House On Mango Street Gender Essay

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Through House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, she develops a theme of gender issues relating to women. Throughout the story Sandra constantly brings up examples of women being silenced ,and abused both physically/ mentally. In many scenes I think the book the women of mango street are trapped in there apartments cooped up and not allowed to leave. These third floor apartments are basically dungeons in which they sit by the window wishing for a better life while being oppressed inside their apartments. In addition, she brings up Esperanza's great-grandmother, who was a once a free flowing independent women but one day her grandfather took her away one day and took the spirit out of her. Esperanza describes the scene “Until my great-grandfather …show more content…
Makes it appear that this was not the choice of her great-grandmother. That she was forced into this by some outside force. Basically depicting her as some sort of slave that is silenced sits in the house, a house she doesn't even want to be in. I feel like Cisneros brings this up multiple times to try and show the reader that women in this society are silenced and are made up to be just for men's pleasure. They may not go outside, have fun or even speak. They must sit inside the house all sad and stare out the window wishing for a better life. She also depicts multiple women being abused to make force them into these circumstances. For example there is Minerva who is only a bit older than 13 but already has two children that she must raise on her own. This is because she had a husband who constantly disappears and appears in her life without helping her out at all and physically abusing her on multiple occasions. One night she kicked him out of the house and when he came back it wasn't good. As the author tells us “But that night he came back and sends a big rock through her window and the door is locked. Then he says he's sorry and she opens the door
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