Gender Roles In Sandra Cisneros's The House On Mango Street

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

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.

In the collection of vignettes, The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros develops the theme that people should not be devalued because of their financial circumstances through metaphors of classism, the motif of shame, and the contrast between minor characters Alicia and Esperanza’s mother. Esperanza, the protagonist, is a Mexican-American adolescent living in the rural Chicago region. She occupies a house on Mango Street with her father, mother, two brothers, Carlos and Kiki, and little sister, Nenny. Mango Street is filled with low-income families, like Esperanza’s, trying to adapt to their difficult circumstances. Esperanza realizes it is difficult, but she dreams of leaving her house and Mango Street altogether.

The theme of a patriarchal society where beauty is a weakness and having too much of it only means darkness is very prominent in Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street. Esperanza, the protagonist of the numerous vignettes, highlights how this affects the young women on Mango Street.

Society has built a role for women. And there’s no better example of this idea than The House on Mango Street, in which Esperanza describes specific moments of her life which lead her to believe in women independence and feminism. She has different ideas and thoughts on the definition of women and what they should be. Esperanza doesn’t fit into the constructed definition Mango Street has of how women should be.

Countries around the world suffer from gender inequality. In many different situations women find themselves being controlled by men. Some men treat women as lesser beings, and act as if women do not deserve the same rights as men. Sally and Esperanza’s grandmother face the harsh tolls that come with gender inequality. In The House on Mango Street, Cisneros emphasizes gender inequality through the perceived role of men and women on Mango Street.

Mouse traps, they aren't the most pleasant thought but it gets a point across. Tiptoeing and jumping are what people do when attempting to no sett off the mouse traps, so imagine penniless women having to tiptoe around circumstances almost everyday of their lives that would get them sucked into bad situations. In Sandra Cisneros’ book, “House on Mango Street”, well thought out motifs and symbolisms become very useful in order to convey the expectations of women in a poor community make the women more susceptible to becoming trapped inside this environment.

In the novel “The House On Mango Street,” Sandra Cisneros shows the themes identity, family, and the house, through Esmeralda’s experiences. She demonstrates the theme of identity by telling the story of Esperanza, the main character, and how she finds out what identifies her from others. Cisneros reveals that Esperanza’s family helps her feel like she belongs to the house on Mango Street and not left out. The house is an important theme of the novel because it helps Esperanza to look back and have a past that she is proud of by living in that house and overcoming many hardships. The themes in the novel “The House On Mango Street,” are identity, family, and the house.

Everybody makes choices, and those choices are all affected depending on the person making them. The “House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisnero describes a year in the life of Esperanza, while she lived on Mango Street with her friends, family, and neighbors. The author of House on Mango Street presents the idea that gender is always a factor in the choices people choose to make; this becomes clear when Esperanza’s brothers refuse to talk to her outside of the house because she’s a girl.

In the book The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, it is clear that all the women on Mango Street choose a diffrent life then they desired. On page 11 it states, “She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow.”.This talks about how Esperanza's grandma lived her life just looking out a window wishing much more than what she had. This also shows that she was not happy with her choices in life. On page 79 it states , “ Rafaela leans out the window and leans on her elbow and dreams her hair is like Rapunzel's.”. This demonstrates that Esperanza's grandmother was not the only one who dreaded her life looking at a window wishing for something else in life.This also shows that they both

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros shows many instances of gender roles that majorly affect the characters throughout the book. Esperanza has one main goal: to leave Mango Street and live in her own home. However, stereotypes in this neighborhood limit her from achieving her goals. “The boys and the girls live in separate worlds. The boys in their universe and we in ours” (Cisneros 8). Boys and girls are viewed as completely different ideas with different characteristics.

In “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, there are many examples of how gender shapes our character. Several characters show examples of this throughout the book, such as Sally, Minerva, Mamacita, and Esperanza.

Passage: “I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees. Esperanza as Lisandra or Maritza or Zeze the X. Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do” (Cisneros 11). Journal Entry: (E)

The portrayal of gender in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros promotes negative stereotype or gender inequality through the various reality of how every gender is delineated in the author’s particular society. In the chapter “Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut and Papaya Juice on Tuesdays,” Cisneros states, “Rafaela, who is still young/gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at” (79). Rafaela wants to escape from being imprisoned, but she can’t because she doesn’t have the power to deny her husband. Many other women like her don’t have the freedom to acquire what they dream of because in this society they have to abide by the male who has the most power. In chapter “What Sally

Ever since humankind could interact with each other, males and females from the moment they’re born are put into different categories determining their roles in society. We see a resemblance of this in any modern society where females and males have gender stereotypes tied to them when they’re born. Each gender is expected to follow certain paths and rules that many of their ancestors had to follow because of these gender stereotypes. In House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, we see through the eyes of the main character Ezperanza the many gender role stereotypes and the effect it has on the lives of both males and females. Sandra Cisneros gives light to how gender stereotypes limit and pressure Mexican American women into becoming housewives.