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.
Esperanza and Sally were designated females at birth, and their gender plays into several different aspects of their life. According to the World Health Organization, gender is defined as, “the socially
To begin with, Esperanza always saw this great distinction between the genders. Esperanza’s innocence causes her to be ignorant towards sex, so much so that she even goes out to say that the two genders “live in separate worlds. The boys in their universe and we in ours.” (cite? pg #)She isn’t quite ready to leave the asexuality of childhood, however when Esperanza and her friends put on the shoes and walked around the town showing them off the to men they realized how much power they really had. (great! text quote maybe?Due to Esperanza’s hatred of(reframe-hatred of) her reality she was eager to use the power of physical beauty to escape.Though this power may seem significant at first, it is really worthless because men only take advantage of the women through trickery and force. The first instance of this was when the bum man asked Rachel for a kiss in exchange for a dollar.The girls realize this as an act of assault due to his insistence and the idea that he can easily take as what he is asking for scares them off before any actions
Her mother is the one who motivates and teaches Esperanza the do's and don't's of life from her experiences. Esperanza would have never have turned out the way she is did without her mother.
When society faces obstacles that are deemed a burden it is often forgotten that those same Experiences and tragedies often shape an individual's outlook on life and inspires personal growth from within. The Novel, The House on Mango Street reminds its readers that even in the worst of times there is still a lesson to be learned as seen through the eyes of a girl named, Esperanza. The coming of age story deals with dark underlying struggles blanketed in the innocent viewpoint of a child forced to grow up frighteningly quick. The main protagonist, a young Chicano girl, reminds the audience of the importance of learning from past experience in order to form an identity entirely based on the individuals own volition. Sandra Cisneros, The author of House on Mango Street, uses Esperanza's struggles caused by her race,gender, and economic status to instill the theme of identity.
Women in society have always been looked down upon, and not taken seriously for centuries. The coming-of-age novella House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, proves that statement correct. The novella is about a young girl named Esperanza who moves into a house for the first time, on a street named Mango street. The house is not what she envisioned, so she makes plans in her mind to move out and get her own place, far away, but she is still very innocent. While she’s on Mango Street, Esperanza experiences series of events, that force her to mature. In House on Mango Street, the theme that females are looked down upon, taken advantage of, and the ones to blame in society are shown through literary elements such as, conflict and characterization. The gender literary theory applies to this theme. This theme is also shown throughout multiple vignettes such as “Rafaela who drinks Coconut and Papaya Juice on Tuesdays”, “The Monkey Garden” and, “Red Clowns”.
In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros creates the theme that when a young girl is growing up without role models and a community that doesn’t support her development, she will have uncertainty in her identity and will search for her way out of the endless cycle. Cisneros does this through the main character, Esperanza. Cisneros creatively weaves the uncertain identity though many of the vignettes, but the vignettes that have the strongest meaning are number one and four. In vignette one, “The House on Mango Street,” Esperanza describes the places that she’s lived before
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.
In the novel The House on Mango street, Cisneros uses the motif of gender roles to develop the theme that because women are seen as inferior to men, they try to use a man as away to release the limitation. Cisneros tell’s us in the vignette that Sally in love with her husband also she say’s that she is happy except sometimes her husband gets angry and then bad things happen. Throughout the story Cisneros uses the motif of gender roles to develop the theme that women are seen as inferior to men. When Cisneros writes this it makes a theme that she is not happy but, does not want to directly say that she is not in love and wants to escape: “She says she is in love.
Sandra shows the restrained women of Mango Street. In the work, The House on Mango Street, the main character Esperanza described what discourage women from being strong. It is important to realize that the way of doing gender is shaped by the cultural norms. As we read the story, we can explore what strategy of family structure, how the feminine and the masculine have been represented in the cultural system. The predominantly conventional belief agreed to the idea in which women should be kept in the house under the male control, but Esperanza the main character in the tale wants to flee the ancient tradition and the domination of old social privilege.
Gender roles is the main theme of The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Gender roles are the roles or behaviors learned by a person in relataion to social norms. In The House On Mango Street Espreanza Alicia, and Sally are well-founded examples of gender roles. They are such great examples due to the fact that they are dominated by men in their culture.
Esperanza’s friend Sally is one of the reasons that Esperanza really questions what it is to grow up. Sally wears make-up and appears to challenge the men in her life until they retaliate, like her father who beats and rapes her. In the chapter “The Monkey Garden” Sally is flirting with a group of boys and Esperanza can not understand why Sally will not play with her and the other girls. Then Esperanza thinks that Sally needs recusing from Tito and the other boys when they demand a kiss for the keys they took from her. Sally tells Esperanza to go away and she finally understands that Sally wanted to be with the boys. After meeting Sally and becoming more aware of her own sexuality Esperanza “decided to not grow up tame.”(88). She knows that
“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.
In the novel, The House On Mango Street, the women of Mango Street face numerous challenges in their lives. Women face abuse, objectification, and oppression. They are also subject to the societal roles that hinders them from being free and successful. Cisneros utilizes metaphors to reveal the theme that society’s gender roles and double standards restrict women’s sexuality and success.
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
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros uses many rhetorical devices to push her viewpoint of how sexual maturity and individuality come with age and experience. Cisneros’ effective use of symbols, syntax, and tone convey and persuade Esperanza’s upbringing.