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Anastacio Malave
Humanities-
2 November 2014
Influence Can go a Long Way
Mahatma Gandhi said once, We must be the change we wish to see in the world. When
he said that, he was trying to tell people that the world would not change on its own if we did not
choose to have the world change by making a personal effort to do so. Esperanza is one of the
people that this advice helped. The author of the book, The House on Mango Street, Sandra
Cisneros, show how a young girl named Esperanza is oppressed by her gender and race and is
trying to figure where she belongs in the world while also oppressed trying to leave the street she
lives on. Because she does not want to become another sad addition to the failure there,
Esperanza learns very important lessons from the experiences of Sally, Alicia, and Ruthie. She
uses the mistakes they make to influence her to only rely on herself to accomplish her dream of
escaping a life of poverty and discrimination.
Sally has a positive influence on Esperanza through her negative experiences. For
example Esperanza says, He just went crazy, he just forgot that he was her father between the
buckle and the belt (Cisneros 93). In this quote Sally is beaten by her overprotected and abusive
father. As a result she is badly injured. This shows Esperanza that she cannot trust or settle for a
life with abusive people in it if she has hopes of leaving Mango Street. Therefore Sally has a
positive influence to show Esperanza that she can only rely on herself to escape. In another phase
of Sallys life Esperanza says, She is happy, except sometimes her husband get angry and once
broke the door where his foot went through, though most days he is okay (Cisneros 101).
Sallys manages to get away from her father and Mango Street, but has only traded one abusive

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relationship for another. Through Sallys negative experiences, Esperanza is influenced to only
rely on herself to leave Mango Street.
Alicia influences Esperanza by showing her that hard work can get her far in life. An
example is, Is a good girl, my friend, studies all night and sees the mice, the ones that her father
says do not exist. Is afraid of nothing except four legged fur and fathers (Cisneros 32). This
shows that Alicia has been molested by her father, but still makes time to study and go to
college. This influences Esperanza that even in tough times she can accomplish what she wants
to do. Alicias perseverance has a positive influence on Esperanza, but Alicia also helps later in
the novella. Alicia guides Esperanza when she says, Like it or not you are Mango Street, and
one day youll come back too. Whos going to do it? Not the Mayor (Cisneros 107). Alicia is
telling Esperanza that she is the only one who can save herself, but to also not forget Mango
Street because it had peel to but shape her into the strong woman she is today. This advice
influences Esperanza because she does decide to come back and help others who are still stuck
on Mango Street. Alicia proves that through hard work Esperanza can get herself out of Mango
Street and accomplish great things.
Ruthie is another example of being abused in a relationship and her experiences guide
Esperanza towards a better path. Evidence to show this is, She says shes just visiting and next
weekend her husbands going to take her home. But weekends come and go and Ruthie stays
(Cisneros 69). This shows that Ruthie seems to have been abused by her husband, breaking her
spirit and making her dependent on other people. This influences Esperanza positively by driving
her away from the path of marriage and leading her to a life where she accomplishes dreams on
her own. However, there is more proof that Ruthie has an influence on Esperanza. Another
example of this is when Esperanza says, Why is she sleeping on a couch in her mothers living

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room when she has a real house all her own (Cisneros 69). Ruthies dependence on her mother
is just more proof that Ruthie was abused and cannot function on her own. Esperanza does not
want to get married because she knows that she could be treated poorly because of her gender.
She decides that becoming a writer and accomplishing tasks on her own is what she wants to do
to find instead. Ruthie has influenced Esperanza positively so that she does not want to get
married and be tied down, but wants to be a writer so that she can leave Mango Street. Ruthie
has influenced Esperanza in a positive way so that she steers away from the oppression of
women in her neighborhood.
Meeting Sally, Alicia, and Ruthie has influenced Esperanza in a positive way. If
Esperanza never met them she would have never realized how much she needs to be independent
and not rely on a man to help her escape Mango Street. These women teach Esperanza that she
needs to only rely on herself and she cannot sit and wait for someone to help her leave. Young
women benefit from this novella because it shows that marriage is not the only way to leave an
unsatisfactory life.

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Work Cited

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.

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