As the novel begins, Esperanza leads a charmed life. She is surrounded by wealth and a loving family. She has no reason to assume her fortunes will ever change, but her father’s murder throws her into a world devoid of all the material comforts she has taken for granted. Initially, Esperanza doesn’t react well to the many deprivations that she and her mother suffer. The author uses Esperanza’s distaste for poverty as a starting point for an examination of what it means to be truly wealthy.

When Esperanza and her mother are forced to take a train ride among dirty peasants, Esperanza recoils in horror. She believes she is better than these lowly people and begrudges a peasant girl the chance to look at her new porcelain doll. Ramona rebukes her for her bad manners. “Esperanza suddenly felt ashamed and the color rose in her face, but she still pushed the valise farther under the seat with her feet and turned her body away from Mama” (70). To make up for her daughter’s rudeness, Ramona fashions a yarn doll for the little peasant girl. The child reacts with delight, which surprises Esperanza.

While Ramona has the emotional maturity to recognize that her family’s circumstances have changed, Esperanza stubbornly clings to the belief that wealth is her birthright.