Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street: The Bildungsroman and Identity Formation

Abstract

This article employs the psychosocial theories of Erik Erikson on identity development to negotiate the growth and learning process of Esperanza Cordero, the young adolescent heroine of Sandra Cisneros’s novel The House on Mango Street (1984). The article not only negotiates the interplay between social and psychological aspects of identity construction but also reads Esperanza’s identity in the light of the relationship between Erikson’s fifth developmental stage (Identity vs. Confusion) and both the preceding stage (Industry vs. Inferiority) as well as the next stage (Intimacy vs. Isolation). As a novel of education and character building, The House on Mango Street manifests a necessary overlap between genre and theme, and thus a preoccupation with learning from the world through interacting variables like sensory perceptions, peer pressure, and direct experiences. The protagonist in this formative novel, being an adolescent in a crucial stage of receiving influences, seeks knowledge about the external world as well as her identity. Feelings of shame and non-belonging govern her thoughts about the house on Mango Street. Thus, Cisneros uses the house on Mango Street as a sustained trope for identity construction and personality growth. Ultimately, Esperanza finds her identity as an emerging artist (a poet and writer); and this gives her inner peace, freedom, and emotional stability to decide to come back and help other women in her community. Moreover, it is when she finds a “house” of her own within her heart she can overcome her anxieties and come to terms with her shabby neighborhood and small family house. The conclusion draws on some relevant literary contexts to establish the social commitment of the young artist as a measure of integration and success.