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Women In The House On Mango Street

884 Words4 Pages

As Coco Chanel once said, “Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself”. In the novel, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the main character Esperanza struggles with her self-esteem. She wishes to grow old and become beautiful like her mother because therefore, she’ll be loved. Once she is older, she realizes the pain that comes with being attractive after being sexually harassed at a carnival. Esperanza struggles with her self-image because she feels she isn’t desirable enough for society; eventually, she learns that being beautiful isn’t all it seems, which shows that growing up ruins one’s innocence. Esperanza wanted to become beautiful like the other older girls in her community because she was insecure about how she …show more content…

The men in Esperanza's neighborhood ruined her initial happiness at being noticed as beautiful. After being noticed by men in her neighborhood in the vignette, The Family of Little Feet, Esperenza says, “We are tired of being beautiful” (42). Esperanza juxtaposes “tired” and “beautiful” to show how being a woman isn’t easy. This is because being a “beautiful” woman is not as simple as it appears but instead is very challenging. After wishing to become seen by her community, she learns that being noticed can have a negative impact. This is ironic because being beautiful is what most young girls want but it is actually tough and burdensome. When Esperanza becomes attractive it ruins her fantasy of being noticed by boys. Esperanza's first experience with a guy ruins her fairytale idea of having a boyfriend. At the carnival, boys make Esperanza uncomfortable by sexually harassing her, “[t]he way they said it, the way it’s supposed to be, all the storybooks and movies, why did you lie to me?” (99). Esperanza alludes to storybooks and movies which are supposed to have a “happily ever after” and where she is supposed to fall in love with the perfect man and have a fairytale ending, but instead, she gets raped by boys at the carnival. This shows how becoming old destroys your childhood. Esperanza ties it together by showing the long syntax for all of the ways she was shaken because of how she was used. This evidence supports the idea that Esperanza wanted to grow up and become beautiful but once she was older she resented it because of how cruel the world is and how it ruins your

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