Sandra Cisneros’s novel, The House on Mango Street, is the story of a young girl, Esperanza, who must overcome the challenges set forth by her location, gender, and by herself. Throughout the novel, Cisneros highlights Esperanza’s bittersweet memories of her experience living on Mango Street through the continuous thematic motif of identity.

One of the many conflicts Esperanza has with her identity is centered around her location and her environment. Esperanza’s realization of her family’s poverty happened at a young age when a nun asked her, “You live there? There. I had to look to where she pointed…You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there” (Cisneros 5). This realization of her family’s poverty made her question everything she had ever known. She grew into this life of poverty and now anything that she could’ve possibly been proud of was treated as insignificant and worthless. This was a turning point in Esperanza’s identity because it ignited her desire to move into an actual house – a house she could be proud of. Although, when Esperanza and her family moved to the house on Mango Street it was the complete opposite of what her family had envisioned. Esperanza described her yard as having four skinny trees. “[The trees] are the only ones who understands me. I am the only one who understands them. Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong here but are here” (74). Esperanza’s personification of the trees represent how she really feels about herself and they express her loneliness. These trees were planted by the city without their consent – just like her. Neither her nor the trees can leave for they are “skinny” and do not have the power to do so, and Esperanza believes that she is the only one who feels this way, leaving her all alone. Esperanza feels as if she doesn’t belong on Mango Street and her residence here is just as unnatural as the layout of these city planted trees. Therefore, through location and environment Cisneros uses the thematic motif of identity to represents Esperanza’s desire for a new house where she can escape her thoughts of isolation and insignificance.

Similarly, where Esperanza has problems with her identity due to location, she also has problems with her self definition. She states, “I would like to be baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees. Esperanza as Lisandra, or Maritza, or ZeZe the X. Yes, ZeZe the X will do” (11). Esperanza doesn’t see herself as a boring “Esperanza,” she sees herself as someone who is more adventurous and exciting. She wants to be called something mysterious and unknown, which is represented by the “X.” This suggests that there is a part of her that the reader, and especially her family, doesn’t know. This represents her hidden identity and her true thoughts about her own life. We also see a new part into Esperanza’s identity when she reads her own original poem to her Aunt Lupe, “I want to be/ like the waves on the sea/ like the clouds in the wind/ but I’m me/ One day I’ll jump/ out of my skin/ I’ll shake the sky/ like a hundred violins” (60-61). By Esperanza writing this poem herself, the reader gains some insight into how she really feels about herself and how her identity is being trapped by her restricted life. Inside Esperanza is a much different person than what everyone sees on the outside, an ambitious teenage girl locked in a life a poverty and a confusing cycle of identity. She waits anxiously for the day that she will be set free so that she can reach the full limits of her trapped potential. Thus, Cisneros uses Esperanza’s own struggles with identity to continue her thematic motif and dive deeper into Esperanza’s true self.

Likewise, Cisneros continues the thematic motif of identity by using Esperanza’s gender and future plans to complete the readers understanding of her identity. To illustrate, Esperanza states, “My mother says when I get older my dusty hair will settle and my blouse will learn to stay clean, but I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain” (88). Esperanza doesn’t want to end up like her mother, married with a bunch of children, always doing the household chores, and living in regret of what her life could’ve been. She refuses to conform to the gender expectations that society has placed upon her. She wants to make something of her life and overcome these restrictions of gender. Therefore, Esperanza plans to not grow up like the others and instead believes that, “One day I will pack my bags of books and paper. One day I will say goodbye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever” (110). At this point in Cisneros’s novel, the reader begins to see how Esperanza’s writing has affected her identity. It has made her stronger as a young adult and has given her an opportunity for success in her future. She has bigger plans, to become a writer. Esperanza knows that she is going places and she will make something of herself. She won’t make the same mistakes her mother made, and she will rise above the expectations that have been placed on her to start her life away from Mango Street.

Thus, Cisneros’s use of identity as a thematic motif enables the reader to learn about the real Esperanza and the struggles she was to overcome. Throughout the novel the reader is able to see Esperanza’s growth throughout her location, gender, and ultimately herself as she embarks upon her journey for her own personal identity.