Gender Roles In The House On Mango Street

Gender Inequality in The House on Mango Street

Literature is a way of conveying ideas and stories to shed light on subjects that are kept in the shadows by society. Usually these stories have purpose, a message that they want to convey to the reader. In The House on Mango Street there are many themes and messages hidden within the vignettes that intertwine throughout the book. One of the most prevalent themes is gender inequality directed towards women within the Mexican society. Most of the characters in the story are females; the reader is shown a small glimpse of their lives and how they are treated as opposed to the men. Sandra Cisneros depicts most of the men in her book as controlling and abusive; her male characters believe that a woman’s

primary place in life is in the home taking care of the children, the house, with the man as head of the household. Even at a young age children are pushed into the gender roles that their society deems appropriate. “The boys and girls live in separate worlds (8)”. These separate living spheres creates a divide between the two genders, allowing for gender inequality to fester.
During her life on Mango Street, the protagonist, Esperanza, is exposed to some of the same harsh cruelties that her female friends also struggle with daily. Sandra Cisneros depicts a harsh life for women- a life full abuse and cruelty which is often delivered by the hand of their fathers. The strongest evidence of these acts of brutality is shown in the vignette, What Sally Said. In this vignette Esperanza tells us about Sally’s relationship with her father; Sally’s father beats her on a regular basis because he is afraid that, like his sisters, she will run away and bring shame upon the family. One day Sally is beaten severely by her father, so to escape his harsh hand she is sent to live with Esperanza. However that same night Sally’s father comes to the door apologizes, promising Sally that he’ll never beat her again. Being young and naïve she forgives her father and returns home with him, but his promise does not last long. Her father sees her talking to a boy which sends him into a downward spiral of anger, rage, and frustration. Beating her with his belt and hands was worse than ever before, Sally comes to the realization that he was no longer her father. Many of the girls that live in Esperanza’s neighborhood must live with similar abuse from their fathers. By being a member of the female gender, characters such as Sally are seen by their male superiors as the weak sex and cannot stop their male counterparts from exerting anger and rage.
In the ghettos of Mango Street, girls marry young to escape parental abuse, however these innocent young girls only trade one abuser for another.

Their new husbands will carry on the same learned behavior and pattern all too familiar from their own childhood homes. In the vignette Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut & Papaya Juice, the reader is shown the quite abuse suffered by women in marriage. Rafaela is a wife confined to the perimeter of her house, as her husband believes that she is too beautiful to be gazed upon. Afraid that she will run away her husband restricts her to home, locked away from the rest of the world. Rafaela’s dream is to go dancing at the bar just down the road from her house, but she is afraid to leave without her husband’s consent; disobeying her husband’s commands would ultimately earn her a beating. From this vignette the readers can feel the despair that haunts the wives in the Mexican culture. Once again Sandra Cisneros portrays the harsh cruelties and injustices Mexican women are bombarded with by their

spouses.
Esperanza is aware of the ill treatment of her fellow female neighbors; she knows all too well of the mistreatment they receive, because she is also a victim of abuse. Her experiences and her observations are what convince her to buy her own house. In the vignette A House of My Own, she finally decides that she has had enough of living in a man’s world. “Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s house. A house all my own (108).” Esperanza has seen how other women become trapped and beaten by the men that are supposed to protect them within what should be a safe haven- she wants no more of it. Esperanza wants her own space where she can indulge in her passion to write, to do want she chooses, to be her own master, and can come and go as she pleases.
The House on Mango Street portrays the inequality in gender roles that the Mexican society thrusts upon women.

Esperanza tries to rebel against the role placed upon her; she has no wish to become an inferior to men-“I have inherited her names, but I do not want to inherit her place by the window (11).” Hearing the tales of her grandma and seeing the fate of other women, Esperanza does not want to look out the window regretting her obedient silence, hoping and waiting her whole life to escape, but unable to do anything to change it. She has decided she will not get married young, but instead earn an education and work so that she can buy a house of her own. Not many girls have the ability or determination to defy the gender roles, many are stuck in the same never-ending cycle of abuse and stagnation instituted by the dominating males. At the end of the book Esperanza states that when she has leaves, she will not forget her experiences, but will one day return for those who cannot leave; she will return to free those who have been enslaved by gender

discrimination.