The House on Mango Street

Perceptivity

The author of The House on Mango Street demonstrates that they understand their situation without directly telling the reader. When the reader is describing their situation, they tell the readers that their parents always dream of this big beautiful white house. Both of his parents tell their kids that one day they'll have a beautiful white house while they hold a lottery ticket and while the mom told stories before the children went to bed. Here we can infer that the author realizes his family doesn’t have a lot of money, and can only dream of a nice house. Another example of the author demonstrating his knowledge of the situation is when he ends the vignette with, “The house on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary says Papa. But I know how those things go.” This is a perfect example where the author shows the audience he doesn’t expect a new house and he understands why he cannot have a house like that. 

Interesting Information

The author of The House on Mango Street also demonstrates through their writing how they can draw the audience into a situation. Without revealing a lot about his own situation regarding his family and their money, the small details revealed in the vignette offer insight to the author. While reading this story, I asked myself questions about the author’s family issues and I wanted to ask them why they were living in so many places. One example of a question I wanted answered by the author was why did they need to get out of the apartment with the faulty pipes so so quickly? "We had to leave the flat on Loomis quick. We had to leave real fast." This and many other quotes intrigued me because I wondered what made the author say this so strange, and act in a defensive way. One positive to this style of writing is the author reveals to the audience the struggles of living in such a tight living quarters and open's up the audience's minds to a new perspective.