House on Mango Street Gender Roles
Written September 2003
Perhaps you remember the 1950s, when
the typical family consisted of a working father, a stay-at-home mother,
and 1.5 children. America has made a lot of progress as a whole since then
when it comes to gender roles, but within certain cultural groups there is
still some resistance. There is evidence of this in The House on Mango
Street by Sandra Cisneros. This book portrays the lives of Mexican-Americans
and uses it to address a topic of concern: in the Mexican-American household
women are expected to marry and be the lesser gender; they should not be
dependant on men but should instead be free to choose their own paths.
Mexican-American culture is focused around males. “The
boys and the girls live in separate worlds” (8). Men are expected to earn
a living and play the upper hand, while women are to take care of the house
and mind their men. They must do as their men say, or they’ll be forced into
it, like how Esperanza’s great-grandmother is forced to marry her great-grandfather
against her will in “My Name.” Once they’re married women are stuck, stuck
into their culture’s traditional female role. Suck to the task of taking
care of home and family, like Rosa Vargas in “There Was An Old Woman She
Had So Many Children She Didn’t Know What to Do.” She spends all her time
and energy looking after her children, until she’s pushed too far and can
no longer do it properly.
Some Mexican-American females think that rather than imprisoning
them, marriage would set them free. That is not the case, though, as shown
by Sally’s story in The House on Mango Street. Sally came from an
abusive home. Her father beat her and wouldn’t let her be around other children.
She tried to get out of her bad life through marriage. Sally made the mistake
of getting married in middle school and finds herself no better off than
she was before. Her husband controls her. He won’t let her talk to the phone,
sit in the window, or see anyone. “She sits at home because she is afraid
to go outside without his permission” (122). Rather than help her, marriage
ties Sally down.
Mexican-American women can choose their own paths, however.
Rather than looking through marriage, they could look through education.
In “A Smart Cookie” Esperanza’s mother tells her that she made the mistake
of quitting school. “Esperanza,” she said, “you go to school. Study hard”
(91). She is telling her daughter that school is the way out. School is the
way to choose her own path in life. Alicia does it, in “Alicia Who Sees Mice.”
Though she has to take care of her family, she takes her spare time to go
to university. Her schoolwork will her to make her own life.
There was a time when women did not even have some rights
under the Constitution of the United States of America. These women were
degraded by the government. Today, women in cultural groups like the Mexican-Americans
are degraded by their culture, and their traditions. The women marry and
lose their freedom, stuck under the commands of their men. Some women are
breaking out of that. Alicia does that, and Esperanza’s mother tells her
to. Education, not marriage, is the key to escape from cultural degradation.
They can escape the chain. They can choose their own paths. They can do it,
and someday, they will.