The House on Mango Street; a Look at the Ties Between Sex, Violence, and Pleasure

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Recommended: Character traits of esperanza in the book the house on mango street

In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza comes across many issues in her neighborhood that relate to “a woman’s future”. Usually, the catastrophe of the commonplace dream that circulates throughout the minds of Esperanza’s peers and like-gendered neighbors starts with sex and ends with violence. Whether the urge to fornicate is a direct lead into violence or just a gateway is a somewhat hard-to-place theory. However, as Esperanza grows she unknowingly stumbles into the predicament herself as her adventures escalate and bring her deeper into the barrios’ barbaric and dangerous nature.
As an example, In “The Family of Little Feet”, a tie between sexual nature and violence is exemplified when Esperanza and her group receive a bag of shoes that insinuate a growing danger. The chapter begins seemingly lighthearted and innocent as the little girls go about wearing high-heels and dance shoes as they parade through the barrios. The author then foreshadows the danger ahead of the group when Mr. Benny tells the girls that, “them shoes are dangerous!” As a response, the girls run away and surprisingly run into a homeless man. The appropriately titled “Bum man” then begs Rachel to kiss him. Aware of an impending danger however, they escape. When looking at this chapter from an introspective point of view, one can clearly tell that the girls see a violent danger that can come from a sexual desire; A desire that would not be as dangerous if the girls had been older, but rather expected since a girl’s dream is to find a man .
The lines get blurred between sexual desire and violence in “The First Job”. Esperanza met an oriental man at her first day of work who said it was his birthday and requested a kiss. Meaning to only kiss the man on the ...

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...tion would be with violence. It can be drawn from this chapter that while Esperanza has her own sexual desires, she finds the whole feeling to be very wrong and finds that any sexual contact ends horribly (not to mention that a girl kissing on a bunch of boys is wrong in itself).
While The House on Mango Street does not specifically list the connection between sex and violence, it can definitely be inferred that such a connection exists. The only connection may only truly be the fact that Esperanza fears sexual experiences while she subtly strives for it, but that just proves the connection. In fact, Esperanza’s own subtle strides towards sexual experiences may be the thought that a relationship does not always end as violently as it does for her peers. As time goes on, when Esperanza leaves the Barrios, it is possible that her fears for such things may disappear.

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