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The House On Mango Street Feminist Analysis

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In The House on Mango Street , Esperanza and her family move into a small, one bedroom house on Mango Street. Mango Street is in a poor, minority area of Chicago. In this neighborhood, men abuse their wives and daughters. Wives stay inside all day, looking out of the window and dreaming. Esperanza sees this abuse occur and vows that she will move away from Mango Street as soon as she can. However, Esperanza realizes that she can never truly leave Mango Street, as she must return to help the other women stuck there because the men do not help the women. Living on Mango Street teaches Esperanza that she is responsible to help the other people there, especially the women trapped in a patriarchal culture. Esperanza feels as though she does not …show more content…

In the beginning of the novel, Esperanza claims that she is does not belong on Mango Street. While talking with her friend Alicia, Esperanza tells her that she does not have a house. Alicia says that the house on Mango Street is her house and tells Esperanza “you are Mango Street, and one day you’ll come back too” (107). Esperanza says she won’t return until somebody makes it better, but then laughs at the idea that the mayor will improve the neighborhood. This is a pivotal point for Esperanza. She asks “who’s going to do it?” (107), and realizes that it will be her responsibility. She will leave Mango Street, but she will have to return in order to make it better because nobody else will. Life on Mango Street has impacted Esperanza immensely, even in the short year that she had lived there. Esperanza realized that writing would be her way of escaping from both Mango Street and the prevalent patriarchal society. Mango Street is a part of Esperanza, and she cannot forget that. Although Esperanza initially felt as though she did not belong, she came to realize that Mango Street was a part of her. Writing would give Esperanza a means to escape Mango Street, but she cannot leave behind the other women. She must go back to Mango Street and help them because nobody else

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“You can pick up a mistake and carry it as a burden; or you can set it down and use it as a stepping stone to greatness.” -Unknown. This book claims that Esperanza goes through alot when she lives on Mango Street. We become the people that we are in life because of friends, family and mistakes . Friends have a big impact on people's lives because as in the book House on Mango Street.

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562 Words | 3 Pages

She is a Puerto Rican girl that wants “someone to change her life” and spends her days babysitting at her house (27). Esperanza gets the idea of marrying a rich man to get out of Mango Street. Marin also tells her about boys “is for the boys to see us and for us to see them” (27). These two ideas Marin shared with Esperanza shows how she can leave Mango Street and live a better life. To conclude, Sally, Mom, and Marin are the three most influential characters in the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros for opening abusive relationships, staying in school for the better, and leaving poverty by marrying a rich man to the main character

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1445 Words | 6 Pages

Yet her refusal to do so prevents her growth. She instead chooses to sit by her window and miss something that she can no longer have. Esperanza throughout the novel does the same. She misses a home, even though at that moment her home is Mango Street. She is constantly repeating throughout the novel that Mango Street is temporary and not her home.

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1002 Words | 5 Pages

Esperanza and her family are always moving because they do not have much money, but they finally moved into a house on Mango Street where they “Don’t have to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with the people downstairs, or be careful not to make too much noise” (703). Although it sounded like a nice place, when a nun from her school saw where Esperanza lived, she said, “You live there?” (703). That made Esperanza feel like nothing and made her realize she needs a real house, one that is really nice. Esperanza wants to change her life and make the best of what she has.

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691 Words | 3 Pages

Esperanza feels a great deal of disfavor towards Mango street and believes Mango street is not a place she should be. It states in the ext, “Four Skinny trees. They are the only ones who understand me. I am the only one who understands them. Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine.

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437 Words | 2 Pages

Esperanza shifts from a follower into a confused individual, allowing her to begin her life as a woman outside of the oppressive nature of Mango Street. The suffocating stereotypes and sad, gloomy traits of the culture surrounding Esperanza contribute to the cultivation of her strong will and ardor. Mango Street opens her eyes to the abusive nature of her environment, and aids her in breaking the chain of corruption by defining and terminating the situation for herself. The neighborhood itself allows Esperanza to

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1115 Words | 5 Pages

In the book, The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is portrayed as a young innocent girl that drastically changes over the course of the book. Esperanza is new to mango street and encounters many challenges but also positive experiences that she is able to take away from mango street. In order for Esperanza to transform as a human it was inevitable for her to face the struggles on mango street. As Esperanza matures throughout the novel she experiences three major developments that shape her future through the awakening of maturity, responsibility and her awakening of her interest in poetry.

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722 Words | 3 Pages

“All discomfort comes from suppressing your identity”(Bryant H. McGill). We can not decide upon our own identity; It comes from our hopes, dreams, memories, culture and experiences. We can not suppress or change who we are or where we came from and must except ourselves. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros introduces the main character Esperanza, who is initially ashamed and tries to repress parts of her identity. One of the main themes in The House on Mango Street is E. acknowledging her name and mango street as part of her self identity.

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1117 Words | 5 Pages

Many people are undermined by the drawbacks of belonging to a low socioeconomic status. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is raised in a poor, Latino community, causing her to be introduced to poverty at an early age. This introduction of poverty affects Esperanza in many ways, one including that she is unable to find success. Esperanza struggles to achieve success in life because the cycle of poverty restricts her in a position in which she cannot break free from her socioeconomic status.

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1348 Words | 6 Pages

As a child, Esperanza wants only escape from mango Street. Her dream of independents and "self-definition" also means leaving her family behind without any responsibilities to her family. Throughout the book, her has also faced some situation where is feels ashamed to be part of the Mango Street community and in some instances refuses to admit she has anything to do with mango street. At the beginning of the book near the earlier chapters, Esperanza feels very insecure about herself in general along with the house that she lives in. As mentioned before, she doesn’t want to discuss her name nor where she lives.

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1627 Words | 7 Pages

In the House on Mango Street, Esperanza is seeking for an identity of her own. In her current neighborhood, she struggles with economic, cultural, and gender based barriers to personal growth, and she believes that changing her surroundings is her solution; however, she realizes that to discover her identity, her ultimate destination is a home in the heart. The house on Mango Street was one that was the opposite of what Esperanza had dreamt her entire life. The house is, “…small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you 'd think they were holding their breath... bricks...crumbling in places, and the front door...so swollen you have to push hard to get in". (Cisneros 5)

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717 Words | 3 Pages

“In the meantime they’ll just have to move a little farther north from Mango Street, a little farther away every time people like us keep moving in (Cisneros 13).” This quote is a significant part of the story because it shows how Esperanza truly feels about herself and her family. She thinks that because she is poor and lives and a bad neighborhood people move away from her family. Esperanza doesn’t think very much of her or her family at all. She thinks that it is because of their race that people do not want to be near them.

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1095 Words | 5 Pages

Not once, or twice, or ever again.” (Cisneros 105). One of the reasons for this is her meeting the three old ladies who came for Rachel’s sister’s funeral. There prophesy that Esperanza will leave Mango Street boosts her self-confidence. The narrator also says, “Before Keeler it was Paulina, but what I remember most is Mango Street, sad red house, the house I belong but do not belong to.”

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1042 Words | 5 Pages

She however is very reactive to this situation, she doesn’t tell anybody what happened, she steals late passes, hides in an abandoned janitor closet, and eventually ditches school. That example shows how irresponsible she is. House On Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, is about a young girl who moves into a new house with her family in Chicago Illinois in the early 1980’s. Esperanza is not a very happy person, especially after the year she had at the house on Mango Street.

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1173 Words | 5 Pages

“No, this isn’t my house I say and shake my head as if shaking could undo the year I’ve lived here (Cisneros 106).” This quote shows Esperanza’s unwillingness of accepting her poor neighbourhood because of the violence and inequality that has happened in it. In the House on Mango Street, the author, Sandra Cisneros, shows that there is a direct link between inequality, violence and poverty. The House on Mango Street shows women are held back by the inequalities that they face. Cisneros shows that racism prevents individuals from receiving job opportunities which leads to poverty and violence.

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