Gender
Critics have noted that Esperanza's desire to break free from her neighborhood is not limited to a desire to escape poverty but also to escape strict gender roles she finds oppressive within her culture. Esperanza's discovery of her own feminist values, which contradict the domestic roles prescribed for Chicana women, are a crucial part of her character development throughout the novel. In keeping with this idea, Cisneros dedicates the novel "a las mujeres," or, "to the women."[34]
Esperanza struggles against the traditional gender roles within her own culture and the limitations that her culture imposes upon women. Scholar Jean Wyatt writes, quoting Gloria Anzaldúa, that "Mexican social myths of gender crystallize with special force in three icons: 'Guadalupe, the loving mother who has not abandoned us, la Chingada (Malinche), the raped mother whom we have abandoned, and La Llorona, the mother who seeks her lost children.' According to the evidence of Chicana feminist writers, these 'three Our Mothers haunt the sexual and maternal identities of contemporary Mexican and Chicana women.'"[35]
Every character within the novel is trapped by an abusive partner, teenage parenthood, or poverty. Esperanza finds a way out of patriarchal oppression. The lesson Cisneros wishes to express is that there is always a way out for women who are trapped in one way or another.[36] Critic María Elena de Valdés argues that gender plays a large part in the suppression of women; it forces them to diminish themselves to the service of others, particularly in domestic life. Through her writing, de Valdés says, Esperanza creates herself as a subject of her own story and distances herself from these gendered expectations.[37]
In an article focused on the role of high heels in the text, Lilijana Burcar argues that Cisneros offers a "critical dissection" of the role that such attributes of femininity play in constructing young women's self-image.[38] It is argued that high heels do not only constrain women's role in society. Esperanza and her friends are given high heels to wear as part of an unofficial rite of initiation into their community, and society. We see this in the vignette entitled "The Family of Little Feet," which tells of a mother who introduces her daughters to high heels, leaving the girls with an initial glee, as if they were Cinderella.[39] Yet this is also described as a horrifying experience for one of the girls, for she feels like she is no longer herself, that her foot is no longer her foot, as the shoe almost dissociates the woman from her body. And yet, as Burcar observes, "presented with a lesson on what it means to be a grown-up woman in American contemporary patriarchal society, the girls decide to cast away their high-heeled shoes."[40]
Burcar expresses Esperanza Cordero's life as one of being the “antidote” to the predestined lives lived by the other female characters. Women that have dreams but due to their circumstances and the vicious cycle of domestication forces of a patriarchal society they are confined to the same destiny of the women that came before them. A destiny that is centered in being a full-time wife, mother, in the home.[41] Esperanza, as a character, is formed outside of those gender norms, she is presented as the only one that rebels. Choosing to set this mainly in the years of prepubescence is important for those are the years where young women are taught to become socially acceptable,[42] they are introduced to high heels, specific forms of behaviors, etc., and like this, at a very young age, they are molded into something that fits with the rules of the community where they are to become completely dependent on a man. This is the case for Esperanza's mother, who is uncommonly knowledgeable for the demographics of women on Mango Street, yet doesn't know how to use the subway.[43] Here, Burcar notes that "the traditional female bildungsroman has played a direct role in endorsing and upholding the cult of domesticity for women and the image of a woman as the angel in the house.”[44] The author goes on to argue that capitalism plays a direct role in the perpetuation of the roles of women in society, as it is founded on the domestication of women where men can work and fulfill the role of “breadwinner.”[44]
There is economic dependency on women remaining in the home, and with these foundations that Esperanza begins with her "own quiet war. [. . .] [where she] leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate"[45] versus being the servant, the woman, who puts back the chair and picks up the plate. Burcar argues that the novel ends on a note where it blames a patriarchal system for the entrapment of Mexican-American women in the home.[46] For Esperanza, joining mainstream America (having a "house of [her] own") will allow her freedom as a woman.[47] However, Burcar contends that this emancipation comes at the expense of the sacrifice of other women, women that came before her, particularly her mother.
Domestic and sexual abuse
Episodes of patriarchal and sexual violence are prevalent in demonstrating women's issues in the Chicano community in The House on Mango Street.[48] McCracken argues that "we see a woman whose husband locks her in the house, a daughter brutally beaten by her father, and Esperanza's own sexual initiation through rape."[48] As McCracken notes, many of the men portrayed in the stories "control or appropriate female sexuality by adopting one or another form of violence as if it were their innate right."[48] The many stories of Esperanza's friend Sally is an example of this patriarchal violence, as mentioned by McCracken. Sally is forced into a life of hiding in her house and her father beats her. She later on escapes her father's violence through marriage where she is dependent and controlled by another man. As McCracken analyzes, "her father's attempts to control her sexuality cause Sally to exchange one repressive patriarchal prison for another."[49] The House on Mango Street offers a glimpse of Esperanza's violent sexual initiation and also portrays the oppression and domestic abuse faced by other Chicana women. Together with Esperanza's experience of sexual abuse the "other instances of male violence in the collection-Rafaela's imprisonment, Sally's beatings, and the details of Minerva's life another young married woman whose husband beats her and throws a rock through the window-these episodes form a continuum in which sex, patriarchal power, and violence are linked."[50]
Adolescence
The theme of adolescence is dominant throughout the book. The actual timeline of the story is never specified, however, it appears to chronicle a couple of crucial years of Esperanza Cordero's life in her Chicano neighbourhood.[51] We see her transition from a naive child into a young adolescent woman who acquires a graphic understanding of the "sexual inequality, violence, and socioeconomic disparities."[51] Esperanza is often torn between her identity as a child and her emergence into womanhood and sexuality, especially when she witnesses her friend, Sally, enter into the Monkey Garden to kiss boys. At this moment, she looked at her "feet in their white socks and ugly round shoes. They seemed far away. They didn't seem to be my feet anymore. And the garden that had been such a good place to play didn't seem mine either."[52][53]
With coming of age, the young women in the novel begin to explore their boundaries and indulge in risky behaviours.[53] When Esperanza, Nenny, Lucy, and Rachel are given high-heeled shoes, they experiment with walking like a woman. They often observe older women with a mix of wonder and fear for their futures. The attention men give them is unwanted by Esperanza, but her friends feel a bit more conflicted because attention from the opposite sex is representative of their self-worth. Esperanza is different than her friends; she wants to break free and live life by her own rules.[54]
Identity
María Elena de Valdés argues that Esperanza's "search for self-esteem and her true identity is the subtle, yet powerful, narrative thread that unites the text."[55] The aesthetic struggle that occurs in this piece takes place in Mango Street. This location, this world, becomes involved in the inner turmoil felt by the character. The main character uses this world as a mirror to look deeply into herself as, in de Valdés's words, she "comes to embody the primal needs of all human beings: freedom and belonging."[56] Here the character is seen trying to unite herself with the notions she has of the world around her, Mango Street.
The relationship the protagonist has with the house itself is a pillar in this process of self-discovery, the house is in itself a living being as well, as mentioned by de Valdés.[57] Her neighborhood engenders the battles of fear and hostility, of dualistic forces, of the notion of "I" versus "them". The character is impressed upon by these forces and they guide her growth as a person.
The house itself plays a very important part, especially in how the narrator reacts to it. She is fully aware that she does not belong there, everything about it is described in negative terms delineating everything that it isn't versus what it is. It's by knowing where she doesn't fit that she knows to where she might fit.[58] It is similar to the concept of light and dark. We know that darkness is the absence of light, in this case her identity exists outside of this house on mango street.
Belonging
Esperanza Cordero is an impoverished child and wishes to find a sense of belonging outside of her own neighbourhood as she feels "this isn't my house I say and shake my head as if shaking could undo the year I've lived here. I don't belong. I don't ever want to come from here."[59][60] Esperanza attempts to find such belonging in the outside world as she perceives this as a safe place that would accept her. She eminants this desire to belong through little things, such as favouring English over the Spanish typically used in her community or actively desiring the purchase of a house outside of Mango Street.[60] In other words, Esperanza's sense of belonging is absolutely dependent on separating herself from her Spanish native tongue, community and ultimately away from Mango Street.[60]
Marin is another character who is thought to lack belonging. Marin "is waiting for a car to stop, a start to fall, someone to change her life" [23] and although she is supposed to leave Mango Street, the possibility is unlikely as she lacks the money and independence to leave.[61] Esperanza sees Marin as an individual who is only capable of longing, but not able to really belong as her dreams and desires are romanticized and unrealistic.
Language
Esperanza uses the occasional Spanish word, and as Regina Betz observes, "Spanglish frequents the pages where Esperanza quotes other characters" but "English is the primary language in Cisneros's novel."[62] This is a sign, Betz continues, that her identity is "torn" between "her English tongue [. . .] and her Spanish roots."[63] Betz argues that "Both author and character claim themselves as English in order to flourish as writers and independent women."[63]
Furthermore, it is thought that the language barriers present in The House on Mango Street is a symbol of the boundary between one's self and the freedom and opportunities that are present in the rest of America. In addition, there is a certain value that is attributed to bilingualism in this book, while Spanish speakers are scoffed at and pitied.[60]
