Back in Esperanza's time and community, women were treated as if they were objects, having attracting boys, marrying young, giving herself away to a husband as the goal of a girl's life. As years slip by, most women just sit next to a window and stare at the outside with eyes full of sadness, imagining a life with freedom and independent will. Nevertheless, they can only dreams of those fantasies, while staring into the nothingness of the walls at home. In the novel The House on Mango Street, we viewed this man-dominate society from the eyes of a young girl, Esperanza, who was expected to be the same housewives that most other Mexican women in her community are. Using simple words and vignettes, Esperanza showed us her keen observations of the struggles of the woman on Mango Street due to their culture …show more content…
emphasis on women’s limitations. Throughout the novel, girls in their teenage or even younger are encouraged to be attracting males and pleasing them in a sexual way.
Each of them wish of a better change in life that a man and marriage will bring to them. Sally, Esperanza’s classmate and friend, dresses appealing and draws the attention of all the boys. Esperanza admires her beauty and also wants the boys to notice her. “Sally, who taught you to paint your eyes like Cleopatra? And if I roll the little brush with my tongue and chew it to a point and dip it in the muddy cake, the one in the little red box, will you teach me?”
Marin, another young girl of Esperanza’s neighborhood, is deeply restricted by her culture both mentally and physically. She has an unemployed boyfriend back in her home country, Puerto Rico, and she is saving money to go back and marry him. Also, Marin talks about getting a job in order to dress up beautifully, and meet someone who will marry her and provide for her a comfortable life. "Marin... Is waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life." Her experiences expresses the culture emphasis on how much women thought they needed men and depended on
them. Other than the girls who depend entirely on men, there are ones who worked hard to thrive with their own accomplishments. However, stereotypes of women in Esperanza’s society were holding back many young women who were full of potential. Alicia was one of the victims tied back by the culture of her society. Her mother died when she was young, so her father expects her to be a housewife like her mother and almost any other women around the neighborhood. Alicia's father doubts her and told her, "Anyway, a woman's place is sleeping so she can wake up early with the tortilla star." Nevertheless, Alicia studied hard every night in order to attend college, and finally, escaped the cycle of being a traditional housewife. Esperanza was raised in a culture where there were expectations that girls’ primary life goals are to attract boys and get married young, and that only men are dependable and have every right to dominate over women. This culture emphasis was shown throughout the vignettes of the neighborhood’s women’s stories. Young girls in the story, Sally, Marin, Alicia, Rafaela, are all trapped inside this cultural cage that limited their talents, potential, and confidence. Only very few girls had the chance and the independence mindset to escape their man dominate society and stereotypes.
Esperanza, the main character of The House on Mango Street, a novella written by Sandra Cisneros in 1984, has always felt like she didn’t belong. Esperanza sought a different life than the ones that people around her were living. She wanted to be in control of her life, and not be taken away by men as so many others around her had. Esperanza wanted to move away from Mango Street and find the house, and life she had always looked for. Through the use of repetition, Sandra Cisneros conveys a sense of not belonging, that can make a person strong enough to aspire to a better life.
A fire and a man name Tio Luis caused them to flee to California. Instead of sitting around and being fancy like they used too, they became workers. For the first time in forever, they learned what hard work certainty felt like. “After Mama fell asleep, Esperanza picked up the needlework and began where Abuelita had left off”. (Ryan 60). Esperanza didn’t know what work was, until she accomplished it. She didn’t know that things took time. Coming to America, modified everything for not just her family, but her as well. It made life exciting, new, and special in their eyes. “A week later Esperanza put yet another bundle of asparagus”. (Ryan 216). Before Esperanza came to America, she didn’t even know what asparagus was. She was used to eating tacos and tamales. Being in a different place, allows one to do new things. “Esperanza reached for Miguel’s hand and found it, and even though her mind was soaring to infinite possibilities, his touch held her heart to the earth”. (Ryan 251). At the beginning of this novel, Esperanza was going to marry a complete stranger, but once she moved away, she finally experienced what love felt like. Miguel made her feel different, special, and incredible. There’s no greater feeling than
Esperanza is a young girl who struggles with feelings of loneliness and feeling that she doesn’t fit in because she is poor. She always wanted to fit in with the other kids and feel like she was one of them. She loves to write because it helps her feel better about herself writing about her life and her community. Writing helps her with
“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
She was not a master of style, plot development or characterization, but the intensity of feeling and aspiration are evident in her narratives that overrides her imperfections. Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, written in 1984, and Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers, published in 1925, are both aimed at adolescent and adult audiences that deal with deeply disturbing themes about serious social conditions and their effects on children as adults. Both books are told in the first person; both narrators are young girls living in destitute neighborhoods; and both young girls witness the harsh realities of life for those who are poor, abused, and hopeless. Although the narrators face these overwhelming obstacles, they manage to survive their tough environments with their wits and strength remaining intact. Esperanza, a Chicano with three sisters and one brother, has had a dream of having her own things since she was ten years old.
Many are confined in a marriage in which they are unhappy with, and are reductant to make a change. Some are committed to make a change for themselves. Esperanza ponders each one of these women's lives. Through each role model Esperanza gains crucial life lessons on how to overcome different life hardships. Through some women like her great-grandmother and Ruthie, Esperanza learns she must take control her fate, to avoid marrying young, and not let a male figure dictate her future. Other women like Alicia, Esperanza learns to keep pursuing goals in life and to take control of her destiny no matter what obstruction may lay ahead. From Esperanza’s role models, the moral lesson that can be taken away is to be proactive about your life and to shape your own future. Everyone is a role model to somebody in their life. Strive to leave a positive message behind for the ones shadowing in your
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.
In the society that Esperanza and her friends live in, love takes a back seat
“Someday, I will have a best friend all my own. One I can tell my secrets to. One who will understand my jokes without me having to explain them” (9). These are the longing words spoken by Esperanza. In the novel The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is young girl experiencing adolescence not only longing for a place to fit in but also wanting to be beautiful. This becomes complicated as Esperanza becomes more sexually aware. Throughout the novel, Cisneros argues the importance of beauty and how Esperanza deals with beauty as a part of her identity. When Esperanza meets Sally a new friend, Esperanza’s whole world is turned upside down. Esperanza’s views on beauty change from a positive outlook to a negative one by watching how beauty has damaged Sally’s life.
In the book House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza tries to defy women’s gender roles while others blindly follow them, or give into them. Many chapters in the book are about gender roles like “No Speak English” or “Linoleum Roses.” but one that stuck out to me is “Alesia Who See’s Mice.” After Alicia’s mother died, her father was depending on Alesia to spend the rest of her life behind a rolling pin, or in a factory, but she wants to go to college. She is defying her gender roles by studying for college but she is also forced to wake up early and make lunch for her working dad. So in some ways she is defying gender roles but she is also giving into them because she has to get up early to cook. “Two trains and a bus, because she doesn't want to spend her entire life behind a rolling pin.”(31-32). Esperanza is narrating how Alesia is constantly moving around from university to house to factory. So Alesia is doing her best to defy gender roles.
Esperanza, a strong- willed girl who dreams big despite her surroundings and restrictions, is the main character in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Esperanza represents the females of her poor and impoverished neighborhood who wish to change and better themselves. She desires both sexuality and autonomy of marriage, hoping to break the typical life cycle of woman in her family and neighborhood. Throughout the novel, she goes through many different changes in search of identity and maturity, seeking self-reliance and interdependence, through insecure ideas such as owning her own house, instead of seeking comfort and in one’s self. Esperanza matures as she begins to see the difference. She evolves from an insecure girl to a mature young lady through her difficult life experiences and the people she comes across. It is through personal encounters and experiences that Esperanza begins to become sexually aware and acceptance her place and self-definition in her community.
In the Book women are looked upon as objects by men whether they are boyfriends, friends fathers or husbands. The girls in the novel grow up with the mentality that looks and appearance are the most important things to a woman. Cisneros also shows how Latino women are expected to be loyal to their husbands, and that a husband should have complete control of the relationship. Yet on the other hand, Cisneros describes the character Esperanza as being different. Even though she is born and raised in the same culture as the women around her, she is not happy with it, and knows that someday she will break free from its ties, because she is mentally strong and has a talent for telling stories. She comes back through her stories by showing the women that they can be independent and live their own lives. In a way this is Cinceros' way of coming back and giving back to the women in her community.
Esperanza’s rebel role model, Marin, is a clear example of a woman accepting their role in society, depending on a man. Marin teaches Esperanza things so Esperanza sees Marin as a source for her everyday needs: “I like Marin. She is older and knows lots of things. She is the one who told us how Davey the Baby’s sister got pregnant and what cream
Esperanza grew up very wealthy in a big house with servants. She was spoiled and never had to lift a finger. She had a close relationship with her father. Esperanza had a collection of dolls he would give her every year on her birthday. Esperanza had everything she could wish for. Everything was in order like her dolls lined up on her dresser. Then tragedy hit when Esperanza’s father died. His death affected everyone, especially Esperanza. Life
Sandra Cisneros’s novella The House on Mango Street showcases women who are forced to fulfill the typical 1980s’ Mexican female role; as a result, they endure physical harm and sexual assault, which prohibit them from leaving their neighborhood to pursue their goals independently. In the first instance, Esperanza describes her great-grandmother as “a wild horse of a woman” (Cisneros 11); however, as Esperanza further explains, her soon-to-be great-grandfather forces the “wild horse” (11) to marry. Specifically, Esperanza’s great-grandfather “thr[ows] a sack over her head and carrie[s] her off” (11), and thus he tames the wild horse; because of his actions, Esperanza’s great-grandmother is forced to “look out the window her whole life” (11).