Four Who Grew Despite Concrete

Four Who Grew Despite Concrete

In House on Mango Street the author uses and extended metaphor involving four skinny trees to show how the speaker feels out of place, but at the same time, strong and can overcome the challenge that she is facing.  The speaker quickly states that the trees have long necks and skinny elbows just like her. Because of this, we can assume that the speaker and the trees are going to be compared is some way.  she also uses the trees as a type of motivation when she says, “when I am too sad and too skinny to keep keeping, when I am a tiny thing against so many bricks, then it is I look at trees.” The metaphor about the trees sets a theme in the story by being described as something strong but timid, which is also the same image we can gather about the speaker.“Their strength is a secret.”

~Avery Carter