The House On Mango Street Analytical Essay

Analyzing The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, through a Postcolonial perspective, main categories begin to emerge among the different characters in the novel in relation to colonial hegemony. Throughout the work the characters are viewed through one or more of the categories gender roles, social class, culture, religion and power. All of the experiences discussed in the book are presented through the eyes of a young girl, the narrator.
Her journey begins by introducing the reader to a new change in her life, the new house her family has recently moved to, due to her prior home being destroyed. The beginning of the book consists of random experiences that can resemble a form of diary or journal. The narrator continuously jumps from

one topic to the next in the first couple of chapters. Among one of those chapters she introduces her grandmother, the reasons why may include that she is revealing a little about herself as she tells or that she just wants to introduce on of the categories in which the characters are viewed through. She begins by telling the reader what her and her grandmother shared; among these similarities they shared the same name and the same birth year of the horse in Chinese culture. She uses the qualities to describe the idea of gender roles, especially the role of a woman. The fact that both the narrator and her grandmother were born in the year of the horse, which is associated with strength, can be considered bad luck for women. Although many believe in this superstition the narrator makes a point of not believing in such things and makes a bold declaration of how both Chinese and Mexican cultures undermine women and belittle their strength. Esperanza, the narrator, uses this idea to discuss her grandmother’s life. She states that her grandmother was forced into marriage and how this event forced her to despise her husband. The idea that her grandmother was subject to an arranged marriage represents the concept of women being treated unequally and not being taken seriously enough to even make their own choices. In this case, Esperanza is aware of these inequalities among genders. Before her arranged marriage, the older Esperanza, was a strong women with plans of her own, the narrator the states that she remained this way by being aware of the outside world even though she is not allowed to partake in it. She has not accepted her life but she has no other choice.
The next topic discussed within the Cisneros novel is the category of cultural differences and the effects on social classes and other aspects of people’s lives. The narrator speaks about her new friend she made in the neighborhood. She speaks of their first encounter and her reaction to her overall experience. She begins by describing her new friend Cathy and the things she would say about her family. According to Cathy she would only be the narrator’s friend for a week until she was to move away with her family. Cathy then expands on the reasons for her family moving away. She tells the narrator of her connections to a royal family and that they are leaving their house due to the deteriorating conditions of the neighborhood. Esperanza is immediately offended by this; she has now established the idea that Cathy is rude by making the generalization that families like hers were the cause for the neighborhood changes. The idea that Esperanza is able to draw conclusions of Cathy’s racist views about her culture and families like hers is a sign of how easy it is for anyone to acknowledge inequalities among people. Esperanza is a young child and it is amazing how she was able to identify the real reasons why Cathy’s family chose to move. Another example of the cultural differences among people within Esperanza’s neighborhood is when she talks about people from other neighborhoods feeling uncomfortable in her neighborhood. She then continues to relate hew own experiences to the idea of being afraid in other areas, she talks about her feelings of discomfort among people who are not like her and how she can relate to those feelings when others experience them around her neighborhood. These feelings of discomfort are the results of not being aware of diversity and not understanding differences among people in general. This is made apparent when Esperanza finds other friends who are more like her and what she is used to. She finds comfort in people who she can relate to. Eventually these differences can be misunderstood; they can make certain groups feel inferior to others.
Power can be seen within the novel in the case of a character named Alicia. According to the narrator she was warned about Alicia and her attitude towards people. Cathy, a friend of the narrator, told rumors about Alicia and how snobby she was. Eventually Esperanza met Alicia, and she soon realized that she was a busy young woman. She is actually a mother who is striving for improvement for herself and her child’s life. This ground breaking idea of someone attending college when they have other responsibilities is pretty much not sitting so well with people around her. They view her as a person who isn’t fulfilling her home responsibilities and is being self-centered. Of course there can be other factors or influences behind these thoughts. For example the idea of a woman pursuing an education, this automatically breaks away from the stereotypical mother role. It also puts her above all the others who don’t have an education or are not pursuing one, she in a since is more powerful than the others. Alicia is alone in this journey, her family and community do not approve of her choices, and this is mostly based on cultural beliefs. These beliefs can and sometimes are sexists, for example Hispanic women are expected to fulfill their roles in the household if the mothers pass away, like in Alicia’s situation, and she is expected to step in for her mother being the oldest child. Since she is focusing more on her education this is disrespectful toward her father and siblings. Alicia’s drive for success resembles the narrators same ambition. This could be an indication that Esperanza will have to experience something similar to this when she is able to fulfill her goal of leaving her neighborhood.
Another example of how social classes are present in the novel is the idea of Esperanza maturing in her view of escaping Mango Street. She has realized that she no longer wants to dream of having a nice home in the suburbs. She now sees this as a moment for people to look down on her and her family for not being privileged. She understands these inequalities between people and she now believe she cannot be happy in a world like that. Instead she decides to embrace her culture and the people from her neighborhood.
The aspect of religion can be found in the narrator’s spiritual experiences with the reading of her hand.

As expected the old women read her palm and confirm Esperanza’s goals, this provided her with a spiritual guidance or reassurance for her to complete her long term goal. Eventually Esperanza and Alicia have made up their mind, in order to improve their home town they will have to leave Mango Street and return when they are well suited to make changes. It is up to them to help change their neighborhood. Although one year has passed she has not left home yet, but she has escaped spiritually through her writing. The narrator has evolved from being tired of who she was to realizing the challenges that she faces to finally accepting them in hopes of changing them. These challenges are in different formats, the idea of women not being treated equally, cultural differences, social classes, spiritual beliefs and most importantly power. She has accepted what she has to face and now she is more determined to help people like her succeed. This change in attitude is remarkable for the simple reason that she is standing up for what she believes in and not allowing outside forces influence her. She has rejected all of the negative factors that stand against differences; she now accepts herself and does not want to change that. It will be quite a while before she is off of Mango Street but the idea behind this is that she will hopefully impact other people’s lives. Hopefully she will teach other young adults to embrace their differences and use them in order to benefit the people around them. This is relatable to the idea of people who were colonizers and the ones who were subject to this practice. In a way Esperanza is the answer to help stop assimilation among cultures, and embrace the diverse cultures we do have. It can also resemble the idea of treating others equally and with respect, this is something colonizers lacked when meeting other

people.