Powerful Ego In The Hardship Of The Alien Cultural Context

The House on Mango Street is a great novel, which brought great fame to its writer, aMexican American writer—Sandra Cisneros, in the year of1985when The House on MangoStreet is awarded Before Columbus American Book Award. Since then, the novel has drawnso much attention among the readers all over the world.The story is told in the first person, called Esperanza, a fourteen years old girl whoalways moves between Mexico and America with her family. Finally they move to MangoStreet, which is a poor and messy street in America. The unstable life makes her think moreabout the days on Mango Street and the possibility to leave there and to have a house of herown. Great minds think the same. Another girl, named Sally, still keeps the same ambition toleave Mango and has a house of her own. And two girls strive for their dreams in different lifetracks. And do all roads really lead to Rome?This paper focuses on the psychoanalytic interpretation of The House on Mango Streetfrom the perspectives of personality, ego defense mechanism, life instinct, death instinct andthe psychoanalytic study of the symbols in this novel.The first chapter deals with introduction about the writer and novel, with the purpose ofproviding the background information about the writer and the novel for the paper’s study.Then the theory of psychoanalysis will be illustrated briefly in the second chapter. Thepsychoanalysis offers the perspective for the study of this paper. According Sigmund Freud’spsychoanalysis, the personality is composed of id, ego and superego. When one of the desiresof id contradicts with another, or the desires in id are against the social values and moralstandards in superego, or the individual is placed under large pressure or load because ofexternal menace, which leads to the anxiety and fear, ego would initiate the defensemechanism to deal with the problems from the reality so as to relieve the anxiety and decreasethe negative mood and to keep the dignity of individual. Besides these ideas, Freud alsobelieved that people are guided by two conflicting instincts: the life instinct and the deathinstinct. And this chapter lays a solid theory foundation for the study of this paper.The third chapter follows the outline of theory to study the protagonist in the novel,Esperanza. The entire novel is centered on her and Mango Street witnesses her pains andgains, sorrows and growth, despair and hope. As a fourteen years old girl, she has got manydesires in her id, such as food, clothes, hunger, and a house of her own. From the analysis ofEsperanza’s personality structure, this paper shines great light on the powerful ego of Esperanza, which would finally play a vital role in her determination to leave Mango Streetand to have a house of her own.Another girl’s story is involved in the following chapter. Sally, a minor character, whoonce was a girl on Mango Street and dreamed of leaving Mango all day long, still dreams ofhaving a house of her own. And within the personality of Sally, her id is stronger than her egoand superego, and her sense of morality, conscience and courage are easily conquered by thereality, and it turns out to be that she would sacrifice her friendship with Esperanza to greetthe boys. And she would not strive for her goal with her great effort, instead pin her hope onmarriage. And finally, she leaves Mango, but that’s not the happiness she once dreamed of.The symbols of house and window would be discussed in chapter five aiming at thedeeper understanding personalities of Esperanza and Sally. Window is the eye of the house,and the girl who gets a house of her own in the real sense would get the freedom and hope tothe largest extent, without being locking in the house any more and looking out of the windowday after day. It is writing that is the way Esperanza chose to leave Mango, not marriage.Do really all roads lead to Rome? To some degree, it is true. But as for the differentchoices between Esperanza and Sally, it is not completely true. Only the self-reliance is thereliable way to happiness in the long run.