Prompt #18 (Title of the book)

The title of the book, "The House on Mango Street" plays a very big role in this book.  It is the beginning of the set of vignettes and sets a base for the tone of the book.  In the first vignette, the narrator Esperanza talks about how she always dreamed for a big house and a house of the family's own.  The house on Mango Street is the first house that really became their own that they did not have to pay rent for.  It wasn't the huge white house with a yard full of grass that she had hoped for, but it was still satisfying.  Titling the book this was like saying that this house was the beginning to all that the author wrote about.  This "dream" that Esperanza was chasing stays consistent throughout a lot of the vignettes.  If I could choose a new title I would title the book, "Esperanza, The Girl of Dreams".  I would name it this because that is one of the only steady feelings that is carried from vignette to vignette.  For example in the vignette titled "Boys and Girls," Esperanza states, "Someday I will have a best friend all my own.  One I can tell secrets to.  One who will understand my jokes without my having to explain them.  Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor."  (pg 9)