The House on Mango Street characters description

Mama

Esperanza's mother, is a selfless caretaker, as evidenced by the comfort Esperanza seeks by her side and the way she will try to facilitate her children's whims, such as the new dress she buys Esperanza for a baptism and the way she indulges her daughter's wishes to not remain at school for lunch. Mama is beautiful and feminine, but we also learn that she is smart and regrets not making more of herself. Esperanza learns one of the most important lessons of the novel from Mama- to not let pride and fear of competition inhibit you from striving for success: "I could've been somebody, you know? Esperanza, you go to school. Study hard.... Shame is a bad thing, you know. It keeps you down. You want to know why I quit school? Because I didn't have nice clothes. No clothes, but I had brains." It is evident that Esperanza respects her mother's opinion, for she also ponders her mother's advice about developing sexuality, attending to her warning that girls like Lois who can't tie her shoes "are the ones that go into alleys" (73) and that "to wear black so young is dangerous" (82). She reveres her mother as both an ideal, accepts her advice and acts upon it.

Papa

is a Mexican immigrant who works hard from dusk until dawn as a gardener. He strives to provide his family with what they need, and set high standards for Esperanza when it comes to her education and associations with boys.

Nenny, or Magdalena

is Esperanza's little sister and companion. Esperanza also protects and nurtures Nenny: "She can't play with those Vargas kids or she'll turn out just like them." In turn, Nenny defends Esperanza when she fights with girls who call their mother names and when she sees a neighborhood house that "looks like Mexico and "Rachel and Lucy look at me like I'm crazy." Although Esperanza sometimes expresses frustration at having Nenny tag along ("you can't choose your sister) she admires her strength, independent character, and innocent lack of self-consciousness: "the hard little bone, that's my sister." In contrast to Esperanza, Nenny is still an oblivious child; the frustrations Esperanza feels trying to make her sister see the world as she does emphasizes the peculiar stage of woman-child that Esperanza has entered.

Carlos and Kiki

are Esperanza's younger brothers. They are each other's best friends and segregate themselves from the girls when out in public.

Alicia

is Esperanza's older friend, who illustrates Esperanza's mother's advice about education in action. Afraid of her father, Alicia studies all night. Alicia values education enough to take two trains and a bus to the university "because she doesn't want to spend her / whole life in a factory or behind a rolling pin" (31-32). As my colleague Joan England points out, Alicia also shows Esperanza the reality of leaving the neighborhood. You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street. You can't erase what you know. You can't forget who you are" (105). However, Esperanza doesn't immediately understand.

Sally

is one of Esperanza's closest friends. Sally is older and more mature than her friend, and this often creates awkward situations between the girls. Although her father tries to keep her away from men, Sally is flirtatious and experienced when it comes to the opposite sex. She is outgoing and wildly charismatic, and loves to boast about her adventures. Even though Sally seems content and happy, she is eternally scarred by the abuse she receives from her father. The beatings are usually not used as punishment, but instead as prevention. Sally's father does not want her to turn out like his sisters, who were loose, foolish women. He sees his daughter as the common housewife, and Sally is determined to overcome this image.

The protagonist and narrator of the novel, a young Chicana (Mexican-American) teenager whose name means “hope” in Spanish. The book follows a year of her life in a barrio (Latino neighborhood) of Chicago, during which she both experiences traumatic events and matures sexually, emotionally, and artistically.

Esperanza’s mother, one of the strongest women of the novel but rarely present in the plot. She is often a comfort to Esperanza, but she regrets dropping out of school and never “making something” of her life.

Esperanza’s father who works a lot and is rarely around. A benign presence compared to most of the abusive father figures in the book.

Magdalena “Nenny” Cordero

Esperanza’s little sister, who Esperanza must be constantly responsible for. Nenny is often lost in her own dream world, and sometimes her immaturity makes Esperanza embarrassed in front of her friends.

One of Esperanza’s best friends. Lucy was born in Texas and is the older of two Chicana sisters. They live across the street from Esperanza and share in many of her early adventures.

Lucy’s younger sister and Esperanza’s other best friend. Rachel was born in Chicago.

A young woman who attends university to try and change her life for the better. Her father makes her wake up early and do chores because he sees that as proper woman’s work, however, so Alicia must stay up late at night to study.

A young woman who is similar in age to Esperanza, but already married with two children and an abusive husband. Minerva writes poems and she and Esperanza share their writing with each other.

One of Esperanza’s brothers. Carlos rarely appears, and Esperanza acknowledges that her brothers live in a separate world of boys.

Esperanza’s other brother, who also rarely appears.

Esperanza’s aunt, who was once a strong and beautiful swimmer, but has been sick and bed-ridden all of Esperanza’s life. Esperanza reads Lupe her poems and Lupe encourages her to keep writing.

One of the many unruly, fatherless Vargas children. Angel falls from a great height and dies.

A neighborhood woman whose husband abandoned her and their many wild children. She is overwhelmed by the children and has no control over their dangerous antics.

An adult neighbor who still acts like a child and plays with Esperanza and her friends.

Three old aunts related to Rachel and Lucy, who appear for a funeral and predict Esperanza’s future. Esperanza thinks they are magical, and they do seem to symbolize the Three Fates of mythology.

Esperanza’s first real crush, a neighborhood boy who stares at her. Sire has a girlfriend named Lois, and Esperanza watches them hanging around the neighborhood, though her parents say Sire is a “punk.”

A neighborhood woman whose husband locks her in at night because she is beautiful and he fears she will leave him. She sends money down on a clothesline for Esperanza and her friends to buy her coconut or papaya juice.

An overweight neighborhood woman. Her husband worked hard to bring her from Mexico, but once she arrives on Mango Street, Mamacita never leaves the apartment and refuses to learn English.

The only named neighborhood boy, he pushes Esperanza into the water spurting from an open fire hydrant, and later steals Sally’s keys to get her to kiss him and his friends.

A young Mexican man that Marin dances with one night and then is hit by a car. He dies because no surgeon helps him, and no one knows his last name.

A “witch-woman” who Esperanza visits to learn her fortune. She tells Esperanza that she sees a “home in the heart.”

Esperanza’s uncle, who dances with her after her cousin’s baptism.

Esperanza’s aunt, who gets her the job at the photo developing store.

Meme’s family moves into Cathy’s vacated house. His real name is Juan and he has two dogs, and later he breaks his arms jumping out of a tree.

Marin’s cousin, a boy from a Puerto Rican family that moves into the Ortiz’s basement. Louie is friend of Esperanza’s brothers and cousins with the young man who steals the Cadillac.

A neighbor who sleeps all day and works at night. He supposedly has a wife, but each neighbor sees him bringing home a different woman.

Sire’s girlfriend, who doesn’t know how to tie her shoes. Esperanza imagines being Lois and being held by Sire.

Esperanza’s great-grandmother

The woman that Esperanza got her name from. She didn’t want to get married but was forced into it, and so looked silently out the window her whole life.

A nun at Esperanza’s school, who distrusts Esperanza’s mother’s note and thinks her family lives in a run-down tenement.

A boy at school who is usually obnoxious but once says something Esperanza finds wise.

Ruthie’s mother, a mean landlady.

A man who tells Esperanza and her friends that it is dangerous for girls their age to wear high-heeled shoes.

Who are the character of the story The House on Mango Street?

How would you describe Marin from The House on Mango Street?

How is Sally described in house on Mango Street?

How is Esperanza's mother described in The House on Mango Street?