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Esperanza deals with plenty of gender roles, alongside the expectations she has to work with. Esperanza is still coming of age while dealing with gender roles and her expectations. Esperanza has to escape the fact that she can’t like Sire because he has a girlfriend, even though she is jealous of her.
The House on Mango Street is a novel written by Sandra Cisneros about a young girl named Esperanza and her family and friends that live on Mango Street. Esperanza had always lived in different crumbling apartments. Because of this she had always held on to the dream of living in the big white home that her parents had told her bedtime stories about when she was younger. She had always felt embarrassed by the shabby rented homes she had lived in, and when she finally moved to the red house on Mango Street, she felt ashamed of it too. It was not anything like what her parents had told her about.
Men and women live different lives, they’re raised differently in many ways. The usual stereotype that comes with women is that women spend all of their time in the kitchen or taking care of kids and stuff around the house while the men are out working trying to provide for the family. In House on Mango Street, author Sandra Cisneros shows the idea that gender is an important aspect to life; this becomes clear to readers when the standards of men and women are different according to society. Women seem to be in a way invisible to the majority of the world.
From these experiences, Esperanza becomes a stronger person and does everything she can to not end up as just another woman in the window. Cisneros uses Esperanza as a model for all women in hopes of propelling them to fight for full gender
The House On Mango Street (1984) by Sandra Cisneros is a coming of age tale of a Mexican-American girl named Esperanza living in a fictional poor neighborhood in Chicago called Mango Street, where she is confronted by various forms of oppression that depict Chicano culture and define the woman’s role in a Latino society. Thus Cisneros’ use of Esperanza as the protagonist allows the reader to understand that the same forces of oppression that ensnare Esperanza to Mango Street is what encourages her to have the desire to leave Mango Street. Therefore, Esperanza becomes a symbolic entity that explores themes such as tradition, gender roles and femininity to show oppressed women in Latino culture. Esperanza’s observations permit the reader to
To Surrender Self Worth for Society Too often in the community of Mango Street, a women’s independence is compromised for the greater authoritative figure, men. One might even go far as to say that gender roles represent a social construction on Mango Street. The people of the neighborhood grow to learn the ways of those before them, only to carry out the confinement of the women and oppression of the men. What is most appalling is that the women learn to accept their roles as helpless and incapable. In the novel The House on Mango Street, Cisneros uses the motif of gender roles to develop the theme that because women are often inferior to men, they view themselves as less important and must rely on men to determine their role in society.
Esperanza, in the House on Mango Street, struggles finding friends because genders norms in society and her responsibilities in her family. In the vignette “Boys and Girls”, Esperanza says,”“My brothers for example. They've got plenty to say to me and Nenny inside the house. But outside they can't be seen talking to girls”(#8). In the quote, Esperanza reveals one reason she doesn’t have friends is because of the gender norm in which boys do not talk to girls in public.
Many girls desire a female role model from a young age. The way these women are treated, and deal with this treatment can heavily impact the way young girls view themselves, and their future as well. Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street brings attention to issues of sexism and gender roles. This is done through a series of vignettes about the main character Esperanza navigating life by the example of her many role models. Each role model impacts Esperanza in a special way, Sally who is married at 13, Marin who is waiting to be rescued by a man, and Alicia who is balancing school and home responsibilities.
In Sandra Cisneros’ novel The House on Mango Street, the notion of home transcends mere physicality, encapsulating a rich tapestry of emotions, culture, and identity. Set in a working-class Latino neighborhood in Chicago, the novel follows the coming-of-age journey of Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl navigating the complexities of adolescence, womanhood, and societal expectations. At the heart of the narrative lies Mango Street itself—a dilapidated, impoverished neighborhood that Esperanza and her family reluctantly call home. Despite its “shortcomings” Mango Street serves as a crucible for Esperanza’s growth, shaping her understanding of self and community. For Esperanza, home is a paradoxical space—a sanctuary imbued with warmth and familiarity, yet suffused with longing and discontent.
Growing up as a young female teen came be hard due to the stress and peer pressure of appearance. For teenage girls from immigrant families, it came be very challenging to fit in with the “American way”. Esperanza struggles throughout the book with finding her place in society. She looks to other female role models in her community for guidance, where she finds different results. Most of Esperanza’s female role models on Mango Street have unique stories to tell of their experiences with men on Mango Street.
The House on Mango Street is set in a poor, primarily Hispanic neighborhood. Author Sandra Cisneros creates an atypical, yet easily digestible world for the reader to experience while learning about Esperanza’s childhood. The culture of her environment influences Esperanza’s development as she becomes a young woman, and contributes to the book’s driving theme of self-empowerment. Mango Street is the source of Esperanza’s growth through her childhood, and it hides sadness and longing underneath stereotypes of Hispanic people. The characters that live in the broken-down neighborhood all seem to represent pigeonholed views of Latino individuals.
Societal expectations are a part of everyone’s life, male or female. From the day people are born, there are roles they are expected to assume-- wife, homemaker, father, provider, mother and many others. While these aren’t necessarily negative, the stigma of not fulfilling these roles can be unpleasant. While the roles we are supposed to choose aren’t always clearly defined, the judgement that comes from choosing to take certain actions in life, like settling down or becoming a mother is palpable. Throughout The House on Mango Street, Esperanza’s view of the world is largely shaped by the people around her, which are her neighbors, family, and friends.
“Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor (Cisneros 9).” This quote shows that Esperanza, the main character of the story, desires for freedom but is unable to get it. Esperanza is the red balloon who is unable to float away and the anchor is the society that she lives in. Esperanza’s rights have been oppressed by her society which prevents her from getting freedom to certain rights. The theme of The House on Mango Street is that everyone should have equality.
Believe it or not, people are not entirely unique. It is certain that no one is truly the same as another person, but it would not be ridiculous to think that everyone does in fact share many similarities. After all, the majority of the population grows and develops opinions or values based on what they see or hear. For Esperanza, the protagonist of Sandra Cisneros’s, The House on Mango Street, the perspective she has is built upon her childhood on Mango Street. This coming-of-age novel illustrates how Esperanza’s experiences on Mango Street play an important role during her period of growth.
In the history of the world patriarchy has always been present in people’s lives. Patriarchy by definition is a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is traced through the male line. It can also be classified as a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it. In the novels The House on Mango Street, Catcher in the Rye and White Girl female characters experience patriarchy in a few different ways. While the characters Sally (House on Mango Street) and Sunny (Catcher in the Rye) live their lives controlled by men to impress and to satisfy them, Martin’s mother (Grandma) changes the frequent patriarchal role to a matriarchal role in the novel White Girl and she shows who is in charge and does not let any man or anyone take control of her.
