House On Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros

In The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, twelve-year-old Esperanza must navigate through the trials and tribulations that one can associate when encountering young adulthood. Cisneros uses her unique writing style of vignettes to illustrate various themes in her text. The theme that has to be the most prominent thus far, is on the feminist role of Esperanza as a female in her Latin American culture. House on Mango Street is an overall bildungsroman that can be considered to be a feminist work of literature. The bildungsroman is encompassed by various feminist values throughout the text of written work, regarding the particular subject. Cisneros illustrates these feminist views through the creation of several women characters with strong

The chosen vignette does not only encompass the feminism theme it also demonstrates the treatment of females by men of the Latino culture. “Next week she comes over black and blue and asks what she can do? Minerva. I don’t know which way she’ll go. There is nothing I can do” (Cisneros 84). Minerva is trapped in an ongoing cycle, we can clearly see that she cannot break away from and in a form, is not smart or strong enough to stop it from reoccurring. On the other hand, even though this form of oppression she finds condolence in writing her poems. Even if she is, perhaps subjected to hiding her poems in fear of displeasing her husband or being the ridiculed as a result of writing. As a reader, we can conclude that the poems Minerva writes are possibly close to her heart as she reserves them on her physical body throughout the day next to her spare change. The act of writing poetry can also be seen as a form expressing herself through the hardships of Minerva’s life and therefore liberating herself through this form. Minerva is a further representation of men exercising their power over women when it comes to dependency. Perhaps Minerva is forced to stay beside her husband because she has two children and no form of income to maintain them if she decides to leave her husband. Being dependent on the male spouse has always been a struggle for

However, it is constructed with short vignettes, yet it is written to be highly inspirational and creative to impact readers. It encompasses important, influential lectures through themes and imagery that can give readers a reason to study Latin Literature. The major theme being that it can be considered as a feminist piece of writing through the creation of several female characters that incorporates the author’s feminist ideals. The main one being in her protagonist character of Esperanza. The author is able to demonstrate what women of the Latin culture endure when it is mainly controlled by the social construction that favor males over females through restriction of freedom, maltreatment and the two-sided feature of