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Brian10

12-22-2006, 06:04 AM

In Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, women are not given the chance to bloom as individuals the way they are today. The men in the story are given the chance to work and with there free time, do whatever they please. On the other hand, while the men are off doing their thing, the women of the household are expected to cook, clean, take care of the children and do all the other jobs around the house. Another theme concerning women occurring in The House on Mango Street is that women are treated as material objects and they just have to care about looking good for men.
The very first reference concerning the role of women in the novel takes place in the vignette “My Name”. Esperanza discusses the origin of her name and she speaks about her great-grandmother who first had it. She says, “I would’ve liked to have known her, a wile horse of a woman, so wild she would never marry. Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off” (11). Then Esperanza goes on to say, “And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow”. Esperanza’s great-grandmother, because she was under the thumb of her husband, never fully got to reach her true potential. She never got to experience all the wonders of life. Never being able to set and achieve goals of her own. Instead she had to sit alone in a house just staring at the world outside her window like a bird in a cage. Ready at all times to leave her home, but never getting the chance to do so.
The second oppressed woman who is discussed in The House on Mango Street is Marin. Marin is a young Hispanic woman who is currently living in the United States while her boyfriend is home in Puerto Rico. She is pretty much providing for herself.