When one is placed in an environment where they are surrounded by abusive relationships, poor incomes, and unprivileged families, they may feel as if their life is doomed to the same fate. In the novella The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza is faced with these complications that shape her personality positively. Esperanza s a member of a poor family with poor neighbors in a poor neighborhood. The relationships she forms are a vital part in changing her way of thinking and her perspective on her street. The experiences that Esperanza encounters help to demonstrate that her fate of a poor life can be overcome by hard work and dedication. Esperanza has a variety of female role models in her life. Many are trapped in abusive …show more content…
To Esperanza, Alicia is an outstanding figure who puts in the effort to change the direction of her life. Alicia shows her thirst for change in “Alicia Who Sees Mice” when Cisneros writes, “she doesn’t want to spend her whole life in a factory or behind a rolling pin” (Cisneros 31-32). Alicia is different from her father because she decides not to ignore her poverty and accept the situation that she is in; she teaches Esperanza to accept the situation as well. This is an important step for them to be able to create a more productive and positive life. Alicia’s decision to attend influences Esperanza’s thinking to change; Esperanza believes she can truly create a life she desires. She takes Alicia’s situation compared to the rest of the women surrounding her and chooses to take after the former. Alicia is a figure that shapes Esperanza to discover qualities she desires for herself and make them a reality. Esperanza does not want to end up like all the sad, uninspired women in her neighborhood, so she looks to Alicia who shows her she can generate her craved life and make a unique identity for …show more content…
Sally got married before the eighth grade and liked to spend time with older kids, but she realized her mistake with early commitment very soon after it happened. In “Linoleum Roses,” Cisneros wrote about Sally’s discontent at her new home when she is “afraid to go out without his permission” (Cisneros 102). Sally thought the only way to escape her abusive relationship with her father was to marry as soon as possible, even if she did not know how he would treat her. This shows what bad situations Sally and other women encountered in order to relieve one other part of their lives. Esperanza heard about Sally’s feelings and experiences and decided she did not want to end up with someone controlling her life. Esperanza figured that if she created a unique identity for herself, she did not want another person to end up disrupting its view. She used the unfortunate events these other women encountered to influence her choice to fight for a life opposite of the one she has now. Sally’s unforgiving childhood and relationships illustrate women’s struggles and Esperanza’s desire to change them for
“The House on Mango Street” emphasizes on this issue, even broadens to explain other controversial matters such as abuse, misogynistic views, and stereotypes. The protagonist, Esperanza Cordero moves to Mango Street where she must witness the abuse affecting her friends, neighbors, and family. Either Sally a close friend, Mamacita a neighbor, or her own mother handling 4 children. Over the course of the novel Esperanza changes physically and mentally. Through the use of imagery as well as complex, descriptive vignettes Cisneros epitomizes the misogynistic views within Esperanza’s
Throughout life, many hardships will be encountered, however, despite the several obstacles life may present, the best way to overcome these hardships is with determination, perseverance, and optimism. In The House on Mango Street, this theme is represented on various occasions in many of the vignettes. For this reason, this theme is one of the major themes in The House on Mango Street. In many of the vignettes, the women of Mango Street do not make any attempts to overcome the hardships oppressive men have placed upon them. In opposition, Alicia (“Alicia Who Sees Mice”) and Esperanza are made aware that the hardships presented as a result of living on Mango Street can be overcome by working hard and endless dedication to reach personal hopes
In unique ways for each girl, “home is a prison” and the only way they escape it is through Esperanza (Kalay 123). Esperanza is a symbol of hope as her name foretells. From the beginning Esperanza attracts the girls of the neighborhood to her side. One of the older Latina girls in Esperanza’s life is Alicia. Being a young lady of about 18, Alicia, takes her mother’s place as the one who cooks and cleans. She works hard from sun up to sun down then goes to the university. Alicia symbolized all the young women who worked hard enough in life to one day escape from the poor streets of Chicago. But like many Latina females, Alicia had a difficult life with her father, who abused her as Cisneros suggests. Alicia could escape the poverty but in the end she was just another woman in a male dominant world and nothing more. Not many girls were like Alicia; Sally, for example, was the
In the poor slums of Chicago, a family living in poverty struggles to get by. In the book, House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza is a twelve year old girl who lives with her family in the Windy City. She lives with her three siblings and both parents on Mango Street. Esperanza has no control over her life and family’s poverty. People who have no control over their life desperately seek change. Esperanza seeks to change her name, her home, and her destiny as a way to control her life.
Women are seen as failure and can’t strive without men in the Mexican-American community. In this novel you can see a cultural approach which examines a particular aspect of a culture and a gender studies approach which examines how literature either perpetuates or challenges gender stereotypes. Over and over, Esperanza battled with how people perceived her and how she wished to be perceived. In the beginning of the book, Esperanza speaks of all the times her family has moved from one place to another. “Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler.
“Someday, I will have a best friend all my own. One I can tell my secrets to. One who will understand my jokes without me having to explain them” (9). These are the longing words spoken by Esperanza. In the novel The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is young girl experiencing adolescence not only longing for a place to fit in but also wanting to be beautiful. This becomes complicated as Esperanza becomes more sexually aware. Throughout the novel, Cisneros argues the importance of beauty and how Esperanza deals with beauty as a part of her identity. When Esperanza meets Sally a new friend, Esperanza’s whole world is turned upside down. Esperanza’s views on beauty change from a positive outlook to a negative one by watching how beauty has damaged Sally’s life.
The House on Mango Street is the tale about a young girl named Esperanza who is maturing throughout the text. In it Esperanza documents the events and people who make up Mango Street. It is through this community that Esperanza’s ideas and concepts of the relationships between men and women are shaped. She provides detailed accounts about the oppression of women at not only the hands of men who make up Mango Street but also how the community contributes to this oppression. As the young girls and women of Mango Street try to navigate the world they must deal with a patriarchal society that seeks to keep them confined. By growing up in this environment where women are confined Esperanza seeks desperately to depart from Mango Street for fear
In the book, Esperanza doesn’t want to follow the norms of the life around her; she wants to be independent. Esperanza states her independence by stating, “Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s. A house all my own,” (Cisneros 108.) The syntax of these sentences stick out and are not complete thoughts, yet they convey much meaning and establish Esperanza’s feeling of not belonging. Esperanza’s feeling of not belonging is also emphasized when her sisters tell her that the events of her life have made her who she is and that is something she can not get rid of. Her sisters explain that the things she has experienced made her who she is by saying, “You will always be esperanza. You will always be mango street. You can’t erase what you know” (105.) What her sisters are trying to tell her is that the past has changed her but it doesn’t have to be a negative thing; it can be used to make her a better person who is stronger and more independent. Esperanza realizes that the things around her don’t really add up to what she believes is right, which also conveys the sense of not
In addition to this predetermined role, many women like Sally, who is a mature young girl, feel a sense of empowerment when men give attention, consequently enduring physical and emotional harm in their relationships; in particular, Sally feels helpless because of her father’s unpredictable and abusive behavior which prevents her from escaping. Her father is devastated yet aggravated when the boys at school flirt with Sally; because of his feelings, he “forgot he was her father between the buckle and the belt” (93). Her father’s actions prevent her from being an independent individual, and he abuses Sally because she is beautiful; as a result, Sally disobeys her father, and he locks her up in their home, denying her from fleeing Mango Street. Finally, in one particular scene, Esperanza, confused and heartbroken, describes the sexual assault she endured at the
Through the characterization of Esperanza and Marin, Sandra Cisneros portrays how many Mexican Americans pursue the American dream in The House on Mango Street. Esperanza has very high hopes for her future. Esperanza desperately longs for a nice home she can call her own. When Mama and Papa buy lottery tickets they always say “that one day we [will] move into a real house that [will] be ours so we [will] not have to move each year. And our house [will] have running water and pipes that [work]” (Cisneros 4). The assertion that Esperanza hopes for a lot is now extremely evident. However, the fact that she hopes for a home with running water and pipes that work indicates that her
At first, Esperanza is young, insecure, and immature. Her immaturity is apparent when she talks about her mom holding her, saying it is, “sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you and you feel safe” (Cisneros 6-7). This shows Esperanza’s insecurity because her mom is still a big comfort source to her. She feels a false sense of comfort because her mom is there and will protect her. In addition, Esperanza’s immaturity is shown through her dislike for outsiders of the neighborhood when she says, “They are stupid people who are lost and got here by mistake” (Cisneros 28). This indicates how defensive and protective Esperanza is towards her barrio by calling outsiders stupid for reacting the way they do, even though she dislikes Mango Street....
As the chapter opens, the first impression of Sire is one of a James Dean type of character. Sire and his friends are just sitting on their bikes, pitching pennies, or in other words, gambling. Esperanza tells us that she is scared of them, which makes me wonder why she would be afraid of them? She then says how her dad calls him a “punk.”
Many are confined in a marriage in which they are unhappy with, and are reductant to make a change. Some are committed to make a change for themselves. Esperanza ponders each one of these women's lives. Through each role model Esperanza gains crucial life lessons on how to overcome different life hardships. Through some women like her great-grandmother and Ruthie, Esperanza learns she must take control her fate, to avoid marrying young, and not let a male figure dictate her future. Other women like Alicia, Esperanza learns to keep pursuing goals in life and to take control of her destiny no matter what obstruction may lay ahead. From Esperanza’s role models, the moral lesson that can be taken away is to be proactive about your life and to shape your own future. Everyone is a role model to somebody in their life. Strive to leave a positive message behind for the ones shadowing in your
Throughout The House on Mango Street Esperanza learns to resist the gender norms that are deeply imbedded in her community. The majority of the other female characters in the novel have internalized the male viewpoint and they believe that it is their husbands or fathers responsibility to care for them and make any crucial decisions for them. However, despite the influence of other female characters that are “immasculated”, according to Judith Fetterley, Esperanza’s experiences lead her to become a “resisting reader” in Fettereley’s terminology because she does not want to become like the women that she observes, stuck under a man’s authority. She desires to leave Mango Street and have a “home of her own” so that she will never be forced to depend on a man (Cisneros 108). During the course of the novel Esperanza eventually realizes that it is also her duty to go back to Mango Street “For the ones that cannot out”, or the women who do not challenge the norms (110). Esperanza eventually turns to her writing as a way to escape from her situation without having to marry a man that she would be forced to rely on like some of her friends do.
In the Book women are looked upon as objects by men whether they are boyfriends, friends fathers or husbands. The girls in the novel grow up with the mentality that looks and appearance are the most important things to a woman. Cisneros also shows how Latino women are expected to be loyal to their husbands, and that a husband should have complete control of the relationship. Yet on the other hand, Cisneros describes the character Esperanza as being different. Even though she is born and raised in the same culture as the women around her, she is not happy with it, and knows that someday she will break free from its ties, because she is mentally strong and has a talent for telling stories. She comes back through her stories by showing the women that they can be independent and live their own lives. In a way this is Cinceros' way of coming back and giving back to the women in her community.