When I grow up, I want to be a black gum tree. Black gum trees are known for their internal strength. Instead of dwelling on outer beauty, they spend more time focusing on inner growth and developing their core. Only after achieving this can they produce beautiful fruits that attract animals to them. All surfaces touched by the berries are stained as if to say, "I have been here and made a permanent difference." After using their external influences, they use their internal scars and cavities to protect the animals around them. If human lives reflected the concepts of the black gum tree, governments, individuals and communities would be radically transformed. While this is a beautiful image, communities will never fully achieve this aspiration. Sandra Cisneros shows the positive and negative effects of community on human growth in The House on Mango Street when Esperanza unconsciously reads the four skinny trees as a stand-in for herself. The layer of concrete surrounding the tree roots is a metaphor for the barrier between Esperanza's success and her community. These four skinny trees stand in the middle of a poor city plagued by crime, prostitution, and a sense of desperation. Because all of these cycles are nearly impenetrable, they are a metaphor for the concrete that lies over their roots. This slab will forever remain over the downward-facing roots, separating them from the vertical growth above them. Ironically, the roots beneath the concrete support the same slab that hinders its growth. Without the support of the individuals living on Mango Street, the socially formed layer of concrete would crumble into dust; however, since...... half of the paper ......Cisneros 110). Her inner strength is strong enough to allow her to grow beyond the constraints of her community, but she will never reach her full potential until she returns to change the roots that made her this way. Esperanza then chooses to develop the core of her personality despite living amidst tangled roots, which ultimately leads her to escape. When I grow up, I want to be Esperanza. I want to think critically, urge change, find beautiful elements in ordinary texts, and influence my fallen community with the fruits of my inner strength. If Esperanza had not chosen to use both the positive and negative effects of her community as inspiration, she would have remained trapped and failed to influence the hurting society around her. Instead, he chooses to act like the trees and build his inner strength so he can reach others effectively.