In "The House on Mango Street", by Sandra Cisneros, Mango Street is part of a lower class, dangerous neighborhood where women feel imprisoned from life, particularly in the characters of Marin, Sally, and Esperanza. The first woman, Marin, an older friend of Esperanza's, is emotionally imprisoned from the joy of being outside to laugh and talk with friends. Marin is not allowed to leave her home because it is her job to watch her cousins. …showed first 75 words of 297 total…

…showed last 75 words of 297 total…you remember, but me I never had a house, not even a photograph...only one I dream of" (Cisneros 106). Esperanza has bigger ideas planned for her future than those that Mango Street has to offer her, but has no choice but to stay because of her age and maturity level. Marin, Sally, and Esperanza are all emotionally, physically, and mentally imprisoned by the hardships they, and all women, face living in a slum of Chicago.