House On Mango Street

One人of人the人main themes of The House on Mango Street is the blurring line between the private and public人spheres. In The House on Mango Street, the home人is never a private spot for most人characters. This mainly stems人from the traditional belief that females should be kept in the人home and the patriarchal society that they live in. The men control the house and the women inside of it, but Esperanza wants to escape from these人male-dominated人households. In 人The House on Mango Street, women are人often left in their houses while the men are allowed to roam freely. One of the first examples we see of this is Rafaela人who is “getting old from leaning out the window so much, gets人locked indoors because her husband is人afraid [she] will run away since she is too beautiful人to look at,” (Cisneros, 79). Rafaela is never allowed to go outside because her husband is afraid人that she will leave him. Since she is always locked inside, she listens人to the sounds from outside and dreams of being allowed to go outside. In this way, the private sphere人 becomes a人prison rather than having the sense of freedom usually associated with privacy. This人causes her to long for the public space of人the streets. Another人person we see who is in a similar predicament is Sally. It says that she is hidden away人because “her father says to人be this beautiful is trouble,” (81). Sally’s father is人afraid that she will be hurt because she is a woman and so he keeps her hidden in the house as