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The House On Mango Street Theme Essay

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In the story, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros develops the theme of issues related to gender heirarchy. Throughout the book the reader is shown that the girls and young women are meant to look for a husband or make themselves appealing for men. In the vignette of “The Family of Little Feet”, Esperanza tells the reader about a family that has small feet. She describes the grandpa’s, grandma’s, baby’s, and mother’s feet. The mother hands Rachel, Lucy, and Esperanza a bag with three pairs of shoes in it. “One pair of lemon shoes and one red and one pair of dancing shoes that used to be white but were now a pale blue”(Cisneros 40). All the girls are very excited to learn how to walk in these fancy new shoes that they just received …show more content…

Sally was beaten by her father earlier in the book and left Esperanza alone at the fair when a big boy came and took Sally. While she was waiting for Sally a guy grabbed Esperanza's arm and said that he loved her and kissed her so, Esperanza isn't friends with Sally anymore. Here Esperanza tells the reader that Sally, her old friend, got married. Sally claims she is in love and that she likes being married. She says “She is happy, except sometimes her husband gets angry… though most days he is okay. Except he won't let her talk on the telephone. And he doesn't let her look out the window. And he doesn't like her friends, no nobody visits her unless he is working”(101-102). This shows how much power men have other their wives who get married before eighth grade because society tells them that they need a man to become successful. We can see that Sandra Cisneros displays the theme of gender hierarchy in The House on Mango Street when she tells us about how the young girls dress to impress older man. In Addition, when we find out that girls become married before eighth grade and end up being powered by their husband for the rest of their

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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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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.

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