Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street.

New York: Vintage

Contemporaries, 1991 Edition. 110 pp, acclaims, list of other books, biography of author,

dedication, table of contents, introduction.

The novel The House on Mango Street, written by Sandra Cisneros is about a young 12

year old girl named Esperanza as she recounts her life living on Mango Street and her

experiences while living there. For the purposes of this book review, the reader will explore a

coming of age story coming from the protagonist Esperanza- a young Latina girl living in

Chicago, and the harsh realities people, specifically women of color, face while growing up in

the United States such as being held to a high beauty standard, which is an extensive topic

brought up recurringly throughout the novel. The House on Mango Street, which includes a

dedication to women and a short biography about the author, Sandra Cisneros, is organized by 44

short, poetic-like chapters and 110 pages. Throughout the novel, the reader will explore the

beauty standards held for Latina women and the social traps that they can easily fall into by the

use of three main themes: what it means to be a woman and becoming one, the control men have

over women, and the sexualization of women’s bodies.

A big part of the beauty standard that women are held to, especially Latina women, is

what it means to be a woman and what it’s like becoming one. One thing that Esperanza suggests

early on in the book is the differences she sees within her own family. In the chapter “Hairs,”

Esperanza describes the distinction of her own hair to her father’s, mother’s, and her siblings

Carlos’, Nenny’s, and Kiki’s hair. She describes the texture and appearance of their hair with

imagery, such as, “But my mother’s hair, my mother’s hair, like little rosettes, like little candy
circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pin curls all day, sweet to put your nose into

when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe, is the warm smell of bread before you

bake it…” (6). Esperanza talks the most about her mother’s hair than the rest of the members of

her family and the safety she feels when she’s with her which might suggest to the reader that

she looks up to her mother as a woman and the power she has to make her feel secure.

Esperanza’s mother, like for many women growing up, is the first glimpse she gets as to what it

is like to be a woman and a mother. Another example of what it’s like to be a woman that the

reader gets to explore is located right in the center of the novel in a chapter called “Hips”. This

chapter is a major turning point in the novel because it is a place that marks the time when

Esperanza showcases the physical differences that is seen between a man and a woman’s body.

Esperanza says, “It’s the bones that let you know which skeleton was a man’s when it was a man

and which a woman’s. They bloom like roses… The bones just one day open. Just like that. One

day you might decide to have kids, and then where are you going to put them? Got to have room.

Bones got to give” (50). Here, Esperanza points out that women might decide to have children.

The word choice there is specifically important because it shows that for women, having a baby

and becoming a mother is a choice rather than something they should be pressured into doing by

society. This part of the novel also demonstrates that there is a conditioned idea that women

should have wide hips, even though there are many women whose hips are not as wide as others.

Although a women’s hip structure is shaped in a way that makes it easy for them to have children

if they choose to, that part of their body and the way that it curves is also seen as a shape that

Latina women are “supposed” to look like and can be sexualized for something their body

naturally does. Lastly, an important thing that this chapter does is that it also shows that men are
secondary characters in the novel which is different than many other novels in Chicano literature

where males are usually the leading protagonist.

Cisneros discusses the world of patriarchy through her examples of the control men have

over women. In the chapter “Alicia Who Sees Mice,” the character, Alicia, is a bright woman

who has to make a long commute to get to her college, but doesn’t mind because she wishes to

build a better life for herself as a Latina. She doesn’t want to have to work a menial job her

whole life, like many Latina women do because of a lack of education. Her hopes are not always

supported by her father who says, “And anyway, a woman’s place is sleeping so that she can

wake up early with a tortilla star… Alicia, whose mama died, is sorry there is no one older to rise

and make the lunchbox tortillas. Alicia, who inherited her mama’s rolling pin and sleepiness, is

young and smart and studies for the first time at the university. Two trains and a bus, because she

doesn’t want to spend her whole life in a factory or behind a rolling pin” (31-32). This shows

that her father believes in traditional gender roles, but Alicia wants to break out of them so as to

not fall into the social traps Latina women can easily fall into. The gender roles that he exhibits

towards his daughter have the possibility of making Alicia not reach her full potential as an

individual, strong woman. This marginalization of women makes a deep impact on women’s

lives and in the novel it even forces Alicia to have a fear of fathers based on the ideas of her own

father. Another example of the control men have over women can be seen in the chapter

“Linoleum Roses”. This chapter digs into the life of a woman named Sally, who got married to a

man before she reached the eighth grade. She claims to be happily married because she can buy

her own things and she has a house, but all the while, she still fears her husband. His control over

Sally is completely excessive and he doesn’t allow her to do many things she wishes she could,
like “Except he won’t let her talk on the telephone. And he doesn’t let her look out the window.

And he doesn’t like her friends, so nobody gets to visit her unless he is working. She sits at home

because she is afraid to go outside without his permission” (101-102). His dominance over Sally

can be seen in real life and it is a real and dangerous situation that many Latina women have to

face.

The over sexualization of their bodies is a big struggle that Latina women have to face

when they try to express themselves. In the chapter “The Family of Little Feet,” Esperanza and

her friends are given pairs of heels, which fit their small feet perfectly. They try them on and

attempt to walk in them because it makes their legs look longer and they spend some time

playing with them. Although Esperanza and her friends see themselves wearing heels as a game,

men in their neighborhood don’t take it that way. As they’re discovering how to walk in the pair

of heels, “It’s Rachel who learns to walk the best all strutted in those magical heels. She teaches

us to cross and uncross our legs, and to run like a double-dutch rope, and how to walk down to

the corner so that the shoes talk back to you with every step. Lucy, Rachel, and me tee-tottering

like so. Down to the corner where the men can’t take their eyes off us” (40). Thes girls are very

young, and just because they’re playing with heels, men see them as sexual objects. As they’re

walking a boy calls out to them, “Ladies, lead me to heaven” (41). This is a form of catcalling

that many women face while living their daily lives, and it isn’t appropriate to say to young girls.

They even have a drunk man ask for their name and offers to pay them a dollar in exchange for a

kiss. Eventually, one of the girl's’ mother throws the shoes away and none of them complain.

Another example that Cisneros uses to show the sexualization of women and their bodies can be

seen in the chapter “Sire”. In this chapter, Sire is Esperanza’s first crush. He has a young
girlfriend, named Lois, who dresses and acts in a way that’s more mature than her actual age,

“...she was barefoot, and I saw her barefoot baby toenails all painted pale pale pink, like little

pink seashells, and she smells pink like babies do. She’s got big girl hands, and her bones are

long like ladies’ bones, and she wears makeup too. But she doesn’t know how to tie her shoes. I

do” (73). Here, the reader can see Lois’ youth shine through her, despite her attempt to seem

older. This reflects the many ways that young Latina girls are pressured to grow up fast and as

their bodies begin to develop they’re seen as sexual objects instead of individuals, even if they

are really young.

Sandra Cisneros is a woman author who is best known for her novel The House on

Mango Street, which tells the story of a young Latina girl growing up in the United States.

Cisneros is the only daughter out of seven children and, therefore, she writes from her

experiences in her own life as a Latina woman growing up, surrounded by men, in the US. She

was born in Chicago which is the same setting where Esperanza’s story takes place in, so the

reader can see that some of her life is reflected in what she writes. Her work, which not only

includes novels but poetry as well, has made a big contribution not only to Chicano literature but

to American literature and to Women’s Studies as well. Other titles of her work include: Woman

Hollering Creek and Other Stories, My Wicked Wicked Ways (poetry), Loose Woman (poetry),

Hairs/ Pelitos (for young readers), and Caramelo. Cisneros is an internationally acclaimed

author for the literature she has contributed and has received a numerous amount of awards

including the Lannan Literary Award and the American Book Award, and of fellowships from

the National Endowment for the Arts and the MacArthur Foundation. Strong points that can be

seen in her novel The House on Mango Street are: the realization of patriarchy in society, the
organization of the text, the blurring of age level, the use of color to describe emotion, the

creative usage of Esperanza’s name, the symbolism of the house she lives in, and the showcasing

of the empowerment of women. The realization of patriarchy can be seen in the chapter “Alicia

Who Sees Mice” when it is discussed that Alicia is smart and goes to college in order to build a

better life for herself but her father argues that a woman’s place is in the kitchen making food for

the men. This idea of control over women contributed to the feminist movement by opening

people's eyes of the struggles women have to face, even by their own family members, solely

because of their gender. The text is organized by short, easy to read stories which flow and share

the rhythm of small poems. This gives the reader a chance to discover the many ways literature

can be written in. In this novel Cisneros blurs the age level and makes her novel appropriate to

her audience of all ages, which is beneficial to the young people who want to read her novel.

Cisneros also uses the colors red, green, and yellow to define emotions that Esperanza is feeling,

for example, multiple times throughout the novel she is called a red balloon. This provides more

depth into Esperanza's character and adds a sense of imagery for the reader. Another thing, that

can be easily overlooked, is Esperanza's name- which translates to the word hope in English.

This can give the reader an idea that there is hope for women in the future and their place in the

world, where they have the ability to move up. The house in which Esperanza lives in is more

than a home; it is symbolic for the freedom she wants to gain by moving into a house of her own

where she can be liberated from the standards women are held to. Lastly, the empowerment of

women is also a major strong point because Latina women reading the novel can see parts of

their lives reflected through Esperanza’s story and can feel empowered to make a change for

themselves and to grow. It is difficult for the readers to find weak points within the novel, but a
way that it can be enhanced is by adding review questions at the end for the reader to answer so

that they can develop a better understanding of what the story is projecting for themselves.

Alma Abonce Vargas

California State University, Dominguez Hills

April 20, 2016