The House on Mango Street, a novel by Sandra Cisneros

Novelist Sandra Cisneros and The House on Mango Street

Novelist Sandra Cisneros is the author of The House on Mango Street. Esperanza is a young Latina girl who grows up in Chicago, Illinois, in a neighborhood where Puerto Ricans and Chicanos live. The book was published in 1983. Esperanza grows up watching the ladies in her neighborhood and how they behave.

The Plight of Women in the Neighborhood

Writings are frequently used by authors to express their personal experiences or the problems in society. As a result, this specific novel aims to convey what goes on in the neighborhood regarding the plight of women. Equality and autonomy are two of the biggest issues that women today are confronting. Even in the current society, women are not offered adequate or rather equitable opportunities like their male counterparts. The main theme entailed in this novel revolves around the plight of women who are denied independence and equality in The House on Mango Street.

The Setting: Chicago, Illinois

The novel’s general setting is Chicago, Illinois in a Spanish speaking Latino neighborhood. The author chose this setting because this is where she grew up and spent most of her childhood; she remembers the Chicago barrio since this is where she came from. The immediate setting is the house, the neighboring streets, and the surroundings. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza and her family move to a low-income neighborhood. There are a few clues that signify the time when the story was written. The song Marin frequently sings to herself and the car Louie steals establish the period like the late 1960s.

In addition to this, the reader notices that a bigger portion of the story does not happen in the house but the neighborhood. It takes place on Edna’s porch, on the street when she is with her friends, in the tree in Meme’s backyard, a neighbor’s monkey garden, and Gil’s junk shop. The various places in which her story takes part establishes the fact that Esperanza’s community plays a significant role in developing the significance of Mango Street to her- a place that she finally sees as home. Esperanza is free to run around her neighborhood; this shows that she is independent unlike most women in her community who mostly stay indoors. There are several reasons why women in this society are confined to their homes or apartments: their husbands forbid them to leave the house, they are tied down by domestic duties or are prisoners of their fear and foreignness, such as Mamacita.

The Historical Context: Mexican Americans in the United States

In the Historical context, The House on Mango Street describes the experiences of Mexicans in the USA. In the mid-nineteenth century, Mexico seceded its northern territories (New Mexico, Arizona, and California) to the USA when the Mexican war ended. From 1900 to 1920, there were a high number of Mexican immigrants into the USA as cheap labor for mining and construction industries, especially in the South-West part of the United States of America. Mexican immigration was unregulated and widespread I the 1920s. However, between the World War I and the World War II, Mexican Americans began to face repatriation, rampant discrimination, and poverty due to pressures from the Great Depression. Mexican Americans served in the US Army during the World War II. However, they continued to face discrimination when they went back home; they were treated as second-class citizens. In the 1950s and 1960s, they tried to assimilate into the American culture but were still deemed outsiders by the mainstream American culture. Chicanos pushed for civil rights in the sixties and seventies, but the majority of them faced discrimination thus their opportunities for development were limited.

In 1983, when The House on Mango Street was published, the US immigration regulations limited the number of Mexicans who were permitted to immigrate to the USA. Individuals who immigrated legally or were born in the USA experienced biases and stereotyping in the American culture. Mexican American individuals have fallen victims to negative stereotyping and prejudices that prevent them from getting the jobs they desire and move up the economic ladder. Because of this, most of them live in poor neighborhoods similar to the street described in The House on Mango Street. Destitution is one of the main challenges that Mexican Americans face in the USA. The theme of poverty is widespread in the novel. In Alicia Who Sees Mice, the mice are a symbol of poverty. Alicia studies late into the night since she does not want to spend the rest of her life behind a rolling pin or in a factory and often sees mice scurrying around when it gets dark. Mice are often linked to places with poor hygiene and poor households. Spending life behind a rolling pin shows that Mexican women were traditionally expected to fulfill household duties and not become career women. Factory employees were often overworked and paid minimal wages.

The Use of Symbolism in The House on Mango Street

The House on Mango Street has various symbolic elements. The image of the house where Esperanza lived is highly symbolic-it was drab, crooked and small. This image is contrary to the house that Esperanza pictures herself in Bums in the Attic. She longs to live in a house that resembles one of the gardens where her father works. The metaphor of the house depicts more than the material things that Esperanza wants; it represents everything that she lacks. The house is a constant reminder that she has neither the finances nor the pleasant surroundings she wants. Houses also signify the character’s fantasies about happiness and wealth. The novel’s characters want to escape the reality of poverty; therefore, they often fantasize about living in affluent neighborhoods. On Sundays, Esperanza and her family members go to the wealthy neighborhoods to stare at the beautiful homes. Cathy says that a day will come when her father will inherit their family house in France. Esperanza’s father has lottery tickets and says that he would buy a home with three bathrooms if he won. Esperanza mentions allowing homeless people to stay in her attic the moment she buys a big house. The thoughts of the residents of Mango Street signify their shame due to their financial status. The house is also used to describe women’s confinement in the novel or their independence and liberation. Women feel like prisoners in houses owned by men; Mamacita and Esperanza’s great-grandmother, Rafaela, often lean on the windowsill itching to leave the house. Windows are a symbol of longing and a teaser to women who long for freedom but are confined to domestic captivity. Esperanza’s dream house depicts female independence.

Another significant symbol is the attire that women in the neighborhood wear. The women wore makeup, shoes, and black clothes- these fascinated as well as intimidated the teenage Esperanza. In most cases, the aspects of womanhood make her feel betrayed. However, in Beautiful and Cruel, Esperanza sees these norms as the potential for power. She says that in the movies there is always a beautiful woman who wears red lipstick and is often mean. She drives men crazy but refuses to give in to their advances. She holds her power and is not willing to give it away. Shoes evoke the images of adult femininity and sex in The House on Mango Street. For Esperanza, shoes indicate the conflict between her desire for independence and sexual attractiveness. She realizes that shoes are connected to sex when a neighbor gives her, Rachel and Lucy high-heeled shoes to try on. The shoes change their legs from childish and scarred to long, beautiful legs that belong to slim women. Because of this, they get attention from their male neighbors.

Esperanza admires trees throughout The House on Mango Street. In Four Skinny Trees, Esperanza says that she and the trees located in the front yard understand one another. She relates to the trees because they do not appear to belong to the neighborhood but persevere even though the concrete holds them in the ground. Esperanza does not seem to belong to the community; nevertheless, she persists in spite of the obstacles that her poor neighborhood poses. The tree on Meme’s backyard represents hope for Esperanza. Squirrels live in it, and this makes her neighborhood appear small in both dimensions and age; the tree managed to thrive without much help from anyone. Esperanza thinks that in the future she will become a strong, independent and successful woman in spite of the drawbacks in her first year on Mango Street.

Finally, the monkey garden next to Esperanza’s house shows the difficult position that she is in. As an adolescent, she still wants to behave childishly but adult thoughts such as sex cross her mind. When children in the neighborhood take over the garden, it becomes a wonderful sight in the spring due to the presence of fruit trees and beautiful flowers. The garden becomes a refuge for adults where they can play their games and build their clubhouses. Later on, the garden becomes corrupted since weeds grow in the flowerbeds. Esperanza also loses her innocence and discovers sex the moment she sees Sally goes to kiss Tito in the garden.

The Point of View: Esperanza’s Perspective

The collection of short stories is in Esperanza’s point of view; she narrates it in the first-person present tense. Esperanza describes her daily activities and observations in some instances. She describes her new house and shares her personal feelings with the readers. However, she provides us with an incredible perspective. Esperanza frequently invents a scene in her stories. She imagines the domestic setting of The Family of Little Feet and the kitchenettes and flats with two rooms in Geraldo No Last Name. Esperanza is not aware of Rafaela’s thoughts when she is trapped in her house at night but can visualize it. She is not a self-centered narrator; she speaks for herself and the members of her community who do not or cannot speak for themselves.

Conclusion

The themes of gender inequality and poverty have been brought out apparently in the novel. The author uses the house to show the difference in social classes and the confinement of women in the Mexican society. Women feel like prisoners in men’s homes because they are expected to perform domestic duties and not have their aspirations. The setting of the novel shows the poverty that Mexican Americans are exposed to and that racial discrimination mainly causes it. Nonetheless, such bias prevents them from reaching their desired financial goals thus most of them are concentrated in low-income residential areas.

Works Cited

Cisneros, Sandra. The house on Mango Street. New York: Vintage Books, 1983. 1-132.

Nogar, Anna. “Hamandeggs: Dual Translation in Elena Poniatowska’s La casa en Mango Street.” 28.1 (2012): 52-56.

Sickels, Amy. Critical Reception of The house on Mango Street. (2010): 36-56. Ipswich, Massachusetts, United States: Salem Press.

Satz, Martha. “Returning to One’s House: An Interview With Sandra Cisneros.” Southwest Review, 82.2 (1997): 166-185.