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The House On Mango Street Women

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In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza and her family move into a small, one bedroom house on Mango Street, which is in a poor, minority area of Chicago. In this neighborhood, abused wives stay inside all day, looking out of the window and dreaming. Esperanza sees this abuse occur and vows that she will move away from Mango Street as soon as she can. However, Esperanza realizes that she can never truly leave Mango Street, as she must return to help the other women stuck there because the men do not help the women. Living on Mango Street allowed Esperanza to mature into an independent, empathetic young woman, who has seen the abuses toward woman and wishes to change the neighborhood. In the front yard of Esperanza’s house,…show more content…
In the article "In Search of Identity in Cisneros 's The House on Mango Street” Maria Elena de Valdes describes Esperanza as “a young girl surrounded by examples of abused, defeated, worn-out women, but the woman she wants to be must be free’’ (de Valdes). Esperanza desires to be like the woman in the movies “with red red lips who is beautiful and cruel” (88). Esperanza witnesses the abuse of her female neighbors by their husbands and wants to become sexually independent, not subjugated by any man. Esperanza does not want to “grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain” (87). After dinner, Esperanza “leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate,” (89) revealing her aspiration to be strong and independent. “Esperanza 's refusal to adhere to social expectations of female behavior goes far beyond the mere action itself, as it is a symbolic refusal to 'grow up tame,’ to accept a prescribed female destiny” (Eysturoy). Since “Mexicans don’t like their women strong,” (10) Esperanza wants to be a self-reliant woman and defy societal convention after seeing the women in her neighborhood poorly treated by their husbands. Esperanza will focus on herself rather than wait for “someone to change her life” (26) because she does not want to join the group of women on Mango Street who…show more content…
.In the beginning of the novel, Esperanza claims that she does not belong on Mango Street. While talking with her friend Alicia, Esperanza tells her that she does not have a house. Alicia says that the house on Mango Street is her house and tells Esperanza “you are Mango Street, and one day you’ll come back too” (107). Esperanza says she will not return until somebody makes it better, but then laughs at the idea that the mayor will improve the neighborhood. She asks “who’s going to do it?” (107), and discovers that it will be her responsibility. Mango Street became a part of Esperanza; one day she will leave Mango Street, but she will have to return in order to improve the neighborhood better because nobody else
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