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Gender Roles in The House on Mango Street

4 Pages 1031 Words July 2015

?Although Esperanza was faced with multiple struggles while living in her house on Mango Street, the theme of gender roles and expectations shaped her identity in a positive way. From the beginning of the book, "The House on Mango Street," Esperanza never felt that sense of belonging; she knew that she wasn’t quite like the others who lived in her neighborhood. Any woman in her neighborhood had the expectations of belonging to a man, and relying on a man to keep them striving. However, Esperanza conforms to these expectations of being a woman in this community by learning from other women and girls in her community’s mistakes. This represents a form of rebellion for Esperanza to remain independent.
The expectations of being a woman in Esperanza’s neighborhood are very powerful considering most women that she has met are relying on a man financially and socially. An example of one of these women is Rafaela. She is a woman who is completely controlled by her spouse. She described Rafaela’s inability to, “get out,” in the passage, “And then Rafaela, who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much, gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at.” This is an illustration of the rest of Rafaela’s life under her husband’s strict rules. It shows that she is literally stuck inside of a house because of her husband’s fear. Also, Rafaela and other women like her, had this thought that if they marry a man, they will escape from where they came. They ultimately become reliant on that man for the rest of their lives.
Unlike Esperanza, Rafaela is not an individual in this society because she relies on her husband to support her. She is described as beautiful, which is why she cannot leave her husband because she will most likely try to find another man who can take care of her. Esperanza learns from Rafaela that relying on a man’s money an...

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