The House on Mango Street

by Sandra Cisneros

As a girl, she dreamed about having a silent home, just to herself, the way other women dreamed of their weddings.

When she thinks to herself in her father’s language, she knows sons and daughters don’t leave their parents’ house until they marry. When she thinks in English, she knows she should’ve been on her own since eighteen.

Then as if she forgot I just moved in, she says the neighborhood is getting bad.