Gender Roles In The House On Mango Street

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Recommended: The social construction of gender roles

Gender Inequality in The House on Mango Street Literature is a way of conveying ideas and stories to shed light on subjects that are kept in the shadows by society. Usually these stories have purpose, a message that they want to convey to the reader. In The House on Mango Street there are many themes and messages hidden within the vignettes that intertwine throughout the book. One of the most prevalent themes is gender inequality directed towards women within the Mexican society. Most of the characters in the story are females; the reader is shown a small glimpse of their lives and how they are treated as opposed to the men. Sandra Cisneros depicts most of the men in her book as controlling and abusive; her male characters believe that a woman’s …show more content…

Their new husbands will carry on the same learned behavior and pattern all too familiar from their own childhood homes. In the vignette Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut & Papaya Juice, the reader is shown the quite abuse suffered by women in marriage. Rafaela is a wife confined to the perimeter of her house, as her husband believes that she is too beautiful to be gazed upon. Afraid that she will run away her husband restricts her to home, locked away from the rest of the world. Rafaela’s dream is to go dancing at the bar just down the road from her house, but she is afraid to leave without her husband’s consent; disobeying her husband’s commands would ultimately earn her a beating. From this vignette the readers can feel the despair that haunts the wives in the Mexican culture. Once again Sandra Cisneros portrays the harsh cruelties and injustices Mexican women are bombarded with by their …show more content…

Esperanza tries to rebel against the role placed upon her; she has no wish to become an inferior to men-“I have inherited her names, but I do not want to inherit her place by the window (11).” Hearing the tales of her grandma and seeing the fate of other women, Esperanza does not want to look out the window regretting her obedient silence, hoping and waiting her whole life to escape, but unable to do anything to change it. She has decided she will not get married young, but instead earn an education and work so that she can buy a house of her own. Not many girls have the ability or determination to defy the gender roles, many are stuck in the same never-ending cycle of abuse and stagnation instituted by the dominating males. At the end of the book Esperanza states that when she has leaves, she will not forget her experiences, but will one day return for those who cannot leave; she will return to free those who have been enslaved by gender

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