Theme of Growing Up in The House on Mango Street Essay Sample

Sandra Cisneros wrote the novella The House on Mango Street about growing up under the influence of beauty standards and what it means for interactions. The author uses style and characterization to show that beauty is a two way street, one way that is the envying of the beauty of others, and the other way where beauty is a weapon; one that can backfire in a bildungsroman. The author uses vignettes to establish mood, images, and meaning in the text. In many of the vignettes, characters, specifically women are introduced of all different backgrounds facing multiple problems. The backbone of the problems is beauty and the piece it plays in relationships with men and is expressed through the literary term of characterization. First, Esperanza, the protagonist growing up trying to fit in with the beauty standard and navigate her own way around, meets a girl named Marin: “And since Marin’s skirts are shorter and since her eyes are pretty, and since Marin is older than us in many ways, the boys who do you pass by say stupid things like I am in love with those two green apples you call eyes, give them to me why don’t you” (Cisneros 27). Marin is the first older female that Esperanza looks up to, however she offers Esperanza examples of what she does not want to become. In the vignette titled Hips, Esperanzas budding of sexuality and beauty is expanded as the girls discuss the hips as they are beginning to develop, “They’re good for holding a baby when you are cooking…you need them to dance” (Cisneros 49). After this conversation a bunch of girls have, Cisneros incorporates childlike rhymes into the narrative making the chapter more dreamlike and poetic, this is an example of style and a reflection of how the children are still young and learning things as they mature. Esperanza first recognizes the effects of being pretty and around men when she gets her first job. “I thought I would because he was so old and just as I was about to put my lips on his cheek he grabbed my face with both hands and kissed me hard on the mouth and just let go” (Cisneros 55). Esperanza first sees the violent side of her potential sexuality here, as her innocent kiss turns into an assault by the old man. Esperanza begins to learn the sexual double standard of her society: she is becoming a woman, and most women are powerless, or so it seems. The novel continues on and Esperanza learns a lot from Marin and experiences other encounterments of assault and sexuality. Growing up as a woman filled with beauty and charm is what every girl wants, but Esperanza finds out through her life on Mango Street that it doesn’t always mean good things, it actually causes harm.