The Strength to Rise Above Gender Roles on Mango Street
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, is a book about the obstacles Latin women encounter while residing on Mango Street. In their community, males dominate and women are treated as if they are inferior. A woman's merit is placed on her outward appearance, as well as her loyalty to the men in her life. Throughout The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros utilizes the first-person frame of reference, portraying her struggle to supplement her sexuality in a feminine fashion along with the firmly embedded longing for independence, amongst a community influenced by societal male gender roles. Critical observation is included throughout The House on Mango Street as Cisneros scrutinizes …show more content…
Marrying a man on Mango Street feeds the oppression carried out on the women of Mango Street. (Hartley-Kroeger 284). While perpetual physical abuse is commonplace by the men, indicated through Esperanza's rape and the recurring beatings of Sally, these acts enable Esperanza to rise above. She declares a "quiet war" (Cisneros 88), to be "beautiful and cruel...not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for a ball and chain" (Cisneros 88). Moreover, Esperanza is announcing that to obtain freedom she must behave like a male, as the rejection of compliant, subservient behavior will open freedom's door.
Throughout The House on Mango Street, Esperanza's inward struggle is apparent as she strives to fight against what is expected of her, her destiny and what she truly desires. Women on Mango Street live pitiful, controlled lives, ruled by men in their society. Oppression, dominance and complete dependence on a man is the lot of every woman on Mango Street. As Esperanza matures, she safeguards herself from ensnarement in the same gender roles as the heart-rending ladies inhabiting Mango Street by manifesting the power to overlook the obstacles of society, all the while exuding great
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, is a book about the obstacles Latin women encounter while residing on Mango Street. In their community, males dominate and women are treated as if they are inferior. A woman's merit is placed on her outward appearance, as well as her loyalty to the men in her life. Throughout The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros utilizes the first-person frame of reference, portraying her struggle to supplement her sexuality in a feminine fashion along with the firmly embedded longing for independence, amongst a community influenced by societal male gender roles. Critical observation is included throughout The House on Mango Street as Cisneros scrutinizes …show more content…
Marrying a man on Mango Street feeds the oppression carried out on the women of Mango Street. (Hartley-Kroeger 284). While perpetual physical abuse is commonplace by the men, indicated through Esperanza's rape and the recurring beatings of Sally, these acts enable Esperanza to rise above. She declares a "quiet war" (Cisneros 88), to be "beautiful and cruel...not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for a ball and chain" (Cisneros 88). Moreover, Esperanza is announcing that to obtain freedom she must behave like a male, as the rejection of compliant, subservient behavior will open freedom's door.
Throughout The House on Mango Street, Esperanza's inward struggle is apparent as she strives to fight against what is expected of her, her destiny and what she truly desires. Women on Mango Street live pitiful, controlled lives, ruled by men in their society. Oppression, dominance and complete dependence on a man is the lot of every woman on Mango Street. As Esperanza matures, she safeguards herself from ensnarement in the same gender roles as the heart-rending ladies inhabiting Mango Street by manifesting the power to overlook the obstacles of society, all the while exuding great