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The House On Mango Street Essay

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The Latina women in the male-dominated society of The House on Mango Street cannot envision their own autonomy because they are taught to need a man to fulfill their life which allows these women to be easily manipulated. A woman's lack of power in a male-dominated society allows men to manipulate women physically and sexually because their society believes in powerful men and powerless women. Alicia, a women in The House on Mango Street, wants to study and go to school, but cannot because her father expects her to inherit her mother’s role in society as powerless worker in a factory. Her father demonstrates the common traditional views of a male in their male-dominated society. He states, “Anyway, a woman's place is sleeping so she …show more content…

It was that simple” (Cisneros 96). Cisneros’ choice to use the word “simple” to describe the amount of thinking it took for Sally to agree to the offer, allows readers to understand the impact of the superiority of men in their society. A mans ability to manipulate a women is “simple,” because society gives all the power to the men, therefore men can control women. Consequently, women cannot achieve autonomy because they are constantly controlled by men and think that they need a man to save them, but they will end up being controlled by that man and in turn give up all their power. Without a positive role model to help the women believe that autonomy is achievable, the Latino women in Mango Street think that they need a man to take care of them which allows readers to understand that women in male-dominated societies are easily manipulated through their desire to have a man which denies them from achieving autonomy.

Because of the male-dominance in Esperanza’s society, women fall short of their capabilities in life which denies their ability to achieve autonomy. Men have all the control of their female partner and do not allow them to be the person they want to be and do the things that they want to do. Cisneros uses the motif women by windows to represent the women that are trapped by their partners. Rafaela is the perfect example because she is locked indoors always leaning out a window dreaming of a life where she is capable to do whatever she

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