Equality In The House On Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros

Superior Essays
Equality is something that is perpetually strived for, but seldom achieved. In the novella The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the protagonist, Esperanza, does not want to continue the cycle of inequality. Throughout the story, Esperanza continually sees women in her life treated like objects in a society that values women for their looks, and not for what is on the inside. In the thread of gender roles, a theme that is developed is that men do not treat women as their equals, but instead as something that can be possessed and dominated. This theme is developed throughout the stories Esperanza tells about her great-grandmother’s resentment of being a married woman, Rafaela’s lack of freedom in her marriage, and the troubles Minerva …show more content…
Rafaela is a woman who is also a part of the Mango Street community, but has a horrible life because of her possessive husband. Esperanza says, “And then Rafaela, who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much, gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at. Rafaela leans out the window and leans on her elbow and dreams her hair is like Rapunzel’s” (Cisneros 72). Rafaela traded in her freedom for a husband. She is now a prisoner in her own home while her husband goes in and out as he pleases. She is locked away from everyone because her husband does not want to lose his ‘prized possession’. Rafaela compares herself to Rapunzel in this chapter. This is because her circumstance is very similar to that of Rapunzel’s; both women are locked away by a man who exerts power over them, and are hopelessly waiting to get rescued. Instead of leaving, Rafaela leans out the window and listens to the music from the bar down the street, wishing she could go there to dance before she gets old. Through Rafaela’s experience with her marriage, Esperanza learns that she does not want to get married to a husband that controls …show more content…
It is developed through stories that Esperanza tells about many women in her Mango Street community. These stories include those of Minerva, who has an abusive husband; Rafaela, whose husband locks her away in her home and Esperanza’s great-grandmother who was reluctantly married and lived a life of despair. For Esperanza, defying gender roles and remaining independent is an act of nonconformity, and a source of

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Characters within The House on Mango Street are very caring and appreciate the little things because they do not have a lot of money. They live in an overpopulated neighborhood in which six people live in a small three bed and one bathroom house while sharing everything. Esperanza Cordero experiences living up to many societal standards relating to poverty, abuse, and stereotypes. The author explains that the house that Esperanza Cordero and her family live in "Is small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you would think they were holding their breath.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the novel The House on Mango Street, protagonist Esperanza is discontented due to her unfulfilled expectations and her unwillingness to belong, but eventually learns to accept her place in Mango Street. Esperanza’s initial expectations for her new house were raised too high, and dealt a heavy blow to her morale when they went unfulfilled. When Esperanza recalls her parents saying that one day they would have a house with “at least three washrooms” and “a great big yard and grass growing without a fence” but then realizes that the house “is not the way they told it at all” (Cisneros 4). Esperanza's hopes were raised for nothing.…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Esperanza began as a shy, lonely, introverted girl with no friends and often feared what people thought of her. Her story, told entirely though her perspective, traces her coming of age through a series of interesting, maturing vignettes about her family, friends and secret dreams. The novel contains this journey of Esperenza’s self-empowerment and will to overcome obstacles of poverty, gender and self-identity. The story begins when the Cordero Family moves into their first house they have owned, a small shameful building on Mango Street, in the Latino section of Chicago. Esperanza starts off by telling us that her family has moved ma many times, and how she has always dreamed of owning her own - but not a house like this one, which is too small and sad.…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Many women struggle with inequality around the world,some lose their childhood because of it, Imagine having to grow up and find out that you will be treated differently because of the way you were born. “The House on Mango Street,” is a book full of a series of vignettes the follows the life of Esperanza and her having to grow up facing the problems she has with being hispanic and growing up a women. Each vignette has its own problems that females have to struggle with and inequality to represent the female experience in some way. In “The House on Mango Street,” Sandra Cisneros uses symbolism of the shoes to develop a loss of innocence and growing up and having to learn to fast about sexuality and gender, it shows a lot about inequality because…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book, "The House on Mango Street," a young girl named Esperanza dreams of a big and fantastic house, but must live in a crummy, old house on Mango Street. Mango Street is rumored to be very dangerous and terrible, but is really a nice neighborhood. Her neighborhood is not exactly the perfect neighborhood to live in. Men in her neighborhood sometimes abused women and took their freedom away. Esperanza is not the type of girl that gives up her freedom the way some of her friends did.…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Cisneros, having grown up in America, often experienced rifts between her Mexican parents and their cultures as well, and this is reflected in her writing. In “Only Daughter” she writes, “Being only a daughter for my father meant my destiny would lead me to become someone’s wife. That’s what he believed.” Here, cultural values clash as Cisneros recounts the conflicts she has faced in her life due to different ideologies in within her household. Similarly, in “Woman Hollering Creek”, the main character feels isolated from both her father and husband due to the oppression she feels under the traditional Latino values that dictate a woman as property to the men in her life.…

    • 1228 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Women in literature, like in real life, face adversity and through their journey, they find their identity while coming of age. They show the importance of women in society and the crucial role that they play. In both I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the protagonists were required to overcome adversity as they each discovered a greater sense of self. By being able to overcome their certain situations, Marguerite Angelou and Esperanza became more aware of their place in the world and society.…

    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Last of all, she starts making her own choices in her life. In the beginning of the novel, Esperanza is a young insecure child who is insecure about her new life on Mango Street. The first time we see Esperanza’s insecurity is when she talks about her new home, and when she talks about the house on Mango Street. She says “I knew I had to have a house.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the novel The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros she discusses that, people have trouble defining themselves. In this case, Esperanza shows a struggle for defining herself. She is able to define other people while explaining how they are and what there life is like. But she can't seem to define herself. She's able to talk about her life and others but can't seem to explain herself as a person.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Esperanza and her family lived in a small house on a Mango street, which was an inner-city street with a lot of crime. Esperanza was embarrassed of her family’s house, and wanted a large house just for herself. Once she got out of Mango Street, she decided, she would never come back. She was also very immature for her age. While other girls her age were interested in boys, and didn’t enjoy playing with the little children, Esperanza still played with the smaller children, and did not spend as much time with the older ones.…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Which happens in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, gender roles significantly shape Esperanza’s identity because women do not have power or freedom in their community which is shown when Sally and Alicia are afraid of their fathers…

    • 1615 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Michael Perry, the author, once expressed, “Never mock a pain you have never endured or judge a situation you have never been in.” As illustrated, it is wrong to judge someone based on their life experiences. The theme of House on Mango Street is prejudgment, it proves the point that to prejudge someone is unfair, because contributing factors in everyday lives of many people are uncontrollable such as income class, gender, and race. Starting off, to prejudge someone based on their social class is unfair, considering it is an uncontrollable factor in their life. Throughout the vignette, “The House on Mango Street”, the author characterized Esperanza’s house by saying, “ Paint peeling, wooden bars papa had nailed on the windows so we wouldn’t…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Esperanza, the narrator, speaks concisely and simply, but powerfully. Each sentence is filled with emotion and meaning, and her accessible language allows the reader to experience the authentic emotion Cisneros was trying to convey. The themes of death, misogyny, poverty, racism and violence in the story are shown through Esperanza 's childlike eyes, and so her message is more impactful. Mango Street was a voice for those who wont or can 't advocate for their own hardships, and Cisneros delivered her message…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Every human being is born with a desire for a sense of belonging. Whether it is at their jobs, schools, or amongst their friends, people will always search for acceptance. The House on Mango Street, a novel beautifully crafted by author Sandra Cisneros depicts a young Latino girl's prolonged search for an identity. Cisneros portrays the young girl's evolution throughout the book by using ethnic and thematic elements. Through many hardships and life-changing experiences, Esperanza slowly blossoms from an innocent child into a mature young woman.…

    • 1171 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sandra Cisneros in her bildungsroman The House on Mango Street, explores the identity of Hispanic women within their society. A society in which women are denoted as inferior and trivial to the dominant role of males. Thus the theme of Machismo is explored in a series of vignettes told through the eyes of an adolescent named Esperanza. The women of Mango street are portrayed as reliant individuals who were beguiled into their destiny. Esperanza sees these women as woeful and vows to avoid the path each one has chosen to take.…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays