House on Mango Street

The theme of belonging and displacement is directly correlated to that of a home (setting). Indeed, these physical and worldly issues are metaphors for many of the coming-of-age experiences the narrator will relate in subsequent chapters. For example, the imagery describing the house could easily refer to the woman waiting to blossom inside the narrator. At present, she is "so small", "holding (her) breath", "crumbling in places"- an allusion to her misshapen demeanor, and "so swollen you have to push hard to get in"- an allusion to her virginity and awakening sexual curiosity. Having a house of her own, thus, is a metaphor for coming into her own place as an independent woman. When the narrator stresses that she must have "one I could point to", she is referring to a character and identity of which she can be proud, as of her home, to call her own.