the house on mango street, no. 2

I can see Esperanza in several of the characters we have encountered so far. I think the character she has the most in common with may be Lucy Honeychurch. It is important that they are both female and have to face issues confronted nearly all females. First there are the physical issues that Epseranza describes in chapters like “Hips,” issues that for obvious reasons I don’t feel qualified, or even comfortable, to write about. Then, they must also both deal with social issues that face women. Lucy and Esperanza are both concerned with whom they will marry. Both feel the pressure of society and even their family to marry. Each character seemingly comes to the same conclusion about this pressure. Lucy has to face marriage much more directly, and she chooses not to sacrifice her own identity in order to marry the man her family and society would have her marry. Though Esperanza has not yet faced the decision about who she will marry I think she will make the same decision. In the last paragraph of “Beautiful and Cruel” Esperanza says that she has “begun [her] own quiet war,” against society’s pressure to let go of her power and independence. She comment’s on a character in a movie saying, “Her power is her own. She will not give it away” (110). This will become somewhat of a motto for Esperanza, and I believe that Lucy feels the exact same way.