When most people grew up, they decided
to escape their identities and pretended not knowing their families on the
street. They thought that the superficial appearances of their identities and
roots are too embarrassed to be shown. When they had bad experiences
through their growing up
process, that was
where they learned
their lessons. Those lessons had come out from a very suffering and pain stage.
This is familiar to Esperanza in The
House on Mango Street as she grew up; she experienced the same circumstance
that teaches us to appreciate our life with what we have and what we don’t.
Through the novel, appreciating what we
do not have will make our life more valuable. Esperanza learned that most women
on Mango Street were either trapped in their marriages or tied down by their
children. For example, Sally, Esperanza’s grandmother, Rosa Vargas, Rafaela and Minerva.
Rafaela was “still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much,”
(79) and “wishes there were sweeter drinks, not bitter like an empty room” (80). Because of the poor neighborhood
she lived in, these were the people
she could only hang out with. This was a place where
she was envious because of the others’ beauties. Freedom and independence is what she gets right at
this point. She would not think positively, but rather to get jealous on what
every woman on this street has, but not herself. This is an enormous mistake
that people usually make when their life is changing. They would never
appreciate what they do not have, because they don’t know that what they don’t
have will never cause any harms, but less worries, too.
Secondly, friends
and family is one of the important factors for appreciating our life. The
people who would always give straight forward but good advices are relatives
and true friends. Even though sometimes advices can be hurtful, but they are helpful and also the truth.
For examples, Papa said, “he’s a punk,” (73), and his mother told her, “not to
talk to him” (73). This was all
advises to a boy called Sire, and they are trying to tell that it is dangerous
to be around him. People rather get hurt to get the advices that they want.
It does not sound very nice, but it is better than a long and annoying advices from parents who like to go around in a maze.
Although, neighbors is neither friends nor family but they are still people who
can outcomes very outstanding advices. Like “It’ll come true” (105), that
advice was from three sisters, it was only three words, but it would help by someone just giving a positive
saying to the people that are very stressful.
Advices are important to life but it could sometimes include something that a
person own.
Apprehending your life is including in
appreciating what you have. Esperanza never appreciated things that are around
her, and this is one of the examples,
“I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor” (9). It took her years to
realize that having a responsibility
like Nenny is important to her, because if her family
that she had then is now gone, she would not be who she is. Without family is
like without educations, which is
almost very important. After what she had been through, she knew
that it is important to not forget about the family, because it is a very tough for those to raise her up when
she couldn’t do it on her own, and that taught her a big life
lessons. Another
example would be “You live right here, 4006 Mango,” (106). Alicia said that is
to wake Esperanza up and to realize that if she did not live here, she would
also not be herself, but some stubborn spoiled girl in the country. She would
keep being sad, because of her family situation, poverty. All this mean is just
appreciating by
hearts that kept everything together will shape who they are automatically.
At the end of the novel, The House on Mango Street teaches us to
appreciate what we have and do not have. Life is hard and it would never follows the directions we wanted
it to be. But appreciating what you have will help you
have a brighter perspective of life, a positive one for ninety-nine percent sure.
Compare it with just a word ‘oh,’ when people are in
deep sadness because they thinks that they do not have everything to satisfy
their high quality life, their ‘oh’ would be very short and low. On the other
hand, when people learn something unexpectedly that teaches them a life lesson,
their ‘oh’ would be a lot happy, also long and high. So start thinking on
appreciating, rather than sitting there letting ones’ sorrows to follow ones
everywhere as ones grow up.
