The House on Mango Street are a collection of vignettes written by Sandra Cisneros of her childhood. Cisneros vignettes shows the readers her childhood experiences of a young, inquisitive girl who then blossoms into a independent woman in Mango Street. They range from friendship and family values to scary experiences, but all of her vignettes convey a theme that she tries to express to her audience. One constant moral, Cisneros exhibits to her audience, is the entrapment of females in Mango Street. The author portrays many of the women in either abusive and submissive relationships, waiting for men to change their lives, and some very few wanting to change their life by themselves. The women in The House on Mango Street perceive beauty as …show more content…
their only source of escape from being entrapped by the men. However, beauty is not an infallible weapon to their escape, but aids to the entrapment of themselves. Cisneros illustrates the harsh reality of women in Mango Street being confined due to who they are, and how they perceive escape for themselves. To begin with, Cisneros displays the role of women as submissive to men.
The women on Mango Street are suppose to listen to what the men tell them to do and they can be in an abuseful relationship and have the power to do nothing. There are many women that Cisneros writes about in The House on Mango Street who are submissive to their husbands. Evidently, Sally has an abusive father who mistreats her due to the littlest things. For example, “...one day Sally’s father catches her talking to a boy and the next day she doesn’t come to school” (Cisneros 93). It is evident that Sally’s father doesn’t want her doing anything with guys and only coming home to him. However, this is why Sally becomes so submissive to guys because she just wants love and to be loved, instead of being beaten (83). She believes that’s her escape, when she gets attention because then she feels loved and safe, away from her father. In addition, when Sally believes she has escaped her fathers abusiveness to find love, she marries a man just like her father. She’s not allowed to do anything, and is trapped in their house. “...he won’t let her talk on the telephone. And he doesn’t let her look out the window. And he doesn’t like her friends, so nobody gets to visit her unless he is working. She sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without his permission” (102). Sally wanted to escape her father's control and find love, but she marries a guy who exhibits the same personality as her father. …show more content…
Moreover, another minor female character, Rafaela, shows evident submissiveness to her husband. She has a husband who plays dominoes on Tuesday and since he comes home late he locks his wife, Rafaela, in their house because he believes she’ll run away due to her beauty (79). Rafaela is submissive to her husband because it can be inferred that due to the community they live in, the society wants the women to grow up held back, and to be at a lower status than the men. Cisneros depicts Sally and Rafaela, two women in Mango Street as passive individuals to men. Furthermore, Cisneros represents many women in her work who think waiting for a man can change their lives. Some women in The House on Mango Street assume that if they look pretty and have outer beauty, men will help them in their life. The author portrays a lot of this by showing how women can wear makeup, be picked up by guys and that is their escape from Mango Street. However, they are escaping from nothing if they believe hanging onto someone can help achieve their own flight. Plainly, Cisneros describes Marin and Minerva as two women who believe they can find their escape by holding onto a man. In text, Marin is a very beautiful girl who has two apple green eyes that makes boys fascinated with her. She wants to work downtown where there are exquisite clothes and the ability to look all dolled up due to the fact she believes that she “...can meet someone in the subway who might marry you and and take you to live in a big house far away” (26). Cisneros depicts Marin as a girl who believes she can change her life if she leaves with a man. She thinks leaving with a man can change the outcome of herself in society, that she might become rich and successful enough to escape from Mango Street. Nevertheless, Marin isn’t escaping from anything. She concludes that if she waits for a car to stop it will change her life, but how is going in a car with a man going to change her life? It isn’t, going in a car will not benefit her at all. To make an impact in her own life she needs to put effort herself, however Cisneros portrays Marin as a female who believes that she can change her life by being pretty and waiting for a man to take notice. Additionally, the author reveals Minerva as another woman who still waits for her husband to come back for her and their kids. She needs him in her life even though he’s never there, but she believes that with him there in her life everything is right. He leaves Minerva constantly, rarely comes back, so Minerva doesn’t want to let her husband back. Nonetheless, once he apologizes she opens the door again (85). This goes on over and over again and she gets beaten as well, yet she still waits for her husband every time he leaves. There is no reason waiting for him anymore, he never is with her supporting their family, yet she constantly waits. It can be inferred that she waits for him because either she wants her children to escape the life she has, or receive love and affection from her husband even if it’s just a little. In The House on Mango Street the author portrays Marin and Minerva as two women who constantly waits for a man to change their life. Evidently, Cisneros doesn’t display all women as always submissive to men or waiting for them to change their lives.
They are some very few women in Mango Street who want to achieve escape through their own endeavor. The author illustrates both Alicia and Esperanza who does not want men to interfere with their lives and achieve success on their own. Both women believe that they are able to make an impact in their life by putting their own work in, and not relying on the help of anyone. In the text, Alicia is portrayed as a smart young woman who wants to get an education to escape the barrier between what she wants to be and what society thinks she is suppose to be. “...she doesn’t want to spend her whole life in a factory or behind a rolling pin” (32). The women exhibited in Mango Street are stereotyped to be wives or stay at home mothers whose husbands leave them and rarely come back and factory workers. Nonetheless, Alicia does not want that for herself. She is one of those few individuals who does not want to be held back by what society thinks she should be and write her own life than having someone tell her what she is suppose to do. Distinctly, Esperanza wants the same for herself. She always said she never belonged on Mango Street. Esperanza was always different from the rest of the women in Mango Street, she never wanted or needed a man to help her make an impact in her life. “...I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold
waiting for the ball and chain” (88). Esperanza did not want to grow up how society portrayed her to grow up, but passed what the society had depicted because she knew she wanted to change her life, with her own strength. She did not need any man in her life to achieve what she could on her own. “I am too strong for her to keep me here forever. One day I will go away” (110). Esperanza will surpass Mango Street and go far one day because she knows even with the society holding her back, she will one day overcome it and make an impact on her life with the help of herself. Cisneros portrays women as underlings of men, nevertheless there is only a few true gems who will escape the reality of society and create their own story. Alicia and Esperanza escaped the society that was holding them back and they were able to make an impact in their own life and dreams, even with the many obstacles they had faced. In conclusion, The House on Mango Street is a great book of vignettes written by Sandra Cisneros that showcases her growth as a young girl to the woman she is now. Cisneros has constantly learned many new lessons, and has conveyed them towards her readers. We see many themes Cisneros writes about, but roles of women are a key moral in her vignettes. Cisneros describes most women waiting for a miracle to happen or being trapped by this society of men. The women in Mango Street believing beauty is everything will never be able to change their lives. If they think beauty will get you so far in life, it will not. They have to put effort for it, but Cisneros displays most women in Mango Street as unable to achieve this feat. Nonetheless, there are a bright few who won’t let society hold them back, but use that to their strenght to keep them going. Cisneros portrays women as a lower status to men, but there are a few who can rise to the top with their own power instead of using others.
The House on Mango Street is a novel by Sandra Cisneros. It is set in a poor, Latino neighborhood around 1960. The main character, Esperanza, is expected to get married in order to support herself. However, Esperanza strives for independence, and seeks to end the cycle of abusive patriarchy that holds Mango Street in thrall. Through the use of syntax and figurative language, Cisneros establishes that a sense of not belonging can fuel an individual’s desire for a better future.
The House on Mango Street, a fictional book written by Sandra Cisneros is a book filled with many hidden messages. The book revolves around a young girl named Esperanza who feels out of place with the life she has. She sees that the things around her don’t really add up. The story is told from Esperanza’s perspective and the events she goes through to find herself. Through the strategy of fragmenting sentences, Cisneros establishes that the sense of not belonging, creates a person’s individuality that makes them who they are.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is about a girl who struggles finding her true self. Esperanza sees the typical figures like Sally and Rafaela. There is also her neighbor Marin shows the “true” identity for women on Mango Street. She also sees her mother is and is not like that at the same time. The main struggle that Esperanza has is with beauty. This explains why most of the negative people that Esperanza meets on Mango Street, and her gender, helped her see the mold she needed to fill in order to give herself an identity.
“The House on Mango Street” emphasizes on this issue, even broadens to explain other controversial matters such as abuse, misogynistic views, and stereotypes. The protagonist, Esperanza Cordero moves to Mango Street where she must witness the abuse affecting her friends, neighbors, and family. Either Sally a close friend, Mamacita a neighbor, or her own mother handling 4 children. Over the course of the novel Esperanza changes physically and mentally. Through the use of imagery as well as complex, descriptive vignettes Cisneros epitomizes the misogynistic views within Esperanza’s
As the chapter opens, the first impression of Sire is one of a James Dean type of character. Sire and his friends are just sitting on their bikes, pitching pennies, or in other words, gambling. Esperanza tells us that she is scared of them, which makes me wonder why she would be afraid of them? She then says how her dad calls him a “punk.”
Gabriela Quintanilla Mrs. Allen A.P English 12 12 March 2014 The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros once said “'Hispanic' is English for a person of Latino origin who wants to be accepted by the white status quo. ’ Latino' is the word we have always used for ourselves.” In the novel I read, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, the main character, a twelve-year-old Chicana (Mexican-American girl), Esperanza, saw self-definition as a struggle, this was a major theme in the novel through Esperanza’s actions and the ones around her. Esperanza tries to find identity in herself as a woman as well as an artist throughout the novel through her encounters.
The author of The House on Mango Street and the producer of The Color Purple are able to integrate numerous important thematic ideas. Many of these ideas still apply to our current world, teaching various important lessons to many adolescents and adults. The House on Mango Street is a collection of vignettes written by Sandra Cisneros, a Mexican-American writer. The novel depicts many aspects of Sandra Cisneros’ life including racism, and sexism that she and the main character face. The novel revolves around Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl, who is growing up in Chicago as she faces the various struggles of living in America. The various vignettes reveal many experiences Esperanza has with reality and her navie responses to such harsh
Sandra Cisneros's writing style in the novel The House on Mango Street transcends two genres, poetry and the short story. The novel is written in a series of poetic vignettes that make it easy to read. These distinguishing attributes are combined to create the backbone of Cisneros's unique style and structure.
In the short story “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, make Esperanza the main character. Esperanza expresses herself in traditional words, her own feelings about life. The image of the The House on Mango Street is located in a poor neighborhood, where this young girl and her family present emotions becoming into a hope of a better life. These feelings led Esperanza convert the idea to own a beautiful house into an obsession. The image of Esperanza and her House becomes a symbol of different ideas such as shame, fantasy, independence, confidence and hope.
The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a fictional novel set in 1950’s Chicago. Centering around Esperanza’s Mexican American family and their neighbors on Mango Street, the story illustrates Esperanza’s growth and gain of experience. Throughout the story, Esperanza obtains insight on many diverse aspects of life, one being how different she is from the men and even the other women in her culture and society. She recognizes that many of the women in her life are opressed, and identifies that she craves to be different and more independent. Through the use of figurative language, Cisneros asserts that when women allow themselves to be dominated by men, they may be prevented from pursuing their aspirations.
Throughout The House on Mango Street Esperanza learns to resist the gender norms that are deeply imbedded in her community. The majority of the other female characters in the novel have internalized the male viewpoint and they believe that it is their husbands or fathers responsibility to care for them and make any crucial decisions for them. However, despite the influence of other female characters that are “immasculated”, according to Judith Fetterley, Esperanza’s experiences lead her to become a “resisting reader” in Fettereley’s terminology because she does not want to become like the women that she observes, stuck under a man’s authority. She desires to leave Mango Street and have a “home of her own” so that she will never be forced to depend on a man (Cisneros 108). During the course of the novel Esperanza eventually realizes that it is also her duty to go back to Mango Street “For the ones that cannot out”, or the women who do not challenge the norms (110). Esperanza eventually turns to her writing as a way to escape from her situation without having to marry a man that she would be forced to rely on like some of her friends do.
Cisneros depicts Mango Street as a rough neighborhood, but she also conveys a sense of community. She writes down that “we are safe,” (Cisneros, 28) to indicate that she can find the sense of community. Even if the author does not think she belongs to Mango Street, she does not deny that her community lives there. At the beginning of The House on Mango Street, Cisneros states that “I had to have a house. A real house,” (Cisneros, 5) illustrating that after knowing the American society’s evaluation criteria of success, she wants to follow the upward mobility and be viewed as a successful figure not only because she wants to be appreciated but also because white people will change their stereotypes of Hispanic people if they see that a Hispanic woman can be as successful as other whites. Her ambition triggers her to want to explore the meaning of being a Hispanic girl in the real world. Furthermore, in the “My name” session, the author depicts her great-grandmother’s life. “She looked out the window her whole life… but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window.” (Cisneros, 11) Cisneros wants a marriage formed because of love, like most white people do; her desire indicates that she wants to live like the whites, so that they will respect her and the Hispanic race later. In addition, Cisneros points out that she
The House on Mango Street is the tale about a young girl named Esperanza who is maturing throughout the text. In it Esperanza documents the events and people who make up Mango Street. It is through this community that Esperanza’s ideas and concepts of the relationships between men and women are shaped. She provides detailed accounts about the oppression of women at not only the hands of men who make up Mango Street but also how the community contributes to this oppression. As the young girls and women of Mango Street try to navigate the world they must deal with a patriarchal society that seeks to keep them confined. By growing up in this environment where women are confined Esperanza seeks desperately to depart from Mango Street for fear
Sandra Cisneros reveals her feminist views through her novel The House on Mango Street. She does this by forcing the reader to see the protagonist as an alienated artist and by creating many strong and intelligent female characters who serve as the protagonist's inspiration.
The importance of one’s education is often stressed throughout one’s early childhood and teenage years. The main point sometimes misses with many students, however. In The House on Mango Street, a novella by Sandra Cisneros, the main point- the beauty of education- sticks with young Esperanza all her life. The story follows this girl, a small and confused child, who lives in a very poor neighborhood. As the story progresses, Esperanza ages with the pages and is taught valuable life lessons. Both Alicia and Esperanza view education and writing as a way to a better life. Through these and other characters, Cisneros suggests that education offers a path of freedom.