Women In The House On Mango Street

Sandra Cisneros’ novel, “The House on Mango Street,” is about the adventures and ways of a small side street. We get to see how the main character, Esperanza grows and matures throughout her time on Mango Street. Since the book is written in first person, Esperanza expresses her thoughts and feeling straight to the reader. In the novel, Mango street typically houses residents with poor backgrounds, and is used as a temporary home for most. Although many people who live on Mango street move out in a short period of time, Esperanza stays in the house she hates longer than anyone else. She constantly watches her friends leave, and has to make new friends every time someone moves in. After experiencing this many times, I believe that Esperanza no longer continues to see herself as a resident on Mango street, but a part of Mango street. This is her distinct point of view compared to the others on mango street.

A difficult choice such as life and death is not an easy decision to make. In “Woman’s Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros, there is an important passage that through its language and structure provides the protagonist with a strong internal conflict. The passage comes with strange words and sentence structures which lead the reader to question why Sandra Cisneros would do that. The short sentences and the strange fitting words provide a reason why Cleofilas is different from the legend of “La Llorona”. “La Llorona” represents the women who committed suicide while suffering as victims of abuse. Through the lens of Gender Trouble by Judith Butler, about categorizing women into a general scope based on their common experiences is not correct

Thesis: In the short story “Woman Hollering Creek,” Sandra Cisneros emphasizes the importance of having a female figure to look up to in order to overcome the oppression women are subjected to in a patriarchal society.

Thesis statement: Esperanza has a variety of female role models in her life. Many are trapped in abusive relationships, waiting for others to change their lives. Some are actively trying to change things on their own. Through these women and Esperanza’s reactions to them, Cisneros’ shows not only the hardships women face, but also explores their power to overcome them.

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.

In our society today, there are many ways identity plays a role in how people live their lives, as well as how people are viewed or treated by others. A big part of a person’s identity comes from their gender. Men and women are raised differently, whether it be their beliefs and ways of thinking, how they view their future, or the actions they choose to take throughout their lifetime. In both Katha Pollitt and Silko’s essays, they discuss the differences in the lives of men and women and how these differences result from society’s expectations by using metaphors and life examples to explain their message to the reader, as well as allow the reader to connect to this message.

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

Sally’s struggles illustrate gender inequality and how men tend to control women. The author, talking about Sally, says, “ She sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without permission” (Cisneros 102). Sally’s husband tries to dictate her every move, and

Would she have been able to surpass society’s strict expectations and chase her dreams? Even though many women desired to break out of these expectations, many learned to not protest their specific roles, even if they didn’t necessarily agree with

The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros tells the story of Esperanza Cordero growing up in the Puerto Rican community of Chicago in the form of short stories and poetry. Esperanza longs to own a house that she idealizes as happiness. She strives for a better life outside of the stereotypical gender roles that have suppressed the woman she grew up around. Female genders roles is a strong theme in the novel.

For this book assignment I decided to read the book The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Cisneros uses a series of vignettes to tell the story of Esperanza Cordero and a year of her life on Mango Street. Esperanza is a 12 year old Mexican-American girl, or Chicana, living in a congested Latino neighborhood located in the more poorer area of Chicago. The story begins with Esperanza’s family moving to a new house on Mango street which she describes as an upgrade from their previous house but it is still not the home her heart desires. Esperanza has big dreams of eventually leaving Mango Street and owning her own real house with a big yard and multiple washrooms, just like the ones she sees on television. Esperanza’s journey into maturity and development is described through these interestingly written vignettes. She begins writing poetry as a way of expressing the events happening in her life such as developing friends, puberty and sprouting hips, and even dealing with sexual assault. The first half of the book begins with Esperanza wanting to continue to play in her little child bubble but is pushed into the world of adulthood when dealing with the deaths of her grandfather and Aunt Lupe and when she is abruptly kissed by an older man while at her first job. Esperanza also writes about her neighbors and happenings of the neighborhood to paint a picture of the different paths in life that are available to her. She switches her interest to the older women of the neighborhood who each

Cisneros was trying to convey a sympathetic impression of her father, because he was unable to see the value of getting a higher education but as time goes on, her father was able to understand and appreciate her writing and the education she received.

By showing how two women bonded by acknowledgement of the truth, she shows how society considers women to be unimportant and often to follow a certain role in their lives, thus letting men dominate what they can or can’t do.

This epidemic of inequality between genders has brought about such a great impact that even in the 21st century, we live in today, we still see that men and women are not viewed the same, or found capable of doing the same things. This separation based upon simulated differences, has caused a great impact in the life of women. Since the minute a woman is a born, without knowing it, she is doomed to be seen as less, as weaker, and to not even be seen as much as a man would be. This develops in some, an enormous amount of frustration in women like Elisa in, “The Chrysanthemums”, because due to these so called differences society abstains them from doing everything they’d like. Society deprives them from having all the privileges a man has. This leads women to want to cause a change, which is why we still have feminism around; to fight for what is still not equal between men and women. There is no real difference based upon capacity. The only real difference between men and women is purely physical, the rest of the differences that society tries to implement, are purely simulated;

The three essays selected have several key traits in common. Among the traits shared, each piece is written by a woman. Each essay expresses both a single aspect and the general experience of being a woman in a western patriarchal society. Additionally, each piece of writing is specifically divided into sections by theme, by style, and sometimes by formatting. This essay will examine the essays as a group and specifically take note of the divisions within each essay. How a writer divides her work can indicate the writer's perspective, sensibility, or strategy of communication. In their own ways, each author is writing about the lack of equality for women in society. The authors vary their methods of expression. Stanton is direct and abrupt. Cisneros is more lyrical and descriptive. Brady uses humor, irony, and wit to make her points. The paper will contend that the pieces of writing are, in their unique ways, divided, and will illustrate those divisions as an intentional method of grouping by theme.