Struggles In The House On Mango Street

In the novel, The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros tells the story of

Esperanza, who faces multiple struggles while living in a Latino community in Chicago on Mango Street. Esperanza is not happy being raised in the same culture as the other women around her and living as a Mexican American in the U.S. culture. Throughout the novel, Cisneros describes the problems women face, like fighting for equality, respect, and freedom within a Hispanic society. In her novel, Cisneros emphasizes the struggles that Esperanza and Latino women had to face in the U.S. society during the middle of the twentieth century.

One of the struggles that Esperanza and other Latino women had to face in the U.S. society was equality, which was denied at every level. For example, in the novel women were not appreciated or accepted for their inner beauty but only for what they look like. Esperanza and the women around her were concerned about their appearances because they felt that if they were not attractive then men would not be interested in them. Esperanza and the girls believe that their appearance was the most important. Throughout the novel Cisneros expresses that these women were raised to believe that they needed a man figure to fulfill their life.

Cisneros also highlights respect, as another

struggle that women from the community on Mango Street had to confront. The author Cisneros affirms that Esperanza and the women on Mango street community are viewed as the outsiders, with little support to help them succeed. Cisneros expresses the women are seen as powerless as Cisneros live in a male dominated world. The women did not have any independence they had to cope with their troubles by themselves. The women did not have control of their own choices. In the novel, Cisneros refers to the Vargas kids as she expresses “they are bad those Vargases, and who cries every day for the man who left without even leaving a dollar for bologna or a note explaining how come” (pg 29). Cisneros shows some compelling evidence to point out how much power the man had in a woman’s life.
One of the struggles that Esperanza and other women from the neighborhood from Mango Street struggled with was freedom. Cisneros expresses that women were portrayed as often isolating which gave them little power. For example, Esperanza never felt that sense of belonging: she knew that she wasn’t quite like others. Cisneros mentions that women sit by their windows all day and look down onto the street. Likewise, in the book Esperanza expresses about her great-grandmother “She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow” (pg11). Throughout the novel Cisneros demonstrates that men dominate the society by taking control of their relationships. The female characters are trapped by abusive husbands and are expected to be loyal to their husbands. The women had less to say over decisions and less control over their households than men. For example, in the story the character the great-grandmother Esperanza’s great- grandmother demonstrates how men captured her. The great grandmother did not want to get married but was forced into marriage. Additionally, the characters mammacita, Rafaela, Minerva, and Sally were women that were trapped in their apartments in the novel.
Although the character Esperanza faced many struggles growing up in a rundown and harsh neighborhood on Mango Street, she was always looking for ways to succeed.

Esperanza did not want to be like the other women that were trapped in their apartments by men. Esperanza wanted the other women to live with dignity and with freedom .The Latino women on Mango Street did attempt to change their lives by eliminating the male figures in their lives. As Cisneros portrays the struggles of these Mexican American girls and women in the novel as occupying a place by the window, meaning she tells us that by connecting the window image implies that some women could do more to change their

situations.