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<title> A Fight for Liberation </title>
Esperanza is the main character in a Novel called The house on Mango Street and also the main character in my essay. The topic of the essay is about her freeing her self from the Barrio where she lives with her family. Esperanza is a very special girl that sometimes seems to be just a little girl but on the next page think like a very mature woman. This is one of the things that make it possible for her to choose a life for herself outside the Barrio. I will come to this and develop it more later on in the essay. Another character that is very important is her mother. She forms and gives her the strength she needs to stand on her own. Her mother is very strong but on the same time very weak and I believe that both these sides of her personality is important for Esperanza's development towards independence. Since the topic is Esperanza's fight against the Barrio I will begin by giving a picture of her and how I see her.
	Esperanza is in the book on the border between the life of a child and the life of an adult. She plays with the other children on the street and seems to be one of them but there is a lot going on inside of her head. It seems to me that she observes a lot. She looks at things going on around her and she listens to what people say to each other. She knows that girls are destined to one day get married, have children and continue the tradition but she do not really like the idea. She sees married people around her and realises that they are not happy. In her eyes all the married women in the Barrio is just sitting by the window wanting to get out again but once they are married it is to late. She is determined not to end up by a window looking out. She says about her great-grandmother that " I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window" (Cisneros 11). This makes her different from most of the other girls in the Barrio who cannot wait to get married. Many of them think marriage is a way out but Esperanza sees beyond that. She realises that if she ever is to brake loose from the barrio she will have to do it alone without a husband to do it for her. One of her dreams is about having a house of her own and that gets to be the goal for her freedom. She thinks that once she gets a house she will be free and everything will be good. At some point someone tells her that a house is in the heart and I think that that is very important. What she longs for is somewhere to belong and feel safe. To her that place is a house of her own but in the end I think she realises that it is not the house in it self that will give that feeling of belonging and love. It is the liberation from the Barrio and her independent that will give her that feeling. I think this shows in the end when she says:
...what I remember most is Mango Street, sad red house, the house I belong but do not belong to. I put it down on paper and then the ghost does not ache so much. I write it down and Mango says goodbye sometimes. She does not hold me with both arms. She sets me free. (Cisneros 110)
I think that she now has put all her thoughts together and knows what to do to free herself and make her happy. She knows that she cannot be happy on Mango Street. She has to go through a process of liberation. 
	In this liberation process that Esperanza is going through she has a lot of support from her mother. I said earlier that she was helped by her mother's strong side in her character but also by her weak side. By this I meant that Esperanza is strengthened by her strength and the fact that her mothers can speak two languages and sing an opera. Esperanza wants to be like her mother and she looks up to her. On the other hand Esperanza's mother is not able to take the subway train by her self and I think this affects Esperanza too. I would like to once again refer to the quote on the second page of the essay. She said that her great-grandmother was a strong woman and she had inherited her name but she did not want to inherit her place by the window. She sees these two strong women, both her great-grandmother and her mother, who are trapped in a way and she knows that she have to change something in her life not to go the same way. Cisneros says in an article that the mother in The House on Mango Street is very much like her own. She also says that Esperanza's mother "is a woman of contradictions" (Satz, Returning to ones Home,3). I think this is very important. Esperanza wants to be like her mother in many ways but not on the expense of her own freedom. She can see both sides of her mother's personality and in the end I think she knows how to use both of them to be the woman she wants to be. 
Esperanza's fight to free her self from the barrio is a very complex one. She has to brake loose from traditions and also from her family and go by her self. The two things that are of most help to her are according to me her strong personality and the help of her mother. Esperanza is very strong and in some ways mature. Her mother is also very important in the sense that she is both a role model and warning. Esperanza wants to be like her and at the same time she does not want to be like her. I think that Esperanza is smart enough to take after the good parts and step away from the rest. I would like to end with a quote where Esperanza explains on a few lines what her dreams and hopes are. 
	I want to be
	Like the waves on the see,
	Like the clouds in the wind,
	But I'm me.
	One day I'll jump
	Out of my skin.
	I'll shake the sky
	Like a hundred violins." (Cisneros 60-61)
List of References
* Primary material
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango street (1984)

* Secondary material
Satz, Martha. "Returning to One's House: An Interview with Sandra Cisneros."
	Accessed June 19, 2000. <http: //ehostgw16.epnet.com>
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