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Theme Of Women In The House On Mango Street

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In The House On Mango Street, Esperanza and the other female characters are helpless and have no control over the terrible situations they are placed in. The women are forced by society to become tame, obedient wives and mothers while they had dreams they were forced to give up. A recurring image in The House On Mango Street is the window. Many women sit by the window as they watch their own lives pass them by. They are trapped and the only access they have to the world is the window they sit for hours by, watching the world they could be a part of. The women of Mango Street are imprisoned by marriage and family ties. Many female characters are imprisoned by their marriages. By marrying someone, society expects them to become obedient and put their husbands first. They essentially give up all of their power and all the control they had over their own life. For example, Minerva, one of Esperanza’s neighbors, is married and has two children, even though she is not much older than Esperanza. Minerva “has many troubles, but the big one is her husband who left and keeps leaving” (85). Minerva’s main problem is her husband and processes her circumstances by writing poems that she shares with Esperanza. “Leaving” implies that her husband is not around very often and that their relationship is so unhealthy that it frequently ends with one half leaving only to return at a later date. Minerva once “comes over black and blue and asks what can she do”(85) after she

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