House on Mango Street

Chapter One addresses themes of home, family, poverty, and self-identity. The narrator's need for a home is very much related to her economic situation, her dreams for and frustrations towards her family, and her need to have a place of her own free from the constraints she finds both inside and outside her present domicile. These themes are often bluntly revealed in the narrative itself and also through more subtle channels of language, symbolism, and metaphor. These techniques are explored more in depth below.