Individuals are shaped by the external factors of the environment they live in; from the moment individuals are born, they are bombarded with societal ideas that they are expected to follow, as well as expectations that they are expected to fulfill. Society has an enormous influence on shaping human behavior through the usage of beliefs, values, and norms that through different types of structures, reward and punish certain actions. Individuals are also shaped by internal factors; from the moment individuals are born, they have desires and instincts. One of the ways that an individual’s behavior can be analyzed is through their psychical personality. As Sigmund Freud emphasizes in “The Dissection of Psychical Personality,” the psychical personality is formed of three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. In the structural model of the psychical personality that Freud created, the ego negotiates between the id and the superego by creating an agreement in which the individual’s behavior satisfies their desires while simultaneously satisfying societal morals. (Freud 74) In Esperanza’s case in “The House On Mango Street,” a novella written by Sandra Cisneros, her behavior is heavily influenced by the heterogeneous society that she lives in as well as by her inner desires. In “The House On Mango Street” the character of Esperanza displays the Freudian concept of the relationship between the id, ego, and superego because as she deals with her identity and sexuality she is put into situations in which her desires are in a conflict with the morality instilled in her by society.
In Esperanza’s search for Identity, her behavior can be attributed to her psychical personality. At first, she hates the neighborhood she lives in; at an early age she realizes that the women who live on Mango Street are trapped, either because of their culture or their oppressive husbands; Esperanza’s biggest desire is to be independent and break off from her neighborhood. In Maria Elena de Valdes’ “In Search of Identity in Cisneros The House on Mango Street” she states, “she is a young girl surrounded by examples of abused, defeated, worn-out women, but the woman she wants to be must be free.” de Valde contrasts Esperanza’s desire of autonomy to the oppression of females in Mango Street. Esperanza’s realization of the role of women in her neighborhood is what prompts her desire to not become one of them. Esperanza knows that if she stays in her neighborhood, she will end up just like every other woman: confined with no way out. Her instinct is to protect herself by wanting to move to another place; this behavior can be attributed to her id. She invests a lot of her mental and emotional energy on the idea of getting a place of her own, however, she is faced with the reality that she is just a child in a poor neighborhood and at the time she had no way to release her id’s energy because she was dependant on her family, that is where her ego and superego come in.
Esperanza’s inner desire to get a house of her own is faced with external forces which represent her reality and moral values. In the chapter titled “The Three Sisters” Esperanza’s wish to leave Mango Street is influenced by societal views on morality:
When you leave you must remember to come back for the others. A circle, understand? You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street You can’t erase what you are. You can’t forget what you are. Then I didn’t know what to say. It was as if she could read my mind, as if she knew what I had wished for, and I felt ashamed for having made such a selfish wish (Cisneros 103).
In this scene Esperanza’s superego plays a role on her emotions. Her superego includes the rules and standards that society and her parents consider as good behaviour. Esperanza’s desire to move out of Mango Street lacks consideration of those around her who are struggling as well. The neighbor’s response to Esperanza’s wish represent society’s expectations for Esperanza; Esperanza’s wishes go against those expectation thus the superego punishes her ego, the part of her personality in charge of dealing with reality. In “The Dissection of Psychical Personality” Freud states, “The super-ego applies the strictest moral standard to the helpless ego which is at its mercy; in general it represents the claims of morality, and we realize all at once that our moral sense of guilt is the expression of the tension between the ego and the super-ego.” (Freud 60) Freud’s claim implies that Esperanza’s guilt came about because her ego’s attempt to fulfill the id’s needs was selfish, immoral, and lacked empathy for those like her; her desire was against the moral views of society.
As Esperanza explores her sexuality she battles between what she desires and what her family and society think its right. One of the ways that she deals with her sexuality is by repressing it. In the chapter titled “Sire” her wishful impulse is to get sire’s attention however, things get complicated for her when he gets a girlfriend. In Lecture II Freud states that wishful impulses have a “sharp contrast to the subject’s other wishes and which proved incompatible with the ethical and aesthetic standards of his personality.”(Freud 2212) When he mentions “these experiences” he refers to the physical symptoms that come from the repression of wishful impulses. Esperanza’s repression can attributed to her ego and superego; while the ego tries to meet the demands of her environment, her superego wouldn’t allow her to act on her wishful impulse. Her wishful impulse was to be with a boy who is everything that society and her parents perceive as “bad,” not to mention that it would be looked down upon if she is with a guy who has a girlfriend. The effect that the repression of her wishful impulse has on Esperanza can be observed when she states:
“Everything is holding its breath inside me. Everything is waiting to explode like Christmas. I want to be all new and shiny. I want to sit out bad at night, a boy around my neck and the wind under my skirt. Not this way, every evening talking to the trees, leaning out my window, imagining what I can’t see. A boy held me once so hard, I swear, I felt the grip and weight of his arms, but it was a dream.”(Cisneros 63)
It can be said that Esperanza’s repressed wishful impulses exist in her unconscious and are fulfilled through dreams. In Freud’s description of the id in “The Dissection of Psychical Personality” he states, “It is filled with energy reaching it from the instincts, but it has no organization, produces no collective will, but only a striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principle.”(Freud 72) The description of Esperanza’s emotions represent all the sexual energy that she repressed which wants to be discharged. Because her id is operated by the pleasure principle it wants her wishful impulses to be fulfilled; since they did not get fulfilled because of the external forces in her personality, she feels unpleasure. Although Esperanza’s energy is not released through her id, she later finds and outlet in the form of writing, her artistic gift.
As “The House On Mango Street” progresses Esperanza matures and her sense of individualism becomes a feeling of responsibility towards the people of her community. Through writing Esperanza discovers her true identity and begins to accept that she is part of the community that she wanted to escape so bad, she realizes that the way to escape it is by transforming it. In lecture V Freud states, “If a person who is at loggerheads with reality possesses an artistic gift (a thing that is still a psychological mystery to us), he can transform his phantasies into artistic creations instead of into symptoms. In this manner he can escape the doom of neurosis and by this roundabout path regain his contact with reality.” (Freud 2235) Based on Freud’s description of the artistic gift it can be deduced that Esperanza’s writing is what prompted her to mature. All the hate for her culture and herself, as well as the repression of her wishes were contained inside of her; it is what fueled her desire to change Mango Street to a better place; she also wants to inspire other women like her to do the same and break off of the repressive society, not by leaving but by transforming it. In “The Women Figures and the Notion of ‘Home’ in Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street” Faruk Kalay states, “Esperanza pioneers the new model for her contemporaries. In this context, the novel draws Esperanza as a person who helps the women suffering from the social constraints and family burdens. Furthermore, there is a slight progression from dependency to independency, from cultural limitations to self autonomy.” Esperanza’s behavior by the end of the story shows that she recognizes herself as part of a system that with her help will break the cycle of oppression that most of the women in Mango Street are exposed to. Although she breaks off of the patriarchal society that is her home, she knows that she belongs within it and it is her responsibility to help those who could not be freed.
The progression of Esperanza’s behavior throughout “The House on Mango Street” can be attributed to her newly found sense of identity. It is interesting to see how her writing changed the hostility that she felt towards her community and transformed it into a feeling of belonging and responsibility. Esperanza’s struggle to feel like she was part of a community is society’s fault. Because she saw how every women in her community was caged she did not want to belong. When women are oppressed by society, it affects them psychologically; it creates inner struggles to express themselves and define who they are and what they want. Esperanza found a way to overcome her inner struggles however, they are individuals in society who are not that fortunate.
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