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Social Mobility In The House On Mango Street

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Can we ever truly escape the place that we come from? Many people, especially during the most recent election, talk about upward mobility as if people can easily change their position in life, however this is not necessarily true. Personally, I believe that upward mobility is not as easy as people tend to believe it is. In my family, my mother and both of her sisters are well-educated. Though they all studied at prestigious private colleges, which hypothetically should have helped them escape from the cycle of the lower middle class, only one of the three achieved social mobility. A variety of factors pulled my mother and her younger sister back down, most significantly, the situation they grew up in and the gender roles they continued …show more content…

The culture of Mango Street lends itself to espousing two main gender roles for women, most importantly the role of mother and caretaker, and less significantly, as sexual figure. Women on Mango Street commonly embrace or are forced to embrace at least one of these roles. Marin, a woman who takes care of her cousins by day and sits outside smoking by night, easily embodies both roles. Sally particularly exemplifies that women cannot get away from the gender roles that bind them. In her family, being a female means becoming a vulnerable person for the man to control. However, Sally prefers to ignore this gender role and advertise herself as a seductress. As she agrees to give “a kiss for each” boy (Cisneros 97) in exchange for her keys back, “beauty is linked to sexual coercion …; there are no promises of marriage here, only promises of giving back to Sally what is already hers” (Wissman). Her family rejects his role, though to some extent accepted by Mango Street. By accepting the alternate gender role, Sally tries to break away from the gender role her family expects of her. However, she is unsuccessful. To escape from her father, Sally is “married before eighth grade” (Cisneros 101) to an equally controlling man who “won’t let her talk on the telephone” or “look out the window” (Cisneros 102). The marriage is a way …show more content…

Yes, Esperanza does appear to have both determination to leave her circumstances and an ability to break gender roles not present in other women. However, both facts can be attributed to her young age. Children usually seem to be more optimistic than adults; if Esperanza truly believes she could leave she may seem more determined. Age may have sucked the optimism and determination out of the other women on Mango Street as they came to understand their position in life would not change. Furthermore, girls tend to experience more and more pressure to obey gender roles as they approach sexual maturation. As Esperanza seems younger, her community may not push gender roles on her as fiercely as they push gender roles on women. This could be the reason that Esperanza can break gender roles while others cannot. Moreover, considering all the evidence that members of the community find it nearly impossible to permanently escape Mango Street, the evidence that Esperanza might leave is insignificant. To focus on Esperanza’s potential to leave notwithstanding her age, background, and the other character’s inability to escape, is to ignore essential parts of the

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