<P> Esperanza later slips into puberty and likes it when a boy watches her dance at a baptism party . Esperanza's newfound views lead her to become friends with Sally, a girl her age who wears black nylon stockings, makeup, high heels, and short skirts, and uses boys as an escape from her abusive father . Sally, a beautiful girl according to her father, can get into trouble with being as beautiful as she is . Esperanza is not completely comfortable with Sally's sexuality . Their friendship is compromised when Sally ditches Esperanza for a boy at a carnival . As a result, Esperanza is sexually assaulted by a man at the carnival . Earlier at her first job, an elderly man tricked her into kissing him on the lips . Esperanza's traumatic experiences and observations of the women in her neighborhood cement her desire to escape Mango Street . She later realizes that she will never fully be able to leave Mango Street behind . She vows that after she leaves she will return to help the people she has left behind . Esperanza exclaims that Mango Street does not hold her in both arms; instead, it sets her free . </P> <P> The House on Mango Street is made up of vignettes that are not quite poems and not quite full stories . Not wanting to write directly about herself, Cisneros constructs the book in a combination of genres pulling mantles of poetry, autobiography, and fiction . Certain parts of the book directly reflect Cisneros' life, while others stray . Esperanza narrates these vignettes in first - person present tense, focusing on her day - to - day activities but sometimes narrating sections that are a series of observations . The vignettes can be as short as two or three paragraphs long and sometimes contain internal rhymes . In "The Family of Little Feet" for example, Esperanza says: </P> <P> "Their arms were little, and their hands were little, and their height was not tall, and their feet very small ." Each vignette can stand as an independent story . These vignettes don't follow a complete or chronological narrative, although they often mention characters introduced in earlier sections . The conflicts and problems in these short stories are never fully resolved, just as the futures of people in the neighborhood are often uncertain . The overall tone of the novel is earnest and intimate, with very little distance between the reader and the narrator . The tone varies from pessimistic to hopeful, as Esperanza herself sometimes expresses her jaded views on life: </P> <P> "I knew then I had to have a house . A real house . One I could point to . But this isn't it . The house on Mango Street isn't it . For the time being, Mama says . Temporary, says Papa . But I know how those things go ." </P>

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