The House On Mango Street Women Essay

For decades, women have been viewed as inferior to men, especially women in poverty. Women in poverty are trapped in relationships with abusive husbands because they do not have anywhere else to go. It wasn’t until 1994 that the Violence Against Women Act was established as a United States federal law. It took large amounts of dominant women who were not afraid to stand up to the male supremacy to make this change. The House on Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros addresses the issue of male supremacy through the protagonist, Esperanza. Like these women, Esperanza is determined to contradict the societal norm of submissive, inferior women. Her lower-class neighborhood is full of a variety of female role models ready to impact young, impressionable

Esperanza. However, many of these female role models are dominated by aggressive men in their relationships, including Rafaela and Minerva. As a result of her observations of submissive women, Esperanza decides to be brave and resistant towards threatening men.

After observing Rafaela’s trapped state and watching women flirt at a dance bar, Esperanza learns the risks of using her sexuality.

Esperanza describes Rafaela’s trapped state by stating that she “gets locked indoors because her husband thinks she is too beautiful to look at” (79). On tuesdays, Esperanza goes to the dance bar to get a drink for Raphaela. At the dance bar, Esperanza sees women “Wishing there were sweeter drinks....women much older than Rafaela throw green eyes easily like dice and open homes with keys” (80). Cisneros uses “dice” to express how the women gamble their freedom. The women attempt to use their sexuality to gain power over men by “throwing green eyes”, yet Esperanza realizes that these women risk their “open homes with keys” all in hope of finding “sweeter drinks”. At the end of the chapter, Esperanza explains that “Always there is someone offering sweeter drinks, someone promising to keep them on a silver string” (80). All around the dance bar, men try to offer women “sweeter drinks” as a means of taking the women for their own and controlling them like a puppet “on a silver string”. Once she realizes the possible outcome of flirting gone wrong, Esperanza elects not to use her sexuality to try and gain

power.

Upon witnessing Minerva’s abusive relationship with her husband, Esperanza learns that she must stand up for herself because no one else can choose a path for her.

Esperanza begins the chapter by describing Esperanza’s neighbor Minerva. She explains that “Minerva is just a bit older than me... She let’s me read her poems. I let her read mine” (84). Esperanza includes this at the very beginning to explain that she and Minerva are not only similar in age, but also share similar poetic instincts. Minerva is in an abusive relationship, but everytime she kicks out her husband, he comes back apologizing and “She opens the door again. Same story” (85). Minerva does not make the necessary change to improve her life because she continues to give into her husband, thus she lets him have the power. Esperanza states that “Next week she comes back over black and blue and asks what can she do? Minerva. I don’t know which way she’ll go. There is nothing I can do” (85). Even when Esperanza was young she was viewed as a strong individual, ergo neighbors such as Minerva saw her as strong enough to come to for help, By saying “I don’t know which way she’ll go”, Esperanza conveys that Minerva has her choice of multiple paths in life. When she says that there is “nothing I can do”, Esperanza clarifies that only Minerva can change who has the power in her relationship. Esperanza remembers the lesson she taught Minerva: no one can help one but

oneself.

When Esperanza comes into contact with a threatening “punk” boy, she attempts to insinuate fearlessness. Esperanza passes Sire and his gang of friends constantly on the street. Eventually Esperanza notices that everytime she walks by, Sire follows her with his eyes. Esperanza admits “They didn’t scare me. They did, but I wouldn’t let them know” (72) After all of her experience with submissive women, Esperanza does not want to let Sire know that he has any power over her. She continues on to explain that she “wasn’t scared of nobody’s eyes... I looked because I wanted to be brave” (72). At this point, Esperanza finally puts her plans to be brave and dominant into action. Whenever she encounters Sire’s girlfriend, Lois, Esperanza observes her very closely out of jealousy. Esperanza notes that she is “tiny and pretty and smells like baby’s skin... she doesn’t know how to tie her shoes. I do” (73). The “baby’s skin” symbolizes Lois’ vulnerability. By stating “she doesn’t know how to tie her shoes. I do”, Cisneros conveys that Lois is helpless whereas Esperanza has spent the entire chapter trying to prove that she is not. In the end, Esperanza elects that she would not want for her beauty to be in her vulnerability. When Esperanza comes in contact with a boy, she decides that she would rather be alone than helpless.