Gender Norms in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

All the people on Mango Street were struggling to get by, but they seemed satisfied with just making it. Esperanza was not. There were characters like Esperanza’s mother who was a “smart cookie,” and could’ve been anything, but she let shame get the best of her and dropped out of school. There was also Rafaela who got married before the 8th grade just so she could move into her own house, but her husband never let her leave the house afterward. He never let her see her friends, and the highlight of her week was getting coconut or papaya juice from someone who would send it up in a paper bag attached to a clothespin since she couldn’t leave the house. Lastly, there was the time when she was left stranded by the tilt-a- whirl waiting for a friend that never came back and got molested by a group of boys. The only witnesses were the red clown statues that seemed to be laughing at her. Nevertheless, she let none of this stopped her from going forward and perusing her dream. She still seemed to be struggling with a sense of belonging, but maybe that’s because she didn’t.

A boy comes up to ask her to dance and she declines, still focusing on how her feet don’t fit her shoes. Later, however, she is forced to dance with her Uncle Nacho and she notices that, “All night the boy who is a man watches me dance. He watched me dance” (48). The boy she declined watched her dance gracefully with her uncle and this made her feel unconformable. It seems she is just understanding what girls, or women, represent to boys, or men. She doesn’t need to be told because she is now more aware. There is a feeling that she doesn’t like it and it makes her more self conscious of how she looks, but that comes with growing up. In the last vignette, “Hips,” Esperanza is connecting the information she has been told by Alicia to her new experiences. Esperanza continues to inform everyone else what she has learned, saying, “They bloom like roses. They just one day open. Just like that. One day you might decide to have kids, and then where are you going to put them? Got to have room. Bones got to give”

In all aspects of life, women are pressured to be someone they are not. They are put in situations that force them to chose a path of life. In “The House on Mango Street”, Esperanza is forced to think about leaving Mango Street in the future, because she is surrounded by women who are pushing her to become an adult.

"She sits at become afraid to go outside". The leave home, she would need permission. She evolves from a victim of child abuse to a slave-like wife. Esperanza sees this despair throughout her story.

In addition to Esperanza facing society's standards for women, so did many of the women on Mango Street. In this time period, countless women are stuck in gender roles. Sally says, “He never hits me hard” (Cisneros 92). Sally’s father makes her feel belittled when he abuses her because it is socially acceptable to hit your own daughter. Her father makes it seem like she is less valued than a male. Esperanza talks about Sally, “But Sally doesn’t tell about that time he hit her with his

Esperanza believes in feminism and women independence. In the vignette Rafaela who drinks coconut and papaya juice on Tuesday, this character is confined in her house because her husband thinks she is too beautiful to look at. “And then Rafaela who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much gets locked indoors

Eventually, Esperanza decides she does not need to set herself apart from the others in her

This relates to the theme of the struggle for self definition, because at first Esperanza was under the impression she could change a man, but as she’s exposed to these horrible encounters she comes to the conclusion that boys and girls live in different worlds.

Next is Marin; she is a beautiful green-eyed Puerto Rican woman. She sells Avon products and babysits to make a living. Her family lives in Puerto Rico and she’s living with her cousin, saving money for when she goes back to Puerto Rico. Alike Esperanza, Marin is hardworking; she desires a real job where you could wear nice clothing and look beautiful. Marin often relishes in singing and dancing and dreams of getting married to a wealthy gentleman that will take her to a large house far away, altering her life forever, unlike Esperanza who doesn’t wish to be tied down in

The polarizing thing about Sally is she herself is enduring a hardship of her own. Esperanza can empathize with how women should be able to freely do as they wish. She is a family women like so many throughout the novel, continuing to persevere on. However, Sally is kept captive by her abusive relationship nonetheless. To the point where her own environment and outer surroundings induce and strike fear. Actually, she is afraid to “look out her own window” (102). In essence, her soft feelings convey the reality of the situation. Not being able to be independent and forge one’s destiny is quite scary indeed. Her incessant fear to creep out of the vale of a toxic relationship represents the inferiority of women in a

She is just to use that identity to prove to others who her right self is, rather than the self that does not convey who she is. Near the end of the novel, Esperanza has come to the conclusion that she will not be someone who society had plan out for her, “... but I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain… in the movies there is always one with red red lips who is beautiful and cruel… I am one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate.” (Cisneros 88,89) Esperanza will not grow up to be ordered around like the other women in her neighborhood. She will be a woman that is beautiful, yet cruel and in the eyes of men, she will be the man. She decides that she will not follow the rules of society like the fact that all a woman can do to escape, is to wait for a man to sweep them off the street. Instead, she will be a “man” of her own self where she will be “beautiful and cruel.” Esperanza will be cruel as she will not “grow up tame” like the women who does so by being scared, afraid, and controlled by their husbands. She is to be beautiful as she will be the one who holds power, and independence where she will depend on her own self. Esperanza changes the use of her identity, from having an identity to only represent her true inner self, to an identity that will change both the rules and paths that society. With the

Esperanza is a shy but a very bright girl. She dreams of the perfect home now, with beautiful flowers in their luscious garden and a room for everyone to live in comfortably all because of the unsatisfied face the nun made that one afternoon--when she moves to the house of Mango Street. She thinks it’s going to be a “grand house on a hill that will have a bedroom for everyone and at least three washrooms so when they took a bath they would not have to tell everybody.” (Cinceros 4) Reality is so different for her when her dream is shot down in a heartbeat when she

With this in mind the internal conflict is important, because it shows Esperanza’s sensitivity about everything what concerns herself and her being insecure. One of the vignette that tells about is called “ Chanclas.” It recounts about her being non confident, because of her old shoes that she gets every year. For example, the quote says, “ Then Uncle Nacho is pulling and pulling my arm and it does not matter how the new dress Mama bought me is because my feet are ugly.” (Cisneros 46). This quote shows that she cares so much about one detail and even the prettiest dress cannot divert her attention. She does not pay attention to the dress, because she just thinks about her shoes and she assumes everyone will look at her feet. Another quote which supports her insecure, is “ Meanwhile that boy who is my cousin by first communion or something asks me to dance and I can’t. Just stuff my feet under the metal folding chair stamped Precious Blood and pick on a wad of brown gum that’s stuck beneath the seat. I shake my head no. My feet growing bigger and bigger.” (Cisneros 47) According to this quote Esperanza does not want people to notice her imperfection so she stays out of society contact. It is not because she does not want to she explains it as a cannot thing. She does not want to embarrass herself. The quote which stays for her having low self esteem is “Until my uncle who is a liar says, You are the prettiest girl here, will you dance, but I believe him, and yes, we are dancing. And Uncle spins me, and my skinny arms bend the way he taught me, and my mom watches, and my little cousins watch, and the boy who is my cousin by first communion watches, and everyone says, wow, who are those two who dance like in the movies, until I forget that I am wearing only ordinary shoes, brown and white.” (Cisneros 47) There is a clear statement that supports, that she thinks about

She gets excited when boys look at her on the streets. But her illusion of true love is destroyed by sexual violence. Her friend Sally’s behaviour towards boys contributes to Esperanza’s caution and distance by dealing with the opposite sex, too. Nevertheless, Esperanza does not stop dreaming of leaning against a car with her boyfriend in a place where that does not bother anyone. But she has set her standards higher than most of the women around her. She do not search for a man to escape from this place, she has seen too many unhappy marriages. Ruthie exemplifies such an one. She has run away from her husband and seems to be mentally disturbed. The young Rafaela is locked up by her husband because of her beauty. Nevertheless the tragic event is Sally’s which ends in abuse. Sally, Esperanza’s friend, only wanted to dream and share her love like Esperanza. Hurt and beaten by her father who just wanted to prevent the familiy’s ruin by Sally. To escape, despite of her minority, she marries a salesman. But unlike her wish, the abuse continues.

The novel The House on Mango Street is filled to the brim with women who are unhappy and unsatisfied with their lives. Readers meet wives who are destined to spend their lives in the kitchen, mothers who waste away cleaning up after their kids, and girls who are stuck in a hole that they can’t escape. Through Sandra Cisneros’s use of literary devices such as motifs, symbolism, and imagery, we are able to learn that the women end up in these situations by conforming to femininity, and we find the theme of women are often held back by their own gender roles.