Being Strong Woman Needs an Independent Identıty

&

Being an Independent Woman, Needs Being Strong

In The House on Mongo Street Sandra Cisneros creats a young girl character

who is trying to own an independent ıdentity. I think ,the message that Cisneros gives in

all the forty-four vignettes in her work is that; Esperanza as a young Chicano who doesn’t

like either cutting her relation with her community,or her destiny be controled by any

other one rather than herelf.

Cisneros uses the metaphore of “ house” to show how the boys’s world is separated

from the girls’s; “The boys and the girls live in separated worlds…to say me and Nenny

inside the house”(Cisneros,8).It seems that she describes the social constraints of the

women and their dependent identity through Esperanza’s point of view in Mongo street

neighborhood; “…he won’t let her talk on the telephone.And he doesn’t let her look out

the window…”(102).

In my opinion Cisneros indirectly referes to women’s forgivness, blames them for

their fault which keeps them more dependent and that might be the reason for mentioning

men’s cruality in some of the short stories like as: “Minerva Writes Poems” in The House

on Mongo Street; “one day she is through and lets him know enough is enough. Out the

door…then he is sorry and she opens the door again.Same story”(85).

In addition Cisneros calls her created character Esperanza,and not only gives

different definitions of the name but also talks about its pre-owner’s,the

grandmother,destination as a woman in thatsociety to show the depth of the problem of

belonging or dependent identity; “I have inherited her name, but I don’t want to inherit

her place by the window”(11). Cinsneros calls those dependent women as “women by the

window” through Esperanza’s language to show what have these women paid in price of

owning something or being beloged both willingly or by force.

They were emprisoned in their owned houses and a good example is; "And the

story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so

many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she

got or was she sorry because she couldn't be all the things she wanted to be”(11). In

another quot to show the sad face of the early marriage of those young girls who couldn’t

get an independent identity is “Linoleum Roses” short storyin this book; “Sally says she

likes being married… She sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without his

permission.She looks at all the things they own…”(102).

Consequently Cisneros follows a process in The House on Mongo Street which will

pave the way for Esperanzo to make decision of being an independent and strong woman

among her community. By paying attention to what Esperanza says in the first kognette

we as readers can notice how she will react step by step toward the end of this novel ;

“There I had to look to where she pointed…You live there?The way she said it made me

feel like nothing”(5).

However, later such feeling might have created or better to say caused an enough

power or strength for deciding to be an independent girl; “ one day I will pack my bags of

books and paper.One day I will say goodbye to Mongo.I am too strong for her to keep me

here forever.One day I will go away”(110).

 By following the process in the novel I think that Cisneros’s aim of creating a

charcter like Sally in a short kognette in a same tittle of “Sally”, is to say that ; Esperanza

as the one who tries to get her destiny in her control can be a good symbolic character for

other girls to free themselves from those social bonds, when she writes ; “Sally, do you

sometimes wish you didn’t have to go home? Do you wish yoır feet would one day keep

walking and take you far away from Mongo street,far away…and never have to think

who likes and doesn’tlike you…wouldn’t have to worry what people said because you

never beloged here anyway and nobody could make you sad… and no one could call that

crazy”(83).

Furtheremore she does’nt want to get away from her society becase she says; “Then I

didn't know what to say. It was as if she could read my mind, as if she knew what I had

wished for, and I felt ashamed for having made such a selfish wish...you must remember

to come back.for the ones who cannot leave as easily as you”(105). Then at the end of the

process which are followed in the short stories in this novel it seems that she is informing

her readers of her mission of helping her community in her own way by writing her last

sentences, which is the best message to her own nation; “They will not know I have gone

away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out”(110).

Finally, using the metaphore of house completes Espernaz reaction toward the end of

the novel in “A House of My Own” kognette when she says; “Not a flat. Not an

apartment in back. Not a man’s house. Not a daddyy’s. A house all my own.With my

porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias.My books and my stories...clean as paper

before the poem”(108).

 In conclusion I can say that the last quote which is mentioned above shows how

independent she wants to be , free from everything and everybody,free from any

distarbance and any shadow on her life, standing on her own feet independently like as a

blank paper infront of a poet to express his or her feelings on it.She doesnt like any mark

on the paper she is going to write on it, she wants to be free from social constraints.

Works Cited:
Cisneros,Sandra.The House On Mango Street.Arte Publico, Vintage

books.NewYork,1984