Running head: THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET MEMOIR
The House on Mango Street Memoir
Amy Deller
Western Washington University
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The House on Mango Street is a novel about a young Latina girl named Esperanza
Cordero, who is growing up on Mango Street in Chicago in the 1960’s. Esperanza, her
Mama and Papa, Calos, KiKi, and Nenny moved to a house that they own on Mango
Street after leaving their previous apartment. Although a great improvement from the last
apartment, Esperanza emphasizes through her stories that she does not belong there and
will not stay on Mango Street forever. Many historical factors play a role in Esperanza’s
coming of age. The novel tells many stories of her daily life experiences, which reflect
themes of beauty, gender, and independence. This paper will focus on these three
themes, a theory relating to the themes, and a look into some historical context that takes
place in the time Esperanza grows up.
The theme of beauty comes up often in this novel. Most of the characters are
women, so feminism plays a main role. In the chapter “Beautiful and Cruel”, Esperanza
talks about how she is the “ugly daughter”, and that her sister, Nenny, has the pretty eyes.
“In the movies there is always one with red lips who is beautiful and cruel. She is the one
who drives the men crazy and laughs them all away. Her power is her own. She will not
give it away” (Cisneros, 1984, pg. 88). Esperanza compares herself to other girls
throughout the novel. She relates beauty to power in a lot of the stories because she
sounds envious when she describes the beautiful women she comes across. For example,
she talks about her friend Marin and Sally as being beautiful because they have power
over the men that look at them. However, these women also seem to be abused by men
and these men have a lot of the power in this novel.
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Gender roles are another major theme in this story. Esperanza tells a lot of stories
that paint a picture for us of how oppressed women are in her society. For example, Sally
is beaten by her father. “Until one day Sally’s father catches her talking to a boy and the
next day she doesn’t come to school. And the next. Until the way sally tells it, he just
went crazy, he just forgot he was her father between the buckle and the belt” (Cisneros,
1984, pg. 93). Sally eventually gets married to a man who is extremely controlling and
angry. “And he doesn’t let her look out the window. And he doesn’t like her friends, so
nobody gets to visit her unless he’s working” (Cisneros, 1984, pg. 102). She sits at
home because she is afraid to go out without permission.
Another example of women being oppressed is in the chapter “Alicia Who Sees
Mice”. She describes Alicia, who’s mother died and is now taking on her roles. Her
father thinks, “a women’s place is sleeping so she can wake up early with the tortilla star”
(Cisneros, 1984, pg. 31). She stays awake at night studying, trying to make a better life
for her.
The last example of gender roles is in the chapter “Red Clowns”. Esperanza talks
about a traumatic event in her life of when she got raped. She starts out by telling Sally
that she lied to her: “ Sally, you lied. It wasn’t what you said. Where he touched me. The
way they said it, the way it’s suppose to be, all the story books and the movies, why did
you lie to me?” (Cisneros, 1984, pg.100). Esperanza explains her expectations of how
men treat women are all wrong, and she feels lied to by all the books and magazines she
has read, and by Sally. This chapter emphasizes her disappointment and shame of how
men treat women.
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The last major theme is independence. Throughout the novel, Esperanza is trying
to figure out who she is, where she belongs, and how she is going to get there. She
eventually figures out that she doesn’t want to stay on Mango Street forever, and its time
to say goodbye. It was clear to me while reading that Esperanza wasn’t going to settle
and be oppressed by her society. In the chapter “Beautiful and Cruel”, Esperanza says,
“I have begun my own quiet war. Simple. Sure. I am one who leaves the table like a
man, without putting the chair or picking up the plate” (Cisneros, 1984, pg. 89).
Throughout the book, Esperanza grows older, wiser, and more independent through her
experiences in her neighborhood on Mango Street.
All throughout the story, Esperanza talks mainly about her community and the
people in it. She illustrates through her short stories that her community is part of her
daily life, and the members of the community influence her in a drastic way. Esperanza’s
community is unhealthy because they live in a poor, male dominated society with the
women being treated unequally. In Theoretical Frameworks for Community Change,
Homan explains that healthy communities produce healthy people, and depressed or
distressed communities produce depressed or distressed people (Homan, 2011). “The
consequences of health or distress are experienced by all members of the community;
therefore, promoting healthy communities services both our self-interest and our interest
in others” (Homan, 2011, pg. 39). Using systems theory would help Esperanza’s
community to make them more sustainable and healthy.
Each community is a system. Systems require ongoing input, or energy, to help it
grow, produce and sustain life (Homan, 2011). A system acts to meet needs to sustain a
community, and help it grow and develop. Esperanza’s community is not healthy and
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doesn’t seem like it can sustain life if it doesn’t make some drastic changes. “System
theory helps us understand that the actions of a group of people within the community
can positively or negatively affect the health of the community and it’s members,
resulting in an opportunity or risk” (Homan, 2011, pg. 37). If Esperanza’s community
pays attention to their needs and work together as a group with other larger systems, they
can make the changes they need to be healthy.
These three themes all relate back to the historical time period that Esperanza
grew up, especially the theme of gender roles. The 1960’s were the years for many
feminists’ movements, including the Mexican-American women. “Mexican-American
women who were activists during the Chicano social protest movement El Movimiento of
the 1960s and 1970s, traced the emergence of their feminist "awakening" to the internal
struggles within their respective cultural nationalist movements” (Garcia, 2015). All
through out this novel women are oppressed of their basic human rights in many stories
Esperanza tells us. “Mexican-American feminists, like their Puerto Rican counterparts,
represented a threat to their male colleagues, who argued that the attacks on male
domination and sexism served only to demoralize men” (Garcia, 2015).
The Chicano movements were male dominated so these Mexican-American
women wanted to fight against that so they could get equal rights. “Latina feminisms
advocate for the recognition of the full humanity of women and girls, and the removal of
sexism, racism, ableism, classism, and discrimination based on sexual orientation”
(Latina Feminism: National and Transnational Perspectives, 2013). They “demanded
access to education, as well as social, political, and economic opportunities and justice
for Latino people” (Latina Feminism: National and Transnational Perspectives, 2013).
THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET MEMOIR
Chicana feminists started during the late 1960’s, so these movements happening
influenced Esperanza’s coming of age.
The House on Mango Street is beautifully written and digs into the life of
Esperanza’s coming of age through many short stories, reflecting themes of beauty,
independence and gender roles. Looking at some historical context of the time period
Esperanza grew up in, you can see that it shaped the women she was today. System
theory helps the reader understand the issues going on in her community, as well as
idea’s to help the community make some positive changes.
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References
Cisneros, S. (1984). The house on mango street. New York, New York: Vintage Books, a
division of Random House Canada Limited.
Garcia, A. (2015, January 1). Feminism - third world U.S. movement – Bibliography.
Retrieved January 1, 2015, from http://science.jrank.org/pages/7701/FeminismThird-World-U-S-Movement.html
Homan, M. (2011). Lobbying for change. In Promoting Community Change: Making it
Happen in the Real World (5th ed., pp. 474-496). Belmont: Brooks/Cole,
Cengage Learning.
Latina feminism: national and transnational perspectives. (2013, January 1). Retrieved
from http://www.hamptoninstitution.org/latinafeminism.html#.VPOWDbPaHLU