Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street
Pg.747
“But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told at all. It’s small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath. Bricks were crumbling in pieces, and the frost door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in. There is no front yard only four little elms the city planted by the curb. Out back is a small garage for the car we don’t own yet and a small yard that looks smaller between the two buildings on either side”

In her parents stories and dreams they described the house that they wanted to move into as an elegant white house, in a good neighbor hood, with many rooms and bathrooms and room so spare. But when it came down to moving at the last minute they had to settle with the house on Mango Street. The way she described the house with the swollen door and windows that cant breathe shows that the house is small and old a place where she feels trapped. Everything she says about the house makes it seem small and uncomfortable.

Pg. 745
“Once when we were living in Loomis, a nun from my school passed by and saw me playing out front. The Laundromat downstairs had been boarded up because it had been robbed two days before and the owner had painted on the wood YES WE’RE OPEN so as not to loose business.
Where do you live? She asked.
There, I said pointing up to the third floor.
You live there?
There. I had to look where she was pointed the third floor, the paint peeling, wooden bars Papa had nailed on the windows so we wouldn’t fall out. You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded.”

Since she had lived in this place for a while and if not other places that were similar to this situation, she hasn’t realized what living condition she is in. She’s not poor because she is not living on the street and she is not rich because she can’t afford her own house, but she is somewhere in-between. When the nun points out that where she lives in is a shameful place, not on purpose, but the tone of her voice makes her feel self-conscious. This is when she starts to realize that the house her parent’s talk of is just a dream and might never be reached.