] long and they [did] (47).” This emphasizes how poor the family was because they had to wear the same cheap shoes every year. This enhances the readers understanding of just how poor the family really was as they couldn’t even buy new clothes or shoes.
Towards the end of the book, Cisneros depicts Esperanza as being ashamed of who she was and what she came from. For example, she employs the quote “[Esperanza doesn’t tell her family she is] ashamed – all of [them] staring out the window like the hungry (86).” This shows how Esperanza was ashamed of her situation and made her feel like she was less than human. From this the reader can see that this much poverty is enough to make anybody ashamed of who they are. Furthermore, Cisneros goes on to explain that “Esperanza [quit school because she didn’t have nice clothes (91).” This emphasizes how Esperanza was sick of being poor and was ashamed to go to school because she couldn’t afford nice clothes. This is important because it expresses how Esperanza didn’t want to be different from the other kids because of her clothes and didn’t want poverty to control her life.
Overall, Cisneros has successfully achieved her theme of poverty through the harsh living conditions and poor lifestyle of Esperanza and her family.