The House On Mango Street Gender Essay

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros explores a year in the life of Esperanza who is a thirteen year-old Mexican- American Girl. Experanza’s innocence and ignorance allows her to examine and define the power she has to develop and examine her true moral self. The theme of social construction plays heavily throughout The House on Mango Street, specifically through gender. Social construction is the way in which society groups and categorizes individuals. Social construction can give privileges to one group or another, and we see it often defines who we are. Further, women occupy a central role in The House on Mango Street. Experanza’s understanding of her own femininity propels much of the story. Esperanza understands beauty to be a major source of feminine power, yet she also understands that beauty can backfire. Throughout the novel, Esperanza is

constantly faced with challenges revolving around the theme of social construction specifically gender. Through her attempt to define her own femininity in a society that is oppressive of women, she gains a level of independence that is unique in her society at the time.
The House on Mango Street is dedicated to the “las Mujeres” or in English, to the women, and Esperanza a female herself allows the readers into the lives of a female. Cisneros explores the the dynamics of women living in a so called “male-world”, that are accompanied with the economic and social constraints. Esperanza never feels a sense of understanding and fitting in her neighborhood. Woman in her neighborhood were taught that they were to belong to a man. In Boys and Girls, Esperanza describes how boys and girls “live in separate worlds” (pg. 8), this observation and insight into Esperanza’s young childhood plays into the roles of gender construction not only in the Latina community but also the construction of gender roles in the U.S. society. The men and women keep to themselves, they do not interact and converse. It is as if the girls are not worthy enough to have a conversation with the men. Through this insight we see how the women’s world is isolated and powerless. They don’t have the luxury of decision-making or interaction between the opposite sex. Esperanza demonstrates her understanding of the larger world through her observations at such a young age of gender construction.
The female characters in The House on Mango Street are viewed as objects, the characters themselves too believe that their own worth is solely based on looks. They feel as though they must act, dress, and behave in a certain way to gain acceptance and attention from other men and women. In the episode The Family of Little Feet, Experanza, Nenny, Rachel, and Lucy put on high-heeled shoes and suddenly have attractive women legs. This episode proves the dangers of womanhood for young girls. The shoes make the young girls more feminine, as if they turn them into a woman. These shoes symbolize the thoughts and feelings of attracting good and loyal men to take them away to a life with money and luxury. Later in the book, Sally is abused by her father for talking to a man unworthy and for being too beautiful. In Lenoleum Roses, Sally eventually marries and her husband becomes controlling and abusive. The thought process that femininity is solely based on looks, and to be successful for a woman is to be completely dependent on their husband is sadly a thought process that sometimes still exists today.
The stereotypes of men and women in urban communities also is a common theme throughout the novel. In the episode Marin, Marin is a young Puerto Rican girl who believes she will get married to her boyfriend in Puerto Rico. Her ideology is solely based on the power of beauty, and being beautiful will change all of her financial problems. Marin “[waits] for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life.” Marin limits her possibilities and capabilities as a woman as she is just waiting for a man to come and change her life.
The images of femininity seen in the book The House on Mango Street are common images seen in other societies today, specifically in the United States.

Before we are born, gender becomes a key factor in shaping who we are today. In the United States today, it might seem natural that men go to work and women stay home, and it might seem natural that men are thought of as fighters and women sex objects. It also might seem natural that women become dependent on their man. These images of social construction specifically femininity and masculinity are repeated in movies, television shows, and books. Thus, they become familiar to us. The roles men and women play in society echoes the ideas media enforces into our values. The same can be said in The House on Mango Street, the Latino society has constructed values thought of as normal. Men are required to act and behave in a way that shows their masculinity and toughness, where women are supposed to dress in a way that shows their femininity and worth of having a husband. These ideals not only prove to be destructive to the people themselves but to society as a

whole.
Overall, The House on Mango Street is a great topic of discussion for class because we first handedly witness the life of a young Latina girl evolve into a woman with the constraints of race, gender, and culture. It plays perfectly into our discussion of how gender discussion affects our daily lives. These themes of femininity and masculinity are not just seen in one area, rather they are common issues seen in all different types of areas. They prove detrimental to both society and humanity if they continue to affect us in a way that they have. Further, it is up to us and society as a whole to choose and create constructions of gender that are not limited and do not force people to act, behave, and conform to certain ideals and values. If society can manage to do this the positive affects are endless.