引用

The House on Mango Street

They always told us that one day we will move into a house, a real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn't have to move each year. And our house would have running water and pipes that worked. And inside it would have real stairs, not hallway stairs, but stairs inside like the houses on T.V. And we'd have a basement and at least three washroms so when we took a bath we wouldn't have to tell everybody.Our house would be white with trees around it, a great big yard and grass growing without a fence. This was the house Papa talked about when he held a lottery ticket and this was the house Mama dreamed up in the stories she told me before we went to bed.

 

But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all. It's small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you'd think they were holding their breath. Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to puch hard to get in.There is no front yard, only four little elms the bity planted by the curb. Out back is a small garage for the car we don't own yet and a small yard that looks smaller between the 2 buidings on either side. There are staris in our house, but they're ordinary hallway stairs,and the house has only one bathroom. Everybody has to share a bedroom-Mama and Papa, Carols and Kiki, me and Nenny.

                                                                                                                                                                              ---The House on Mango Street