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Gender Roles In The House On Mango Street

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In many communities, gender roles are prominent everywhere you go. In The House on Mango Street, a novel by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza sees this daily. When she's out of the house and in public, her brothers won’t come near her. One of the girls on her street is following some of the stereotypes about how the man comes and “saves” the woman and provides for her. This goes along with a woman whose husband will not let her out since he is scared she will run away. The community around Esperanza has many gender roles that separate the boys and girls, which makes her want to break these roles and be her own, independent, person.
In the vignette “Boys and Girls” Esperanza sees that gender roles are prominent around her neighborhood and school. Esperanza’s brothers, who she always talked to at home, “But outside they can not be seen talking to girls. Carlos and Kiki are each other's best friend, not ours”(Cisneros 8). Which made her feel like she only could be around girls, not boys. This makes her feel like she needs to take care of Nenny since she is an older sister and are not close enough in age to be friends. Since she can’t be around her brothers, this makes Esperanza want to have her own friend that she can be with. She never thought about how these gender roles are not equitable and did not know how they would affect her. …show more content…

While Marin waits for a guy to come and give her everything, she “Is waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to changeher life”(Cisneros 27). This affects Esperanza by making her feel like all of the other girls want to do the same but she does not want to. She does not want to wait for a man to come and provide for her, she wants to provide for herself and be her own independent person when she grows up. Esperanza does not want to be locked into one place in a

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