The Houe on Mango Street

In today’s society we are faced with many social issues regarding class, race and profiling, and injustice. There are many works of literature that focus on these issues and allows readers to experience and view life through someone else’s perspective. Specifically, in “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, one of the parochial themes in the novel is racism. This theme, along with various other aspects, is presented through vignettes told by the main character, Esperanza. Sandra Cisneros and her novel do a great job in depicting the life of one particular group of minorities, and essentially how they deal with different issues regarding discrimination. This amazing and easy to read novel shines light on the different social and cultural issues, gender roles and overall lives of Mexican-Americans/Chicanos living in America. 

In the vignette “Those Who Don’t,” Cisneros references racism and profiling in Esperanza’s neighborhood by describing how the outsiders view the Hispanics in her neighborhood. While making judgments and taking safety precautions, the outsiders assume that the residents of her neighborhood are thieves, criminals, or thugs without really seeing them for who they are as people. The residents are judged primarily by their ethnicity, clothing and their general mannerisms and attitudes towards their counterparts. Through this fixed mindset of racism, those that reside on Mango Street are defined by the subjective ideas of others. Further into the vignette Esperanza states,

“All brown all around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah. That is how it goes and goes” (28).

Besides this being one of my favorite and most memorable quotes from the novel, it speaks volumes about exactly how racial profiling is and “how it goes”. This vignette was important because it depicts how people have can racist or discriminative mindsets and mannerisms and not even realize it. Many people, if not all people, fall victim to this way of thinking and Cisneros does a great job of showing this with just a couple of sentences.

Throughout the book, Esperanza touches on the themes of womanhood and specifically, the role of the single mother. She compares the intimate worlds of women whose lives consist of taking care of the children and the home, and is contrasted with the world of males, who work and make their stamp out in the world. In the “Boys and Girls” section of the book, Esperanza points out the differences between herself and the other men in her family. She says,

“The boys and the girls live in separate worlds. The boys in their universe and we in ours. My brothers for example. They’ve got plenty to say to me and Nenny inside the house. But outside they can’t be seen talking to girls” (8).

 Like all adolescents, Esperanza struggles to forge her own self-identity. In many respects, Esperanza’s own observations about the women in her neighborhood are her way of processing what will happen to her in the future and what is within her power to change. 

This was a great novel that reveals the lives of dual Mexican-American heritage and in particular reflects the experience of Mexicans in the United States.