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Esperanza’s relationships with other women in “The House On Mango
Street”: A Psychoanalysis
Introduction
Sandra Cisneros' novel “The House On Mango Street” is heavily influenced by gender roles. As
she evolves from a girl to a lady, Esperanza has an identity crisis from the beginning of the
narrative. Esperanza has experienced gender inequity throughout her life, especially after
migrating. By seeing the young ladies and ladies in her town, she figures out how to assimilate
the societal position of ladies corresponding to guys. On Mango Street, Esperanza has worked
with an assortment of female good examples, including Marin, Minerva, Rafaela, and Sally,
every one of whom are battling with their own concerns. Esperanza, in contrast to the next four
ladies, challenges the local area's orientation standard.
Esperanza becomes aware of the disparity in social standing between men and women early in
the story. She had already witnessed boys and girls living in separate worlds, with their brothers
refusing to speak to Esperanza and Nenny outside the home when he was a young man (Cisneros
8). Because Esperanza is the first character to express a gender difference, the brothers are afraid
that other youngsters in their neighbourhood will criticize them when they encounter them.
Esperanza had a lifestyle and neighborhood similar to other women on Mango Street, but she
really wants to continue her family life. She also admits that the idea of Amazon's sick karma
stems from Chinese hatred of influential women like Mexican women (Cisneros 10). Her gender
findings extend to the societal level, where some males assume that women will never be as
powerful as their grandparents. Esperanzar's grandma was an independent woman until her
grandpa compelled her to marry him.
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Esperanza’s encounter with Marine
When Esperanza arrives in Chicago, she meets Marine, a Puerto Rican immigrant who has
abandoned her family to look after her cousin Louise. Marn is a narrative that shows a predetermined mentality implanted in the minds of many young women, since its main themes
revolve around duty, childhood, and marriage, all of which are prevalent among Esperanzar's
female roles (Alfaro 18). Because she is a woman, Marn is unable to have a normal upbringing
because she is responsible for the children at home. She is unable to leave the house because she
is responsible for Louis' sisters and the baby, but she remains on the threshold. It's time to start
singing (Cisneros 23-24). Marin not only has the responsibility of looking after Louise's sisters,
but unlike Marin, who is locked up, he also has the responsibility of looking after Louise's
sisters.
Growing up in a male-dominated culture in Puerto Rico and Mango Street, Marinr's eternal
vision and future were burned into her mind. It grew up with the fact that women need men's
attention to go about their daily lives and hence became a must-have item for men. She worries
about her splendor in order not to be pleased and considerate of passers-by. She deliberately
wears a short skirt and lots of makeup so men can see her. Marin believes that if she doesn't
show off her good looks, she won't be able to find a partner.
Marin also discusses Esperanza's long-held desire to work at the institution. But Marin will not
acquire a job because she is responsible; she will always be attractive and dress nicely, and she
will marry him and find someone she can live with on the train. This is an excellent house.
(Cisneros, no. 26) Marin is once again reliant on her daily decisions to get married and locate a
partner to look after her. Meanwhile, Esperanza aspires to be like Marine and one day leaves
Mango Street, as she has always wished to live in a large house of her own.
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Minerva is a young mother with two children, little older than Esperanza, and her abusive
husband abandons and beats her in black and white. Minerva is a single mother with two
children who, like most women, follows her mother's unstructured lifestyle (Alpharo 40).
However, after her husband apologises, she allows her back into his life, demonstrating how
males control women and how women appear weak when they are alone. Esperanza and Minerva
both enjoy writing poetry, but Esperanza is saddened by Minerva's poetry since she understands
she isn't the only one confined on Mango Street. Minerva's works, like Esperanza's, are an escape
from the hard reality of her life. He folds and folds his poems, holding them in his hands.
Esperanza’s encounter with Sally
Esperanza is drawn to Sally's appearance, which includes dark nylons and eye makeup. Sally's
first explanation is that she has smoked nylon and Egyptian eyes. (Cisneros 81). Esperanza is
clearly driven to distinctiveness, which makes her stand out from the crowd, because most
females don't wear a lot of makeup or dark nylon stockings. Sally dresses in black, a colour
associated with confidence and attractiveness. Esperanzar's mother, on the other hand, claims
that she is too young to wear black (Cisneros 82). She was worried that her daughter would
attract men's attention.
Sally also tells Esperanza about her father, a violent and controlling male character. He thinks
being so handsome is a problem and Sally forbids him from going out. Jailing a girl for her looks
is like what Raphaela's husband did to her, something that repeats itself over and over again in a
woman's life. After school, Sally drops her skirt, removes her eye makeup, and runs home where
she can't get out. (Cisneros 82). Sally is stayed at home by her severe and moderate dad, very
much like different ladies of Mango Street take cover at home. Sallyr's dad pummels her when
Sallyr doesn't observe his severe guidelines and her mom doesn't stop her. All things considered,
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her mom rubs spread on all slices to stow away and safeguard the way that her better half is
beating her little girl (Cisneros 92). Despite the fact that he was wrong, Sally continued to defend
her father against Esperanza, telling him that she never slaps him hard. In reality, girls and
women are less likely to rebel against men and are more likely to engage in undesirable male
behaviour. Sally tries to go but ends up staying with Esperanza after her father apologises and
Sally agrees. He broke his father's laws the next day, and somewhere between the buckle and the
belt, he forgot he was the father (Cisneros 93). Sally, like Minerva, believes her father will
change and is easy to forgive, but men's behaviour against women does not change regardless of
what happens in their lives.
Esperanza’s expectations towards marriage
Not only does Esperanza find marriage constraining, but she also finds motherhood confining.
Esperanza tackles the difficulties of being a single mother in the narrative. Rosa Vargas is the
mother in question, a woman from Esperanza who describes herself as “just one mother who is
always fatigued from buttoning, bottling, and babying” (29). Her existence revolves on "a
sequence of unending and eternally repeating duties,” just like a stereotypical Chicana mother's
(Jacobs 106). “The family is the location of affirmation and replenishment of others at the price
of and via the erasing of the self for the Mexican American mother” (106). “The family is the
location of affirmation and replenishment of others at the price of and via the erasing of the self
for the Mexican American mother” (106). Rosa follows this example by investing every last bit
of her energy to really focusing on her kids, however she loses herself simultaneously. Others
see her in association with her youngsters instead of as a different person because of her
endeavors. As Esperanza puts it, "Rosa Vargas has an extreme number of kids. It's not her
shortcoming, then again, actually she's their mom and the only one against so many others"
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(Cisneros 29). Since Cisneros constantly qualifies Rosa as a mother, these expressions propose
that Esperanza and related society see Rosa first and principally as a mother, not personally.
Conclusion
Women are abused in various family settings throughout the narrative, and it is anticipated that
the daughters would follow in their female ancestors' paths. Esperanzar's mother, on the other
hand, does not want her daughter to repeat her mistake and encourages her to attend to school
and study hard. His mother was a gifted and successful liberal arts graduate who dropped out of
school due to a lack of appropriate clothing. She had a brain even when she was not dressed
(Cisneros 91). Because women are classed based on their beauty rather than their personality or
intelligence, they can become self-assured and lead terrible lives, like Esperanzar's mother did.
Esperanzar's actions and words undermine the notion of belonging to a group near the end of the
storey. Esperanza does not want to be like other women on Mango Street who can't shake the
wrath of a male-dominated society, so she decides to go with her own, not her mother's. She does
not believe that one person will change her life. With everything being equal, she takes
responsibility for her own past choices and is more grounded. Rather than live in someone else's
house, Esperanza shares a desire to have one of her own. Not in her father's house, but in the
house she has built for herself, free of human discipline and able to live freely (Cisneros 108).
Every woman and girl on Mango Street has her own problems to deal with. Marin, Minerva,
Raphaela, and Sally, unlike Esperanza, are waiting for someone or anything to transform their
life and take them away.
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Work Cited
Alfaro, Melissa. The oppression and deliverance of women in Sandra Cisneros'“The House on
Mango Street”. Diss. 2006.
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. 25th ed., Vintage Contemporaries, 2009.
Jacobs, Elizabeth. "Women, confinement and familia ideology." Mexican American Literature.
Routledge, 2006. 104-123.