House On Mango Street Sexuality

The House on Mango Street
In the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, a young girl named Esperanza Cordero, who lives in the poor segregated Latino section of Chicago, struggles to find her sexual identity as she tries to find a means of escape from the poverty-driven neighborhood of Mango Street. Through observing other female role models and through her own experience, Esperanza learns that harnessing her sexuality and relying on others is not nearly enough to allow her to leave Mango Street. Esperanza later finds out that if she plays with her sexuality and waits for her prince charming, the result might not end in such a happily ever after.
At the beginning of the novel, Esperanza is not quite ready to emerge from the

asexuality of childhood. As she begins to grow into her adolescent body she becomes curious about her sexuality. Esperanza then meets an older girl named Marin whose “short skirts” and “pretty eyes” make the boys fall head over heels for her (27).
Marin’s expertise and experience with her body as an allure for boys fascinate Esperanza.

Esperanza is still early in her stage of adolescent, and any body signal that portrays sexuality is new and intriguing to her. Hence, she sees Marin as a role model of beauty as Esperanza is trying to figure out her own body. Esperanza is also fascinated by Marin because Marin also shares the same dream as her, to one day leave Mango Street. To Marin, all that matters “is for the boys to see us and for us to see them” (27). Though Marin provides an idea of how to escape, deep down Esperanza knows that the path Marin has chosen is not the path for her. Just like the song that Esperanza describes Marin singing, Marin is a “falling star.” Marin will always be looking for someone else to save her, always “waiting for a car to stop…someone to change her life” (27). Marin is a dreamer, an idealist with no true goals and no control over her destiny. Though Esperanza is still young, she is still smart enough to see Marin’s idealistic ways. She still shares the same dream as Marin, but Esperanza’s mentality is different. Though she is still in the early stage of adolescent, Esperanza’s mentality is slowly turning into a realist. She is still in the process of discovering her identity, but her immense passion to leave Mango Street triumphs over her sexuality. That is where she differs from Marin. Although still uncertain about which path she will take, Esperanza knows that Marin’s path will only

lead to failure.
As Esperanza starts to experiment with her sexuality, she realizes the power she has over men but doesn’t understand the dangers that come with it. In the chapter “The Family of Little Feet,” Esperanza first encounters the feeling of having power over men after Lucy’s mother gives Esperanza and her friends’ high heels. As the girls put on their shoes, Esperanza shouts, “Hurray! Today we are Cinderella because our feet fit exactly” (40). The shoes empowered them, making them feel like women. They feel confident and beautiful as they walked around the neighborhood with the shoes. Unfortunately, they soon find out that beauty is not as glamorous and safe as it appears. As they walk around the neighborhood, an impoverished man approaches them and asks one of the younger girls in the group, “If I give you a dollar will you kiss me?”(41). Esperanza quickly learns that the sexual power they wield may not always be as innocent and safe as Marin portrays it to be. After the man’s provocative and inappropriate request makes the girls run away, Esperanza learns that playing with sexuality will only hinder herself from escaping Mango Street. She sees that, even if she does master her sexuality, men will never take her seriously if she only portrays beauty. After being sneered at and propositioned by the bum, the girls happily abandon their shoes. Esperanza then says, “We are tired of being beautiful” (41). Having a taste of female sexuality, Esperanza soon finds out that having such power might not be as safe and glamorous as they first presumed. Esperanza further realizes that the sexual power Marin seems so proud of may not be enough to break the patriarchal norm or men-predominant culture that has held back women in the community for so long.
After several experiences with sexuality, Esperanza encounters the last means of escape that most women in the community have long wish for, marriage.

As she encounters marriage, she quickly learns that marrying early and waiting for that one man to sweep her off her feet might not always end in happily ever after. In the chapter “Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut & Papaya Juice on Tuesdays,” Rafaela is a married woman who is forced by her husband to stay in her house because her husband thinks she is so beautiful she might run off with another man. The only escape Rafaela has occurs when she gives Esperanza and her friends a dollar to go to the local store and buy coconut or sometimes papaya juice, which they then send up to her in a paper shopping bag she lets down with clothesline. According to Esperanza, Rafaela is a girl “who drinks and drinks coconut and papaya juice on Tuesdays and wishes there were sweeter drinks, not bitter like an empty room, but sweet sweet like the island, like the dance hall down the street where women much older than her throw green eyes easily like dice and open homes with keys”(80). Esperanza can see that Rafaela yearns for freedom, for that feeling of independence where she can have her own keys to leave and enter her house whenever she pleases, for that feeling of being free again, and to dance. Unfortunately, Esperanza also knows that Rafaela is completely helpless in her ordeal, for Rafaela simply does not know a way out. As Rafaela “leans out

the window and leans on her elbow and dreams her hair is like Rapunzel’s,” Esperanza can feel the agony Rafaela is going through, the feeling of being trapped and desiring freedom yet not having the power or knowledge to achieve it. Through this observation, Esperanza quickly learns that marriage is far from the route she would like to take in order to escape Mango Street.
Through all the pain and hopelessness she sees around her, Esperanza soon learns that portraying sexuality and entering marriage are far from the correct paths to escape Mango Street. During her adolescent age, she has experience the feeling of sexuality and the danger that comes with it. She learns that playing with sexuality will feel empowering for the short-term but will never give her the respect and true power she needs to escape. She also learns that she must abandon the idea of marriage if she truly wants to leave Mango Street. In order to break free of the patriarchal norm of her community, she learns that she must be smart, educated, and independent if she ever wants to escape Mango Street. In the chapter “Alicia & I Talking on Edna’s Steps,” Esperanza’s maturity from all the experience she witnesses is displayed. In a dialogue between Esperanza and Alicia, a friend who attends a local university, Alicia said, “Like it or not you are Mango Street, and one day you’ll come back too.” After Esperanza initially rejects the idea, saying “not until somebody makes it better,” Alicia asks, “Who’s going to do it? The mayor?” Esperanza then replies with laughter: “Who’s going to do it? Not the mayor” (107). This dialogue suggests that Esperanza has found the identity she has long searched for. She learns that she must become educated and rely on no one but herself if she wants a better life. Not only does she knows how to get out, but she also learns that she must return to Mango Street in order to help the others who are not strong enough to get out on their own. Through witnessing and feeling abandonment, trapped, powerless, and pain, Esperanza is able to discover her ideal identity, to be an autonomous woman. Through this search, she also has found her true means of escape: to work hard, become educated, make a name for herself, and one day return to save the others from Mango Street.