Living In A Patriarchal Society 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

When passing through a poor neighborhood, have you ever thought, “this place is dangerous.” even though you just see what’s on the surface? The dirty buildings, run down stores, and unkempt roads persuade us to perceive that neighborhood in a negative light, but you might do this unconsciously because ever since we were young, socioeconomic status is what separates the “good”, from the “bad”. Sandra Cisneros’, House on Mango Street, shows us how harmful having a previous notion of a place or person can be. In the novel, we meet Esperanza Cordero, a girl whose parents never strived above the working class. Because of their low income, they are forced to move into neglected homes on the verge of crumbling, their final stop being Mango

She was born in Chicago, Illinois. Cisneros grew up in a Latino family around the 1950s and 1960s. She had a Mexican father and Chicano mother. Cisneros was encouraged by her mother to read and was not insisted with spending all of her time performing classic “women’s work”. Cisneros welcomes her culture with open arms, but acknowledges the unjustness between the genders within. Having experience growing up in a poor neighborhood in a working class family while facing the difficulties created by racism, sexism, and her status, Esperanza longed to leave the barrio. Later, she finds her capability to succeed individually and find a “home with herself”; she worked to recreate some Chicano stereotypes for her community. Cisneros didn’t want to

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.

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

Another role model Esperanza has is her neighbor, Alicia, the most positive influence she meets in the story. Alicia is a strong independent young woman who spends most of her days cooking and cleaning for her family because her mother passed away. “Alicia who inherited her mama’s rolling pin and sleepiness, is young and smart and studies for the first time at university” (31). Esperanza admires how smart Alicia is, and, from her, Esperanza learns that studying hard will better her life. Esperanza understands it will not be easy: “Two trains and a bus, because [Alicia]

Sandra Cisneros is a latina born in Chicago in 1954. She is the only daughter out of seven of her siblings. She worked as a teacher and counselor to high-school dropouts, as an artist-in-the-schools where she taught creative writing at every level except first grade and pre-school, a college recruiter, an arts administrator, and as a visiting writer at a number of universities including the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan. When she began writing books it was soon translated into many languages such as Spanish, French, Dutch, Italian and many more. She is very proud of her family. Her grandfather even played piano for the mexican president. She is know mostly for her famous book, ‘The House on Mango Street’. The book was based off her neighborhood that she grew up In Chicago. In 1995,

A white house on the hill close to the stars that have real stairs, has a basement, enough bedrooms, and washrooms for the whole family, and has a garden with trees is the kind of house Esperanza dreams of. Sandra Cisneros's novel The House on Mango Street is about a young girl named Esperanza explaining her life and other people in the neighborhood lives struggling every day working hard, living in the poor neighborhood in Chicago, and knowing that they succeed or not achieve their American Dream. Several obstacles stand in the way of the American Dream including not having money, not having a stable home, but the most difficult to overcome is not knowing English.

Machismo is what some men are called in certain cultures when they have masculine pride in a positive or negative way and it has been reported that machismo men have tried to sexualy violate their wives (Pigeon Machismo and how the Family is Molded into Form: Analysis of Gender Roles). Masculine means to have appearance traditionally associated with men, especially strength and aggressiveness. Sometimes it can be a very negative trait to have because it gives men the feeling that they are more important than woman. In the book House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza learns about how some men treat women in a negative way. Both Esperanza and her friends Sally experience how many women get treated by men. House on Mango Street is about male dominance and is developed in vignettes ¨What Sally Said,¨ ¨Red Clowns,¨ and ¨Linoleum Roses.¨ This also ties to Feminist as a literary theme and can also be shown in the article For most women and girls, it´s still a man´s world.

To begin, Cisneros develops Esperanza’s relationship with her mother and her friend, Alicia, in order to promote the fact that leaving a community like Mango Street is possible. These minor characters do not play a huge role in Esperanza’s life, yet they unknowingly show her that it was, and still is possible to get out. Alicia is significant to Esperanza because she proves that it is possible to make it to college. When Esperanza hears that Alicia “studies for the first time at the university” (Cisneros 31), she sets this in her mind as an example of what she is capable of. Her mom also tells her that she “could’ve been somebody” (90). Esperanza’s mother was talented in many categories, such as singing opera, speaking many languages, and working around the house. However, she dropped out of school at a young age

In the story House on Mango Street written by Sandra Cisneros, the narrator Esperanza faces serious identity issues. These issues revolve around her self esteem, social status, and ethnicity. A good way to describe Esperanza and her issues is a red balloon tied to an anchor. The anchor is herself, and the balloon is what she wants to be, and she’s holding herself down. In the chapter “Boys and Girls” Esperanzas says “Until then I am just a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor.” Esperanza is the anchor, and the balloon is what she desperately wants to be or have. But due to the era this story takes place in, she battles racial issues, identity and self esteem issues, along with loneliness. All these negatives just add more and more weight

After having read the novel “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros I will now concentrate on the background of the novel that moved Sandra Cisneros to write it by investigating the novel with special regard to its different dimensions.

Clearly, Sandra Cisneros' writing style is one representative of a minority voice. Her amazing style allows her readers to take an active part in the minority experience. For this reason, I believe Cisneros has had a lot of influence and success in the status of minority writers, especially in the canon of what is read and taught in schools today. But, more than anything, Cisneros has shown that liberation can come through creativity and literature, and not just through geographical excursion.

1 in 3 women have been victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime (ncdav.org, 2016). On the outside, many believe that violence is uncommon; they think that the women who are solely dependent on men, or abused in relationships can just walk away. In reality, it is not that simple. These victims do not know any different; many begin to deem themselves as worthless. On the contrary, there are many women not in these situations who do know differently. The novelette, “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, explores into the lives of three women in three very different positions. Many women in society are trapped in abusive relationships, and many are waiting for someone to make a change in their lives for them. But some do have the opportunity, and are actively attempting to do something to impact their lives. Through these women, Cisneros displays not only the hardships

Alicia now must do all household duties. Her father gives her a hard time about staying up all night as she tries to get a college degree. In Hispanic society when the mother dies, the oldest female child takes over, not the father. Alicia and her father belong to Esperienza Mesosystem. Seeing this Esperienza realizes it will be hard for her to break from her heritage to achieve her independence from her own family, and live as a strong self-sufficient woman.