A Woman's Role In The House On Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros

A Woman’s Role Women in society have always received the short end of the stick. For centuries, women have always been pushing and changing the mold. In some cases, individuals have to push the mold for them to be looked at in a more respective light, while other times society has to shift the mold for women to be able to achieve more rights and acceptance in the strife for equality. In the story, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza grows up and becomes an independent young woman all from her own hard work. At the same time, the story The Awakening by Kate Chopin portrays the young woman, Edna, as someone who is finally realizing her potential, but since society frowns upon a woman being so independent she defaults to …show more content…
Esperanza worked hard to become a strong, independant woman. “I am going to tell you a story about a girl who didn’t want to belong” (Cisneros 109). Independant strive helped Esperanza overcome the monotony women faced when she lived on Mango Street. For Esperanza, society accepted of women finding their way out into the world and gaining their independence, but the only way for women to achieve that reality was to work hard. On the other hand, Enda did not have a similar situation. Society did not accept of women falling out of the norm and for individuals to gain not only independence but minimal respect society would have had to change its views on women’s roles. Women were looked at as property and not much more. This was very apparent with Edna and her husband, “...looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of property which has suffered some damage” (Chopin 44). Society accepted of the fact that women were not remotely close to being the equal to a man and were only as important as a valuable object that bore and raised children. For a woman to gain rights in the situation Edna was situated, it would only be achievable if society shifted the views on the roles of women. Whether coming from a child’s perspective or a young woman’s, women were always put in situations that prevented or delayed their …show more content…
Enda refused to attend her sister’s wedding. “She says a wedding is one of lamentable spectacles on earth” (Chopin 118). A wedding in most views in the joining of two people in a happy, harmonious life together, but Enda sees it as a loss in freedom and independence. The role women had to play once married was binding and there was no freedoms given to women once they wed. Society had expectations on how the ideal wife acted; therefore, women had a more difficult time trying to live the lives they so chose to live and follow the only socially acceptable path. Many women were tough enough to endure the judgement society place upon each of them and were still strong enough to fly free with these judgements and burdens. Throughout this story, the motif of birds is used frequently when reflecting freedom. Enda had tried to achieve independence and she wasn’t strong enough to break free. “A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling, disabled down, down to the water” (Chopin 175). This bird was a symbol of how Enda was trying to fly and break free, but she was not capable to do it, similar to how the bird with the broken wing could not fly, she could not achieve her freedom. Although she knew she would never be free, she took her life by drowning herself because she could never live a caged life, and this would be equivalent to how this