The quest for belonging in life is something that everyone wants to achieve. Throughout our experiences, we discover new lessons that teach us who we are in this society and what we strive to be in this life. With all these lessons we have learned, we connect the dots to understand what belonging in society is. Each of us has a unique story in our lives that helps us discover this concept of belonging. In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, we see Ezparanza discover belonging in her life as she grows up. Through a multitude of psychological encounters, these experiences teach Ezparanza the dualities of belonging to society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay The first experience we see in the book took place when Ezparanza first described the house on Mango Street. She hoped for a house that would not be shared with other families or people who were not part of her family. However, this did not seem to be the case when Ezparanza and his family moved to Mango Street. She spoke of the fact that “the house on Mango Street is not at all as people said it was.” (Cisneros 4). The house Ezparanza described left him with an immense feeling of disappointment. She was hoping for a house that was a traditional single-family home. Even though her parents told her it was temporary, Ezparanza didn't think she was proud of where she lived. She felt like she didn't belong here, in this house because of the physical condition of the house, but the other houses on Mango Street are similar to the one Ezparanza and her family lived in. there are standards that we are exposed to, regardless of whether we like them or not. An example is when Ezparanza wants a best friend that she can call her own. Ezparanza wants a best friend who she "can trust with my secrets." The one who will understand my jokes without having to explain them” (Cisneros 9). In a broader context, we can see that Ezparanza doesn't have a best friend yet, mainly due to how young her sister is at the moment. We can also see the fact that her two brothers are each other's best friends, but not sisters. At that time, there were no relationships between guys and girls with great intimacy. This is why the brothers somehow avoid their two sisters outside the house. It was a kind of belonging in society, but not to the extent that every person, regardless of gender, interacted with each other on such a level. A person's name can play such a role on a person's psychology that it affects their thinking. belonging to society. In "My Name", Ezparanza thought about her name because she didn't have as much confidence in her name as people with much simpler and better names than hers. Ezparanza mentions the fact that “at school, they say my name in a funny way, as if the syllables were made of tin and hurt the palate… But I am still Esperanza. I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more similar to the real one, the one that no one sees” (Cisneros 11). We can see the fact that Ezparanza feels out of place because of the way others have pronounced his name. The mispronunciation of Ezparanza's name poses a lot of insecurity since many English speakers have difficulty pronouncing his name. The constant difficulty of people trying to pronounce his name makes Ezparanza feel like he doesn't belong in society. Having a job isone of the stages of life that makes us discover even more our belonging to society. That's what Ezparanza had when her aunt Lala "got me a job at Peter Pan Photo Finishers on North Broadway where she worked, and how old I was, and would show up tomorrow saying I was a year old moreover, and that was it” (Cisneros 53-54). Part of being part of a society is getting a job, and that's what Ezparanza got for the very first time. What Ezparanza did in his job was very rudimentary. It wasn't very well paid, especially for people of color and women. Men predominantly held higher positions than women. At that time, women and people of color were not paid as well, and this is still true today. While Ezparanza got a job through his aunt Lala and did not receive much salary, having a job meant having a sense of belonging in society. Writing was something Ezparanza discovered she belonged to when she read her work to her aunt. Even though her aunt really likes Ezparanza's writing, her aunt tells Ezparanza that she "has to keep writing." It will keep you free, and I said yes, but at that time I didn’t know what she meant” (Cisneros 61). Writing, according to the aunt, is something for which a person is free from restrictions. Although there are many rules that we must follow to stay in order, writing can make a person feel like they belong in society. No two people write the same way and this is true because each person has their own unique voice. What Ezparanza's aunt told her later made Ezparanza realize that she had her own voice, and this is seen throughout the later stages of her growth. It is at this moment that she begins to understand the meaning of her voice and that it is particularly important for her to belong to society. Back when gender roles were mostly part of the culture, we see this character Ezparanza is looking at. In “Sally,” Ezparanza portrays a character who stands out from societal norms and that person is Sally. Ezparanza talks about Sally as this girl who looks feminine based on her makeup, her clothes, and especially her shoes. What's most important, though, is when Ezparanza talks about Sally when she talks about how "all you wanted, all you wanted, Sally, was to love and love and love and love, and no one could call that crazy” (Cisneros 83). All of this shows that no matter what life throws at her, she stays true to herself. People may disown her because she doesn't belong in this society due to her personality reflecting her true colors. Even though people can say things that hurt a person, Sally doesn't care because she doesn't want to fit into what society wants her to be. Instead, she wants to change all that by showing up and more importantly loving each other. The feeling of loving and being loved gives us the feeling of belonging to society. In "A Smart Cookie", we hear about Ezparanza's mother talking about herself from her younger years. We see the fact that she had the potential to become whatever she wanted to be in life, but instead chose to drop out of school because of poor quality clothing. Ezparanza's mother tells Ezparanza that "shame is a bad thing, you know." It holds you back. Do you know why I quit school? Because I didn't have nice clothes. No clothes, but I had a brain” (Cisneros 91). Ezparanza's mother felt like she regretted dropping out of school because of her clothes. This already put his mother ininsecurity and she felt like she had no place in society. Even though Ezparanza's mother was already an intelligent person, she could not get far in life because of these insecurities that brought her to where she is today. This life lesson from her mother teaches Ezparanza that being herself is the most important concept she must learn to belong in society. The last time we watched Sally, we learned about Sally through Ezparanza. Ezparanza described Sally as this image of what a girl should be in society. Sally is the same girl, but she is depicted in a storyline that places her in the reality of being a part of society in her current time. Ezparanza describes Sally now as replacing his father's wife when his father "went crazy, he just forgot he was his father between the buckle and the belt." You're not my daughter, you're not my daughter. And then he broke his hands” (Cisneros 93). Sally's withdrawal makes it seem like Sally had to take on the role of wife because her father was preventing her from returning to school. Societal norms of gender roles in Ezparanza's time really play a huge role in Sally having to stay home and take care of the kids and do things that a housewife normally does, which says a lot about the duality of belonging to society. In “The Monkey Garden,” we see Ezparanza, Sally, and a group of other characters in an unusual location. This setting that we see is a place where these people can move freely. We can see this especially when Ezparanza talks about how "when the others were running, I wanted to run too, up and down and through the monkey garden, as fast as the boys, not like Sally who screamed if her stockings were muddy." ". » (Cisneros 96). The idea of ​​her actually wanting to do things without ever having anyone criticize her for not being a normal girl was something we see at this point in her childhood. She begins to discover more about what it means to belong to a place where you feel free in society. Not worrying about people looking down on her in this vignette seemed to push her discovery of belonging in society no matter where she is in the world. Facing a traumatic event can change our psychology and our view of belonging in society. We see this in "Red Clowns" when Sally and Ezparanza were at the amusement park. It is here that Ezparanza faces a very terrifying moment that hurts her emotionally and psychologically when she "couldn't make them leave." I couldn't do anything but cry. I don't remember it. It was dark. I don't remember it. I don't remember it. Please don’t make me say it at all” (Cisneros 100). When a person is raped, they do not tell anyone because they might feel like they are being hurt again by the same person who raped them. Just when Ezparanza was hoping to lose her virginity to her potential husband, a man she doesn't love and doesn't know at all comes along to ruin that. We can see the fact that Ezparanza was psychologically damaged by such a traumatic event in just one day. As a result, Ezparanza feels like he doesn't belong in society due to his helplessness. Homeownership is something that everyone in society should have. We finally see Ezparanza happy and there's a reason she feels that way. Ezparanza is finally at the point where she has “a house of my own.” With my veranda and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias. My books and my stories. My two shoes are waiting next to the bed. Person to whom.