Gender in The House on Mango Street Essay Example

On mango street gender is shown as something you learn and develop as you grow not something you are born with.  “The house on mango street” is a novel structured in a series of Vignettes written by Sandra Cisneros about 12 year old Esperanza Cordero and her journey through life as she begins to face the reality of it. Throughout the novel Esperanza witnesses how bad women are treated by men with her own experiences and from the experiences from the females in her life. We can see how women are punished and trapped because of their beuaty as many men are threatened from it. From the very beginning Esperanza realizes that men and women “live in separate worlds” (page8) and that woman have nearly no power in her society but their beauty. Esperanza envy’s the females in her life for their beauty which she sees as a major source of feminine power but she always sees how it can backfire as she witnesses the beautiful women in the story usually suffer the most in the hands of men.  Many women in the novel are stuck in abusive relations and have trouble finding a way out.  Sally is a victim of abuse from her father and is trapped “ he never hits me hard” (page92) Sally says as her mom rubs lard on all of Sally’s hurt places trying to make it seem as no big deal. Sally is controlled and hit by her father which is believed to be because of her beauty as her father said on page 81 “ to be this beautiful is trouble” Sally’s father is threatened by her beauty and is scared that she will run off with a man and bring shame to the family so she is basically imprisoned in her own home by her father and later also her husband. Sally is just one of the examples of female abuse and imprisonment in their nove. Women are also continuously sexualized throughout the whole story from them wearing the shoes that were to “dangerous” (page 42) for little girls to wear as they are catcalled and flirted with for the shoes at such a young age. Esperanza gets her first job and was taken advantage of and got assaulted “ he grabs my face with both hands” (page 55) a old man had kissed her on the lips without consent because she was a young girl who was vulnerable.  “ where he touched me, I didn’t want it” (page 99) One of the biggest events in Esperanza’s life was when she had gotten raped by these boys that thought it was okay because of how they take advantage of Sally.

Esperanza felt a betrayal from her female Friend as she didn’t protect her and let them do it. The carnival then became a bad place for her instead of a place of fun and enjoyment. I could name many more examples of injustice to women in this novel but these are just some of the prominent ones. Gender roles play a big part in people's life and all these examples are of how badly women are treated by men in that community and how it can affect young girls and there point of views on life believing how they are treated is love.