The House on Mango Street is a story that addresses an issue of poverty. I believe that the story is expressing the frustration of the often unachievable American dream. The story is told from the perspective of a child whose family has little money and is forced to move every year. The parents of this family have always dreamed of owning their own home and they have expressed this dream in detail to their children. The family wants a home with running water, real stairs "like the houses on T.V.", a basement, three washrooms, and a great big yard. We know right away that the family doesn't have much money because of the description of the flat on Loomis, so the thought of them owning a home that has these amenities is an unrealistic one.
The family buys the house on Mango Street, but the narrator is not impressed. After all of the dreaming out loud that the parents have done in front of their children this was not what they expected at all. The description of the house is a telling one that is filled with disappointment. The house is small and red (not white) with a small yard and small steps in front. The narrator also says the house has "windows so small you'd think they were holding their breath." All of these statements contribute to the idea of the house being very small and cramped, especially for a large family. The personifying statement about the windows seems to be saying that they aren't letting any air into the house; the narrator might feel like she can't breathe when she's inside. On top of this the door is "so swollen you have to push hard to get in." This statement says that the house is not a welcoming home for the child. She feels almost as if she cannot enter her home.
The story about the nun coming by the narrator's old home and asking her where she lives represents the way society encourages people to reach for the American dream by judging individuals based upon the places in which they live. The narrator hates her new home even though it may be better than her previous ones because it can't measure up to the dream. In the end of the story when the narrator talks about how the house on mango street is supposed to be temporary, she says "but I know how those things go." At first I thought this meant that she felt they would be in that house forever. But then I thought she might be expressing the thought that her family will never move up from houses like this one. Even if she continues to move every year, her family is stuck in a level of poverty that restricts them to this type of home.
I may have possibly just written a blog post longer than the story itself.