The House On Mango Street Research Paper

Sandra Cisneros writes her first novel The House on Mango Street as an homage to her younger self. It was published in 1984, and the story is set in the late 1960s in Chicago. Mango Street is a lower-class neighborhood with great diversity. Most of the people who live there are of Hispanic descent. The main character, Esperanza Cordero is a 12-year-old girl growing up amid adversity. These adversities are poverty, sexism, and the expectations society and her parents have placed on her as an immigrant child. Sandra Cisneros uses Esperanza Cordero to explore how a young girl is finding herself in her community amidst poverty, sexism (sexuality), and the patriarchy, along with the trials she and other immigrant children face while growing up

As previously stated, Esperanza is of Hispanic descent, and a common theme of Hispanic households revolves around a gender performance phenomenon called machismo. Merriam-Webster defines machismo as “a strong sense of masculine pride”. This means that in those households, men are held in high regard and women are subordinate. Women are not expected to do “big” things in life. In these households, women are expected to care for children, keep the household, and serve their husband's needs. This is a fact that the author herself recognized in her own life. As stated in an article, “She grew up in a working-class family with six brothers; her family expected her to follow the traditional female role”(Duarte-Valverde). Cisneros’ family loved and respected her very much. Still, there was a certain way traditions were done in their family and their community, so she was expected to maintain the status quo. This led to a feeling of cognitive dissonance, as she struggled between what was expected of her and what she longed for. These sentiments are echoed in her main character as Esperanza has similar struggles. This is further developed as Esperanza combats her longing for acceptance in her community. Esperanza feels left out when boys do not gravitate toward her as they do her friend, Sally. Sally is everything Esperanza thinks she wants to be: independent, sexually liberated, and

Esperanza’s name makes her insecure because she feels as though it makes her stand out negatively. She was named after her great-grandmother and while that is normally an honor, Esperanza feels this is negative because her great-grandmother was trapped by her husband and was forced to live out the rest of her days by a window wishing her life were different. Because Esperanza has such high expectations for herself, she feels her name will limit her to the same fate as her namesake. As Esperanza works towards finding herself throughout the novel through her hard experiences and mentors acquired, she learns to accept her name for what it is and use it to empower her to reach her goals. A secondary source states, “By accepting her name, but refusing to accept a heritage of female confinement, Esperanza carries on a metonymic legacy of rebellion against patriarchal definitions of female selfhood” (Eysturoy). While Cisneros never directly states if she has any qualms about her name, she does share the same inclinations as Esperanza when it comes to the hardships that come with being raised in your parents’ culture and while growing up amid a strong, dominant culture. Cisneros comes from a similar background while being raised in Chicago with her Mexican parents. She struggled with being Mexican at home and American at school, while never really fitting in on