Stereotypes in The House on Mango Street Essay Example

📌Category: Books, The House on Mango Street
📌Words: 432
📌Pages: 2
📌Published: 20 February 2022

“To tell one big story, each story contributing to the whole - like beads in a necklace” (Cineros) The fictional novel “The House on Mango Street '' follows the experiences of a Mexican-American Girl growing up in a neighborhood in Chicago. In Esperanza’s experiences she sees many Stereotypes, Generalization of a large group of people. Throughout the story Esperanza experiences stereotypes that negatively affect herself and the people around her. Throughout the novel there are many stereotypes about Mexican-American culture that negatively impact the people within it. 

First, one of the ways people are put into negative stereotypes is through culture. For example Geraldo was an immigrant from mexico. However since he was an immigrant no one knew him or cared about him. “Geraldo died in a hit and run accident. The surgeon wasn't there to save him.” Esperanza shows that people like Geraldo don’t matter because they are immigrants from another country or another culture. Since Geraldo was from another culture his life didn’t matter. It wasn’t like someone who was born in that country who would receive the surgeon. 

This also leads to others being scared of Esperanza’s neighborhood. “Those who don’t know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we’re dangerous” (Cineros, 28) Esperanza see’s other people come into her neighborhood scared because of the stereotypes they believe in. They believe that Esperanza's people could be violent and do illegal things which isn’t necessarily true. Since Esperanza explains that her neighbors don’t have anything to do with the fear. 

Fear also comes within their own community, throughout Sally's stories we see her evolve. She at first seems like the perfect girl until later on in the book. Then we get to see what is actually happening, she shows up to school with bruises and black eyes. She tries to play it off saying she “Fell” But she really didn’t. She recalls her mama putting lard on the bruises to try and make the pain go away. In Mexican culture it is expected for women to Cook, Clean, and care for the young. They are basically the caretakers of the family. It is also believed that you need a man to succeed in life, which we know isn’t always true. 

Esperanza supports the idea that people in her culture are put into Negative stereotypes. People in Mexican-American culture are put into negative stereotypes that can be hurtful towards the people. Cineros makes observations of these stereotypes through the character Esperanza. Her experiences show how bad these stereotypes are. She dispels the Stereotypes and shows it through Esperanza. Sally was an extreme example of how Negative stereotypes actually work. But it opens the readers eyes to see how the world works, because “To tell one big story, each story contributing to the whole - like beads in a necklace"

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