Women In The House On Mango Street

The House on Mango Street, a feminist text Do men and women both get the same rights? The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a story of a young girl named Esperanza living in a poor, Latino community near Chicago. Over the span of a year, Esperanza struggles with the gender role that men are supposed to be dominant and controlling in a relationship and tries to keep control of her life after she and her friend are both sexually assaulted. The House on Mango Street is a feminist text because Cisneros advocates for women’s rights by raising awareness of many issues, including the constant exposure of sexual assault to women, women are given completely different expectations than men, and the freedoms of women are limited by men. Cisneros …show more content…
Feminism is demonstrated in the story when Cisneros includes a woman who is defying gender expectations: “Alicia, who inherited her mama’s rolling pin and sleepiness, is young and smart and studies for the first time at university. Two trains and a bus because she doesn’t want to spend her whole life in a factory or behind a rolling pin” (31-32). Cisneros advocates for equal opportunities for all genders by including a woman who is given very low expectations but defies them proving that women can work as hard as men. Furthermore, the fact that Alicia’s own dad would have low expectations for her proves to readers that many people have low expectations for women. The story is shown to be a feminist text when the author includes women who are expected to do the huge job of raising a child on their own: “Minerva is only a little bit older than me but already she has two kids and a husband who left. Her mother raised her kids alone and it looks like her daughters will go the same way” (84). The responsibility of taking care of children as a single parent is unjustly given to the women, limiting their freedoms greatly. Additionally, Cisneros advocates for equal expectations by helping readers to see how common and difficult it is to be a single mother. In conclusion, the extremely high and low expectations put on the women in …show more content…
This is evident when Rafaela, a young woman, gets trapped in a bad relationship: “And then Rafaela… gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at… On the corner is music from the bar, and Rafaela wishes she could go there and dance before she gets old” (79). This demonstrates Cisneros’s advocacy for women’s social rights because it shows the reader how unfair, greedy, and controlling men can be and the unequal affect those attributes have on women. Feminism is shown when the author includes a woman who is not free to leave the house while her husband can do whatever he likes. Furthermore, the inclusion of a woman who has her rights limited but doesn’t realize it proves that Cisneros advocates for women’s social rights: “She is happy, except sometimes her husband gets angry… though most days he is okay. Except when he won't let her talk on the telephone. And he doesn't let her look out the window. And he doesn't like her friends so nobody gets to visit her… She sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without his permission” (101-102). This example shows how Cisneros advocates for women’s rights by including a list of freedoms that a woman who is controlled by her husband loses. Additionally, Cisneros uses the way the woman doesn’t notice her lost rights to show

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