Name : Adinda Thalita Aulia

NIM : 1705085042
Class : B 2017
Subject : Prose
Feminist Criticism on ‘The House on Mango Street’ by Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros, born December, 20 1954, was the only daughter in a family of six brothers.
Since she was the only one, she often feel isolated because her brothers attempted to control her
life. Sandra is a writer and she teaches too. Most of her theme work focuses on about Latinas,
divided cultural loyalties, feelings of alienation, sexual and cultural oppression, and degradation
associated with poverty.

One of her work, The House on Mango Street, mainly focused on the main character called
Esperanza, a girl who lives in the Mango Street and wants to escape from it so badly because of
the misogyny that's happening there and also because she feels humiliated by her family
destitution. Esperanza knows all the bad things happening in the city, like how almost every
women character in the story is trapped either by an abusive partner, teenage motherhood, or
poverty. So, how did Esperanza escape from all of these problems and finds her own liberty
based on the three phases of female’s identity by Elaine Showalter?

In Showalter's A Literature of Their Own, she proposes the following three phases of women's
identity: feminine, feminist, and female. The first phase is feminine, in which the female accepts
the definitions and roles male authorities have created for her. This happened in Cisneros’s work,
The House on Mango Street. Esperanza, the main character of the story, is a girl that thinks
“boys and girls live in separate worlds” (p8). She explained on chapter ‘Boys & Girls’ that she
only talks with her brothers inside the house, but her brothers refuse to talk to her when it is
outside the house because they can’t be seen talking to girls. Esperanza accepts the fact that she
can’t talk to her brothers outside and finds her own ‘girl’ friends. This somewhat shows how her
society works, that women usually isolated themselves and do what the men told them to do. On
chapter ‘Alicia Who Sees Mice’, it says that “a woman’s place is sleeping so she can wake up
early...” (p31). It can be interpreted from the quotation that sexism exists in Esperanza’s society.
Meaning, women’s can only work at home, not outside like most men do, and do their
responsibilities like a housewife. How men treat women also shows on chapter ‘Chanclas’.
Esperanza didn’t want to dance because of her old ugly shoes, but his uncle insists, calling her
“the prettiest girl” (p47) and then they went on a dance floor. It can be proved that man will
always get what they want by using their force, either by saying something sweet that can win a
girl’s heart or by giving them money and the girl would do what the men wants. This shows on
chapter ‘The family of Little Feet’. Esperanza and her friends tried the new heels because they
thought it would make them safe, but those heels only bring attractiveness. They bumped into a
drunken man and he told them that he would give them a dollar but they must be willing to give
him a kiss, and this clearly shows how men think of women, an item, buy them with money and
they would give you everything. Another example is on chapter ‘The First Job’. Esperanza met a
man who is older than her at the coatroom. They talked for a while and then the man told him
that it was his birthday and asked for a kiss from Esperanza, when she leaned to give him a kiss
on the cheek, the man grabbed her and kissed her on the lips. It clearly shows how men are
saying sweet nothing to women to get them what they want, and then force them to do something
more than what the women are willing to do.

The second phase is called feminist, it is a phase where women rebels against male authority and
intentionally challenges all male definitions and roles. On chapter ‘Born Bad’, Esperanza’s aunt,
Lupe, told her to “keep writing. It will keep you free,” (p61), and this is where she starts.
Esperanza had a crush on a boy named Sire, but when she walked pass him, she keeps her head
straight and thinks that “they (sire and his friends) didn’t scare me. They did but I wouldn’t let
them know” (p72), it can be interpreted that Esperanza starts to believe that women also have
their own power and will not let men degrade them by harassing or teasing them about the
beauty that they have. Esperanza keeps on holding to what she believes and said that she “had to
prove me (herself) I (she) wasn’t scared of nobody’s eyes, not even his.” These are the words
that show how Esperanza now will stand on her own two feet and won’t worry about gender
anymore. Esperanza also shows her wanting about being independence on chapter ‘Beautiful and
Cruel’. She said to her mom that she “decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their
necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain.” (p88). The tame means a girl who is
obedient to her husband, only wait and do everything her husband told her to do at home.
Esperanza wants otherwise, she wants to experience her freedom by doing anything she wanted
to do and not be a prisoner because of a marriage. She thinks that women has their own power
and will not give it away.
The third phase, which is the last phase of women’s identity, is called female. It is a phase where
women is no longer concerned with male definitions or restrictions; defines her own voice and
values. On chapter ‘The Three Sisters’, Esperanza met the three old aunts at Lucy and Rachel’s
house. They told her to make a wish, and she did. Without telling what her wish was, one of
them can guess what she wish for, she told Esperanza that she will be able to leave (the Mango
Street) and have her own house. Not so long after that, on chapter ‘A House of My Own’,
Esperanza did found her own house. She described the house as hers, “not a man’s house. Not a
daddy’s house,” (p108). Meaning, she finally got what she has been dreaming of, a house of her
own, that let her have her own liberty, do anything she wants, and also not chained up with men.
It is a house that’s “clean as paper before the poem” (p108).