House On Mango Street Marianismo

1064 Words3 Pages

Challenging Marianismo in The House on Mango Street For thousands of years, gender norms have implied that the place for women is in the home, taking care of children and obeying every desire of men. These unwritten rules state that women cannot think for themselves; they should only perform menial work, if any at all, and they must not be independent. Failure to follow them results in shaming from men, who hold nearly all of the power. Unfortunately, these sexist expectations still exist in the modern world, though the labels given to them differ between cultures. In the latino community, they are referred to as the concept of marianismo. Latina women all over the world fight daily, through both grand and small acts, to earn the respect and …show more content…

Terrified of finding herself in her great-grandmother’s situation, Esperanza is determined to fight for her freedom and self-government. When grandmother Esperanza was young, she fought against the same pressures and refused to be married, but she was unable to conquer the sexist society alone. One day, against her will, a man “threw a sack over her head and carried her off…She looked out the window her whole life.” This man was young Esperanza’s great-grandfather. Because great grandmother Esperanza was unable to overcome the gender expectations of her world, she spent the rest of her existence in despair, something that young Esperanza wishes to avoid. Young Esperanza knows that it will be challenging but possible to overcome the expectations of modern society. She has learned from her grandmother’s sorrow that she must find and seize the opportunity to create a better life for herself. Simultaneously inspired and disheartened by her ancestor’s respective spirit and inability to protect herself from the marianismo of society, Esperanza states that she has “inherited her name, but [she does not] want to inherit her place by the window.” She knows that the same expectation of machismo exists in the Latino community but that it can now be overcome. As long as she fights for her own beliefs and rights, she can protect herself from the hordes of men who want to control her

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