Women in The House on Mango Street Essay Sample

In The House on Mango Street for many of the women on Mango Street, instead of representing freedom, windows represent the opposite: being trapped in a life/house they can never escape. This can be seen through all the women on Mango Street, like Sally and Minerva. These two women however both married young into abusive, toxic relationships. Although Sally and Minerva know that their marriages are dangerous, to say the least, they don’t know how to escape because the relationships are all they’ve ever known.  

Minerva is a character very similar to Esperanza: she writes poems, is a similar age, but Esperanza recognizes that although they have similarities, Minerva has a much harder life. She is “only a little bit older than me but already has two kids and a husband who left. (84) Esperanza sees the contrast in their lives and because Minerva already has two kids, she has been married for at least a few years which means that she was married at an extremely early age. The early years of a child’s life are important for the future of that person because they build a foundation of what the person will identify as home and life. For Minerva, her ‘husband’ was the main male figure in her life since her mother was a single mother. Because of this Minerva can’t escape her life with this man. But one day, Minerva builds up the courage to tell her husband enough is enough, but “that night he comes back and sends a big rock through the window. Then he is sorry and she opens the door again. Same story. Next week she comes over black and blue and asks what can she do? (85) Her husband threw “a big rock through the window” endangering Minerva and their children. Esperanza sees the pattern in all the women on Mango Street’s lives and realizes that they are all sitting by the window wishing and dreaming. The window gives them a  But as long as he says “I’m sorry” she’ll keep forgiving him because it’s the “same story” Esperanza has seen Minerva write time and time again. But after Minerva’s husband beats her until she’s black and blue, she asks “what can she do” because she genuinely doesn’t know. She accepts that there is nothing she can do. She’s trapped in this cycle of abuse and apologies and forgiving because she doesn’t know any different. She’s been married to this man for the majority of her life so how would she know to do something different.

Differing from Minerva, Sally looked forward to marriage as she viewed it as her way out of Mango Street. Sally’s life has always been defined by abuse. She grew up with a father who “hit her with his hands just like a dog”; (92) a father who had complete control over her. Esperanza remembers Sally coming to school with bruises, ready to finally escape, but once her father said “please come back, this is the last time” “she said Daddy and went home” (93) Esperanza matured and shared her childhood with Sally, but she realized how terrible of a situation she was in. Sally was ready to leave this life behind, leave Mango Street, and find a husband. Esperanza explains that Sally enjoys being married except for the few instances when her husband gets a little too mad. Her life is good, besides the fact that her husband “doesn’t let her talk on the telephone. And he doesn’t let her look out the window. And he doesn’t like her friends so nobody gets to visit her unless he is working.” (102) This new man who was supposed to be her route to freedom has turned out like all the other men in her life. His abuse controls her just as her father did, but her husband isolates Sally. He cuts her off from her friends so she can’t ask for help. For all the other women on Mango Street, the window was a temporary escape from their unfortunate realities. It was a temporary escape. But Sally’s husband won’t even grant her the ability to do that. She is stuck in her life every day for the rest of her life; stuck looking “at all the things they own: the towels and the toaster, the alarm clock and the drapes. She likes looking at the walls, at how neatly their corners meet.” (102) Sally left one abusive man to join the life of another and she will never escape because this cycle has entrapped her since the day she was born. She grew up with abusive, manipulative men so she doesn’t know anything better and probably never will. 

In The House on Mango Street, violence plays a significant and influential role in the character’s lives. The violence on Mango Street is shown through both Esperanza’s own personal experiences and what her friends or neighbors encounter. Every woman she knows is affected by violence and it often limits them to their awful lives on Mango Street. This can specifically be linked to the cycle of abuse: a pattern of violence that continues because there is a power imbalance in a relationship. Minerva and Sally are stuck in this cycle because the men in their lives have more experience than them. They’ve only lived with abusive men and they’ve always been manipulated and controlled. Sally and Minerva might not able to get out of their situation, but others can and it’s impertinent to not lose hope, to continue looking out the window.