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Jalen Cerame

Mr. Yerkes

English

18 September 2018

Theme Paragraphs on The House on Mango Street

In the book “The House on Mango Street” the stories “Rice Sandwich”, “Born

Bad”, and “Sire” show many theme within them. The themes that are shown in these

vignettes are loneliness, guiltiness, and jealousy.

The theme of “Rice Sandwich” is loneliness and the desire to stop being lonely

because at the start of the story Esperanza says the canteen is a place for special students

and that the canteen sounds important. From Esperanza’s interpretation, she sees the

canteen which its actual purpose is a place for students to stay since their home is far

away as a way to feel and be special. As read Esperanza hopes to be noticed by going to

the canteen rather than using it for its purpose. Further to prove the theme of Esperanza’s

attempt at being noticed is the fact that she had bothered her mother to let her go to the

canteen as well as do it for three days until her mother gave in. This too shows

Esperanza’s desperate attempt to gain attention. We can obviously tell she wants to go

since she bothers her mother for a few days.

Next the theme of the story “Born Bad” is Esperanza being guilty of her Aunt

Lupe’s death. Esperanza believes she was the one to have killed Aunt Lupe due to the

game she created. Esperanza just wants to place the blame on herself that she was the
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reason Aunt Lupe had died. She most likely placed the blame on herself since Aunt

Guadalupe was a good person who enjoyed Esperanza and her siblings company.

Another reason why the theme of “Born Bad” was guilt was that at the end area of the

story where it states “We didn’t know. She had been dying such a long time, we forgot.

Maybe she was ashamed. Maybe she was embarrassed it took so many years. The kids

who wanted to be kids instead of washing dishes and ironing their papa’s shirts”.

Possibly Esperanza felt she could have done more to help her aunt. But fell for Aunt

Lupe’s act of pretending to not need help and not put more on the already many tasks the

kids were given.

Lastly the theme of “Sire” is jealousy and Esperanza possibly being jealous of

Sire and his girlfriend Lois. In the mid-section of the vignette Esperanza talks about the

fun things Sire and Lois did together. These being riding a bike together, laughing late at

night, or just taking a walk and Esperanza just watched. We can tell Esperanza may want

somebody to do stuff with since she watches the two have fun. She also says it herself she

wants a boy to be with instead of just imagining. At the end of the story Esperanza also

had a dream of where a boy was holding her tightly like if it was almost real. We the

readers can interpret that she was jealous of Lois having Sire with her. That is most likely

the cause of Esperanza’s dream of having a boy grip her out at night.

In conclusion this is why the themes of “Rice Sandwich” was loneliness, the

theme of “Born Bad” being guilt, and the theme of “Sire” is jealousy. The theme of “Rice

Sandwich” loneliness comes from the attempt Esperanza had to try to be special. In

“Born Bad” the theme was guiltiness since Esperanza felt bad for her aunt and placed the
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cause of her death on herself. Lastly, the story “Sire” where Esperanza was jealous of

Sire and Lois having each other.