Archetypes In The House On Mango Street

She does not relay this information to readers in order to bash her friend or ridicule the life Sally chose to live, but instead, Esperanza’s depiction of the lifestyle is monumental in her realization that there is more to life than getting married. Sally, as the Temptress, led Esperanza to dark places, in which it would have been easy to dwell, but Esperanza, seeing the error of her friend's ways, was able to navigate her way through the patriarchal standards she was being force-fed.

Mamacita is a minor character that is introduced to the neighborhood as a fat, nostalgic, Mexican woman. She finds most of her identity in her husband, as well as her Mexican culture. She and her family move to America from Mexico for a better life, but Mamacita remains lugubrious.

(Wissman)

Throughout the novella, Esperanza fights against a society filled with toxic masculinity and women that find their worth through men, for self-awareness, and eventually finds it through the lessons she learns from these situations and people. As the Explorer, she used the characters that fulfilled other archetypes to build herself into a strong-willed young lady.

Though the archetypes Cisneros used in The House on Mango Street, specifically in the female characters, Esperanza learns valuable lessons that construct a newly liberated woman. As Steinem said in her 1999 interview, liberation and power is most impactful when it is taken for oneself. Esperanza took inspiration and lessons from Sally, Mamacita, and Alicia to become empowered. From Sally, the Temptress, she realized that beauty does not transfer to power and the dangers of defining oneself by the male figure in your life. Mamacita’s complacency as the Damsel in Distress showed Esperanza that she must take her life into her own hands and not sit by and wait for someone else to do so. And finally, through her Platonic Ideal, Alicia, she was given an example of liberation, and strong, independent, female