As coming-of-age stories about young girls, The House on Mango Street and Another Brooklyn share multiple similarities. First, both are tales of poverty and class, incorporating the theme of being thankful for what you have. For instance, Esperanza and Angela are ashamed of the house they live in, claiming to live somewhere else. Second, both place heavy emphasis on feminine sexuality and teen exploration of feminine gender roles, as girls in both novels wear heels that come with attached gender signals they aren’t prepared for. (Cisneros discusses this unwanted baggage in an NPR interview here). These two themes work together to highlight the broader theme of female independence through rebellion. It is Another Brooklyn's epigraph that points to this theme with its blooming peach tree reference, symbolizing independence and the fruits of labor. In her introduction, Sandra Cisneros gives us some background for her book and reflects on her dream of a silent house and lack of a desire to marry, both silent rebellions of gender roles. Esperanza also starts her “own quiet war,” rebelling in her own ways (Cisneros, 89). She wants a house of her own instead of living with her father until marriage, and she is unwilling to wait for the “ball and chain” like Marin, who dreams of escaping poverty by marrying a man (88). The angry trees Esperanza looks to are also symbolic of independence, “four who grew despite concrete” (75). The concrete is mainly symbolic of poverty, but it also refers to her male-dominant world. In their own ways, Cisneros and her character Esperanza search for independence, showing that being a wife and a mother are not the only roles for women. Why does Esperanza choose this rebellious path? She describes multiple women who are full of regret and always looking out the window at lost opportunities, similar to Susan in Red Clocks. Esperanza’s mother regrets how shame led to missed opportunities. Sally and Minerva married into abusive relationships. Mamacita, who can’t speak English, depends on her husband. By seeing other women’s lives limited by men and poverty, she decides to choose a different path for herself, away from Mango Street. Similarly, August in Another Brooklyn stares out the window, trapped by her father’s protection, just as Sylvia’s father attempts to drive away her friends and boyfriend. August rebels by making friends with three other girls, and together they explore their sexuality, with and without boys. Her boyfriend Jerome becomes her secret lover, yet she denies him sexual intercourse. Together, the girls are independent and form a strong bond against the male gaze and August’s mother’s warning of women. She also chooses not to follow kosher guidelines, eating bacon and pork. Sylvia first rebels by essentially blackmailing her father into letting her keep her “ghetto” friends. Later, she goes against her father and her friends by hooking up with Jerome and becomes pregnant at fifteen. Both novels reflect on what I like to think of as the traditional pillars of patriarchy, that women are objectified, isolated, and need protection. The high heels the girls wear in both stories carry dangers with them, reflecting this objectification. (Objectification theory, equating women's worth solely to their appearance, has even been researched by scholars). When Sylvia dates Jerome, she is isolated from her girlfriends, and Sally is isolated from the world by her abusive husband. Esperanza’s father seeks to protect her with his traditional paternal views of marriage similar to Sylvia’s father. (In a related blog, Susanna Krizo discusses the relationship of patriarchal isolation and protection here, dissecting the myth that only men can protect women from men.) When Cisneros describes her fears, particularly of regret and of independence, they seem to be gendered fears. Do boys and men face these same fears in the same way girls and women do? This question is partly answered when Esperanza claims that “the boys and the girls live in separate worlds” (8). No, boys are raised to be more independent, although this is slowly changing in today’s world. Overall, these novels ask readers to reflect on the consequences of gaining independence through rebellion, as well as the consequences of remaining dependent. Underneath it all, they ask why independence is a gendered issue at all. Works Cited: Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. Random House, 2009. Art by Rankin Willard. https://rankinwillard.com/artwork
3 Comments
Lacey, I enjoyed looking at Cisneros’s theme of independence from not just the geographical, economical perspective but also from that desire for independence from the narrow pathway that society has carved out for women. Esperanza wants more from her life; she demands more. August, on the other hand, craves more but does not have as much faith in her ability to get more on her own so she finds strength in her friendship with the girls. Together, the girls stand up firmly against the catcalls and feign invincibility against the dangers of sexual violence that surround them in Brooklyn. Independence really is a gendered issue, on some level at least, and both novels demonstrate that girls/women are positioned to have to seek that independence in order to break free from the burden of society’s expectation of a woman’s stagnancy and submission to a man’s desires. Luckily, progress is being made to alter those expectations, and that progress is possible because of women who stand up and have stood up, demanding more for their life and from the world.
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Erik M
4/5/2019 11:55:22 am
I like that you focused on independence as a theme of the two books, I focused on friendship in my comparative post. It is interesting that women of all ages in both books rebel. I found it interesting that there is research and theory behind Objectification, I had not heard of research in that area.
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Hali
4/25/2019 05:57:01 am
I loved your use of objectification theory. The presence of high heels in both novels was not one I caught, but you made some great insights. Both Esperanza and August are so similar, and I believe that is because young girls will always be vulnerable to society in the same ways. It’s a sad truth, but I’m glad both books took time to explore in their own ways.
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