Windows.

In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros formats the book into many vignettes. Each of the vignettes can be passively read and misunderstood unless reader read carefully and follow her writing. In her vignettes titiled "My Name", "No Speak English", "Rafaela", and "Sally" there is a symbol used to portray many things. Windows. Windows can be looked at as symbols freedom and a way home. Outside of thin walls is a place better than where each of the characters in the vignettes are at.

In the vignette titled, "No Speak English", Mamacita is a foreign immigrant that only knows how to speak English. This has forced her to stay inside her "home" all day and only watch what goes on around her. She dreads living there and wishes that she could go back home. On page 77 Esperanza narrates, "She sits all day by the window and plays the Spanish radio show and sings all the homesick songs about her country in a voice that sounds like a seagull." What this is trying to persuade readers is that Mamacita only wishes to go home. The land of the free is no match for what she once had before, the window is the frame of what she used to had when she looked out and saw other’s happiness.

In the vignette titled “My Name” Esperanza talks about how she does not like her name because it is named after her great grandmother. She states “She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow.” (11) What this is saying is that Esperanza’s great grandmother was weak, she dreaded the idea of getting married but after being forced to she was always sad. She looked out the window all of the time, like Mamacita had when she was stuck in her home with nowhere to go. Later on in the vignette, Esperanza expresses, “I have inherited her name, but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window.” (11) When Esperanza says this she is trying to say that she doesn’t want to be like how her great grandmother was and lose hope. She would rather be named after a strong woman.

In the vignette titled “Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut & Papaya Juice on Tuesdays” Esparanza talks about another woman who has been taken advantatge of. Rafaela is a young woman who also follows in the path of staring out windows. “And then Rafaela, who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much, gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at.” (79) This shows that Rafaela is too weak and can not speak up. It isn’t her fault though. Rafaela wants a normal life and to be able to enjoy it.

In the vignette “Sally” Esperanza talks about her experiences with her friend Sally. After Sally left her for boys Esparanza writes to Sally and tries to talk about how there are other things that could get her mind off of being like the way she is. What I am trying to say is that she tries to tell Sally that she understands that Sally wants to be normal or perfect. She understands that it is hard for her to do so when under pressure from boys. Esperanza writes, “And if you opened the little window latch and gave it a shove, the windows would swing open, all the sky would come in.” (82) This means that if Sally felt vulnerable like the other women, she would be able to see what is better beyond the window and realize that how she acts can be changed.
Windows are a symbol of freedom, a better life and respect. These women look out of the window in search of an answer. They long for equality and to not be treated like just another woman in the world. They want to be able to live the life they see when they look out of a window.