What are the internal and external conflicts for Esperanza in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros?

It is clear that one of the biggest internal and external
conflicts that Esperanza faces is her own desire to break free from her barrio and to
leave it, seeking her own life and forming her own identity. The earlier vignettes in
particular talk a lot about the women in her barrio and how they act as role models in
various ways. yet as Esperanza develops, and she understands more about the kind of
lives that her friends live, being married to husbands who can be abusive and having
children at an early age, and decides that she doesn't want to be trapped in this kind
of life. Consider the vignette entitled "Minerva Writes Poems," and the way that this
presents the possible future for Esperanza if she stays in her barrio and
settles:

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Minerva is only a little bit older than me but
already she has two kids and a husband who left... Minerva cried because her luck is
unlucky. Every night and every day. And
prays.

This leads to
Esperanza's resolution in "Beautiful and Cruel," when she defiantly
states:

I have
decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting
for the ball and
chain.

Esperanza sees all of
her female friends dominated in a patriarchal society that squashes their identity in a
profoundly negative way. Her resolution defines her as it defiantly expresses her desire
to form her own identity and to not let those around her form her identity for
her.

Another conflict she faces is the instability and lack
of sense of belonging that she experiences in the barrio. Note how in "A House of My
Own," she dreams of "Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as
paper before the poem." Her final decision to leave Mango Street is therefore a triumph
for Esperanza over her conflicts, yet at the same time she is determined not to forget
her roots. She herself admits that she is "too strong to stay in Mango street," yet at
the same time she says that:

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They will know I have gone away to come back. For
the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot
out.

Therefore, when we think
of internal and external conflicts in this excellent novel, it is clear that Esperanza
faces massive peer pressure to do what the other women do in her society and to marry
young and settle down and have children.