As Beyoncé Knowles says, ‘girls run the world’. But without the revolution of women’s rights over the past 50 years, all women would still be expected to marry, have children, and become a housewife. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros perfectly projects the struggles of a young minority woman in the late 1900s. The struggles are portrayed through Esperanza, the main character, as well as her female role models in her community. Esperanza’s family lives in poverty and Esperanza strives to rise above. As Esperanza matures through her teenage years, she is exposed to how women are perceived and treated in her culture and community. Esperanza’s encounters with reality while growing up as a female demonstrates that gender expectations were meant to be broken. She matures to be a young woman in power …show more content…
This is credited to her multi-faceted career: clothing lines, a water company, fragrance lines, and being the world’s shiniest superstar. She does not conform to society’s stereotypes of women in the world of business, music, and fashion. Esperanza shows persevering determination through her teenage years as she struggles to find power in society. She interprets her sexual assault as things not being the way they should be, referring not only to sex, but the world: men in power. While her culture and community clash against her in her journey to find power, she loses her ground every now and then. But she looks to the four skinny trees in front of her house on Mango Street for inspiration when she needs the strength to keep persevering. She says she is ‘tired of looking at things we can’t have’ (Cisneros 86). She breaks through the gender barrier, as the trees do the concrete, and grasps power, and eventually changing the way her culture and community perceives and treats women. Esperanza is a diva. And a diva is the female version of a hustler (Diva - Beyoncé
Everyone laughs as Drew gets made fun of by the class clown. But this time it was too far. It was always too far. Everyone was laughing about the class clown calling him mean and derogatory stereotypes about how he acted and dressed. They thought he was gay. He was, but that didn't make the comments any less hurtful. He resisted the urge to stand up and defend himself because if he did and said he wasn’t gay he’d be lying to himself. However, if he said he was then that would only make their joke funnier and set him as an outsider. This scenario portrays the same idea that of the vignette “Those Who Don’t”: the battle against stereotypes however continually staying true to yourself. In The House On Mango Street written by Sandra Cisneros, the way she compares and contrasts the virtues and ideas that of Esperanza adds a sense of dignity for understanding both sides of the argument. Some aspects worthy of contemplation in this vignette consist of the author’s perspective, aggravation, and mentalization.
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 today’s world there are countless social problems. People are often treated as an inferior or as if they are less important for many different reasons. In The House on Mango Street, the author Sandra Cisneros addresses these problems. Throughout the story Cisneros does a thorough job explaining and showing how these issues affect the public. This novel is written through the eyes of a young girl, Esperanza, growing up in a poor neighborhood where the lifestyles of the lower class are revealed. Cisneros points out that, in today’s society, the expectation of women and their treatment, discrimination based on poverty, and discrimination because of a person’s ethnicity are the major
“I am an ugly daughter,” she says. “I am the one nobody comes for” (109). She feels she can relate to the four skinny trees outside her window. “Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine” (93). Just as the trees survive under a harsh environment, Esperanza finds difficulty in accepting the neighborhood in which she lives. She is very self-conscious about her name, whose mispronunciation by teachers and peers at school sounds ugly to her ears. She struggles with jealousy of her younger sister Nenny and cynically says that she “has pretty eyes and it’s easy to talk…if you are pretty” (109). Ashamed of most everything she identifies with, Esperanza is maturing with a very low perception of herself. She is not content with her home and surroundings, and cannot be until she is happy with her own character.
Imagine feeling like you don’t belong and never will, or that the odds of your success is a slim chance to none. The House on Mango Street written by Sandra Cisneros, leads us into a world of poverty, broken dreams, and slithers of hope. The House on Mango Street follows the life of a young girl by the name of Esperanza Cordero, who occupies her childhood in an indigent Latino neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. The books expresses her dire need to have a place where she can call home, and escape the harsh reality of her expected life. Though, her life on Mango Street is bearable with help of her little sister Nenny, her two best friends Rachel and Lucy, and her other friend Sally. On her journey to adulthood, Sandra Cisneros will show how Esperanza assimilates into a mature young lady, who truly find her identity, and develops emotionally as well as physically.
Stereotypes have a way of getting inside your head, and sometimes you end up in a tough situation without even knowing it. In the novella, House on Mango Street, author Sandra Cisneros describes the lives of several women of who live on Mango Street. In the community, stereotypes are given to women, which most of them succumb to. The girls tend to get married young to someone they do not love and end up trapped. Very few women actually made the smart decisions and made a successful life for themselves without a man. Despite the power of negative stereotypes given to women in Esperanza’s community, individuals who are strong and determined enough can overcome the unfavorable outcomes.
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.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to grow up in a different culture? Or face discrimination because of your gender? These are just some of the challenges the character Esperanza encounters in the coming of age novel The House on Mango Street. Written by Sandra Cisneros, this book depicts the life of an adolescent girl named Esperanza. The novel covers her time spent in a racially separated neighborhood where she experiences the hardships that come with being a girl in her time and culture. Self-discovery, the responsibilities of women, and the clash of two different cultures are all major themes throughout the story.
Esperanza, a strong- willed girl who dreams big despite her surroundings and restrictions, is the main character in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Esperanza represents the females of her poor and impoverished neighborhood who wish to change and better themselves. She desires both sexuality and autonomy of marriage, hoping to break the typical life cycle of woman in her family and neighborhood. Throughout the novel, she goes through many different changes in search of identity and maturity, seeking self-reliance and interdependence, through insecure ideas such as owning her own house, instead of seeking comfort and in one’s self. Esperanza matures as she begins to see the difference. She evolves from an insecure girl to a
In the book The House on Mango Street, author Sandra Cisneros presents a series of vignettes that involve a young girl, named Esperanza, growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Esperanza Cordero is searching for a release from the low expectations and restrictions that Latino society often imposes on its young women. Cisneros draws on her own background to supply the reader with accurate views of Latino society today. In particular, Cisneros provides the chapters “Boys and Girls” and “Beautiful and Cruel” to portray Esperanza’s stages of growth from a questioning and curious girl to an independent woman. Altogether, “Boys and Girls” is not like “Beautiful and Cruel” because Cisneros reveals two different maturity levels in Esperanza;
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a coming of age novel of a young Mexican-American girl developing in a working class Chicago neighborhood. The author is much like the main character Esperanza in many different ways. One being that Cisneros was also a Mexican-American girl growing up in a Chicago working class neighborhood. Esperanza is a foil of Cisneros’ beliefs and opinions of her Mexican culture and heritage. While Esperanza is embarrassed of being a Mexican-American around white Americans, Cisneros is proud to be a Mexican-American girl. In Sara Rimer’s article, “San Antonio Journal; Novelist’s Purple
In The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, a little girl from a Latino heritage is given birth to. Not literally, but in the sense of characterization. Esperanza is a fictional character made up by Cisneros to bring about sensitive, alert, and rich literature. She is the protagonist in the novel and is used to depict a female’s life growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Cisneros creates the illusion that Esperanza is a real human being to communicate the struggles of growing up as a Latina immigrant in a modern world, by giving her a name, elaborating her thoughts and feelings, and illustrating her growth as a person through major events.
Sandra Cisneros’, “The House on Mango Street” focuses on the narration of Esperanza, a young adolescent growing up in Chicago. Throughout the novel, Esperanza strives to develop her own sense of identity, while searching for the means out of her poverty-stricken neighborhood. With the help of her friends and family, Esperanza discovers how the world works, and what she needs to do in order to successfully better herself. The novel features several concepts of gender and sexuality studies including that of class structures, red-lining, gender, sexuality, intersectionality, and beauty. Those listed are simply a few more prominent features, as each character Esperanza introduces displays many more concepts within each scene. The concept of gender is portrayed widely throughout the novel and creates a foundation for the expectations the girls are about to face as they grow. Intersectionality interplays within the daily lives of each girl, and is seen within every page of the novel. Finally, beauty standards play an important role in the transition from adolescent to young adult each girl faces. Together, gender, intersectionality, and beauty standards, make up the novel, as it portrays the importance of each of these three core concepts of gender, women and sexuality studies.
Ever since the early days of humankind, both men and women had specific roles that they were expected to do, the men would be the hunter while the women would be the gatherer and caretaker. Centuries later we can still see a resemblance of this philosophy in our society. As a result, many people feel like they’re forced to act and do certain things that they wouldn’t have done if they had a choice. In The House On Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros through the main character Esperanza shows that in the Mexican-American culture, women are forced through stereotypes to primarily be a housewife. Stereotypes in the Mexican-American culture only exist to limit a woman’s true capabilities.