When I was ten years old the most interesting thing about me was that I could say the alphabet backwards. At ten years old, Esperanza from House on Mango Street tells an inspiring story that gives an understanding of how sexism affects young girls. A story is only truly understood after you stop staring at the words on the page and begin to take a look into what’s underneath it all. In a story told through a perspective of a ten year old girl, Cisneros describes a world where remaining independent and disregarding gender roles is an act of rebellion. Esperanza teaches the concept of sexism and the effects it can have on women, all through a coming of age story about family, culture, and society as a whole. Through changes in tone and subliminal messaging, Cisneros describes how women are the victims and minorities in society, as well as expresses her feelings towards the expectations placed on her gender. Exploring a concept so huge through the perspective of a little girl gives a powerful message to the readers about what girls have to go through. Each vignette tells a story the concept of sexism develops throughout. In the vignette “Boys and Girls” Cisneros begins to develop the idea of sexism by explaining that boys and girls are different and live in separate worlds. On the surface this story seems like Esperanza simply expressing her opinions on her siblings and how they're different from one another, however taking a closer look, Esperanza uses a powerful metaphor
In the world of Esperanza's childhood, there is a separate universe between boys and girls (and, accordingly, between men and women). Esperanza and the other children of the barrio learn the intricacies of their gender roles by watching neighbors treat each other in certain ways. The fact that these gender roles are already so clear to Esperanza and the other children is indicative of their prominence in their society; instead of a bunch of kids playing together, they are already boys and girls, divided into two separate worlds.
It is true that in many of the stories in The House on Mango Street there is a man holding back a woman from being free. Esperanza is often feels sympathy for these women. These stories are used to show us how trapped behind her culture and expectations Esperanza feels. The helplessness Esperanza sees mirrors her own feelings of weakness. While I do believe many of the stories Cisneros gives us depict a rather stereotypical view of the Mexican American household, I also believe it is a tool used to reflect her main character’s struggle to break
Esperanza, the speaker of Sandra Cisneros’s vignette “Sally,” feels bittersweet admiration towards her classmate because of her bold maturity, but the abuse that Sally receives from her father breaks Esperanza’s heart. The clothes that Sally has makes Esperanza want them too, which highlights the strange, alien feelings of growing up in a society that pushes young girls to mature, but not too quickly. Also, the abuse that Sally receives confirms that society views women inferior to men. Imagery in the vignette reveals strictness in Sally’s home: “You pull your skirt straight, you rub the blue paint off your eyelids…” Sally is forced to conform to the ways of society by having to dress modestly or else she will attract unwanted attention.
In the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, a young Latina girl named Esperanza struggles to find her identity as she grows up in a poor Latino community. Inevitably, there comes a point where she is conflicted with her sexuality as she progresses through her developmental stage. The author uses indirect characterization, symbolism, and repetition to convey the themes of innocence and sexuality. In the beginning of the chapter of “The Monkey Garden,” Esperanza expresses her frustration when she is not sure if she is becoming too old to play games.
The book shows a natural maturation of a little girl, but it happens much quicker than most girls because of the experiences she has with men and what she learns from the older women that inhabit the neighborhood. Her early writings talk about her desires and essentially seem to be all about her with her own life and musings at the center. She is excited to live in a big house but then it disappointed when it turns out to be run down and not as nice as she wanted. She does meet a few friends and they play like girls should without much care outside of themselves and their own fantasies, but the reality of their situation and where they live invade on that fantasy and force Esperanza to come face to face with sexuality and the attention that she is getting from men. This happens at a fragile time in her life because she is maturing through puberty and she has feelings for boys, but the negative aspect of that attention works to distort the natural feelings she may have had for men. Already we see before this maturity that she considers men to be kind of in a world
Esperanza, the main character is a good example of gender roles over the course of the book. “She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horse-which is supposed to be bad luck if you’re born female-but I think this is a Chinese lie because,the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don’t like their women strong.” (Cisneros 10) This is an example from the text showing how women are viewed by men in Mexican culture, they don’t like their women strong. Furthermore proving how women are viewd differently than men. Women are supposed to be the smaller, more fragile sex, compared to men who should be big, macho, and masculine. Another example from the text is “..and then as if he ust heard the news himself, crumples like a coat and cries, my brave Papa cries. I have never seen my Papa cry and don’t know what to do...I hold my Papa in my arms.” (Cisneros 56-57) This shows gender roles because Esperanza has never seen her father cry, showing that men in Mexican culture are supposed to be strong, and emointionless, unlike their female counterparts who are seen as weaker and more emotional.
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
“The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros is a perfect example of feminist theory in literature in the twenty’s century. In “The House on Mango Street,” Sandra Cisneros pictures the lives on Mango Street. She shows us how differences between the roles of men and women in Esperanza’s life, and Latino women’s lives are influenced by the Spanish culture. She also lets
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.
“She walks, she talks, she cleans, she works, she IS, but she is NOT, all at once. She is here, but part of her is elsewhere for eternity” (Anonymous). This quote by an anonymous person illustrates a woman who is rooted in who she is but dreams to be someone else. She dreams to be another person, far away from her dreary life. Sandra Cisneros establishes that many young girls within the Hispanic culture represented in The House on Mango Street are forced into roles they do not wish to take, resulting in a loss of identity and ultimately, a sense of powerlessness in the girl without anyone to show her how to be powerful.
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 vignette “Beautiful and Cruel,” conveys the impact it has on Esperanza. In this vignette, Esperanza feels that she is “an ugly daughter” and “the one nobody cares about” (Cisneros 88). She does not need, or want, a man to lead her life, unlike the women she knows. She does not need, or want, a man to make decisions for her. Unfortunately, she still feels the pressure to look gorgeous and stunning: “Nenny has pretty eyes and it’s easier to talk that way
Lots of things can change when era changes except gender roles but after read this story, gender roles are changing distinctly than others. Even though it has changed a lot now, woman still has difficulty with when they get a job so we must strive until the equality of man and woman is evenly distributed. Esperanza make effort to improve her life and cultivate own self but not make effort to gender equality. She has interest in gender role but not that much so she think about it but not to act. From this essay, I have gave examples of how people might react to the idea about gender roles. However, we need to realize that women should take action for themselves instead of following
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
Cisneros uses simple syntax and tells the story in vignettes to present the story as if it were told in Esperanza’s eyes. Vignettes are short little descriptions of an event or idea. The House on Mango Street is strictly told in vignettes which makes sense as it is told in a child's eyes. These vignettes tend to get larger as the story progresses and as Esperanza becomes more aware of her surroundings. As a result of this, the vignettes not only become more complex, but more mature as well. In vignettes such as “Hairs” and “My Name”, Esperanza writes about simple innocent ideas like what she likes and does not like, but later in the story vignettes such as “The Monkey Garden” and “No Speak English” cover much more mature situations such as the patriarchy and rape in the near-poverty-line Latino neighborhood of Chicago. Esperanza finds herself in these situations because of how she begins to mature and become an independent sexual being. With all of this information in mind, Cisneros uses the power of the vignette convey the fact that Esperanza is becoming an individual sexual being.