Nature Builds Feminism in House on Mango Street
Esperanza grows through the presence of nature.
In the vignette "And Some More", Esperanza branches out once again into nature when she and her peers discuss how “the Eskimos got thirty different names for snow” (35) They converse about the natural occurring element of snow; The House On Mango Street’s theme of self-actualization is expressed when the two feminist elements, nature and language, synergize. Lucy disagrees and says, “there are two kinds… the clean kind and the dirty kind…only two,” deciding that there is no room for variation or individuality (35).
Interpretations of Snow
The Latina community on Mango Street views women from the same point of view: clean or dirty, there is no medium between them. A woman who is clean must resemble the Virgin Mary and any woman who explores her sexuality to any degree is deemed “dirty”. But Nenny, Esperanza’s sister believes, “there are a million zillion kinds” of snow (35) introducing Esperanza to the interpretation that personal identity need not fit within the spectrum of “clean” and “dirty”. Esperanza learns that her community does not support individualism in a woman, prompting her to long for a community where she can develop her own identity free from the barriers of Mango Street. She interprets language and writing as tools to express herself, and creates new definitions to her words specifying her individual understanding of womanhood.
The Monkey Garden
Among the concrete and buildings of Mango Street, Esperanza and her friends have the Monkey Garden as the single remaining example of nature in their metropolitan neighborhood. Esperanza tags along with her friend Sally when Tito and his friends want to play kissing games with Sally. Esperanza says “things had a way of disappearing in the garden” as she sees Sally’s strong personality slip away in the presence of boys who strip her of her independence and sense of ownership when they take away Sally’s keys (95, 96). Angered by the sexual harassment, Esperanza feels protective toward her friend. Esperanza runs to Tito’s mother to tell her about the kissing game, but Tito’s mom just keeps ironing clothes, indifferent to Sally’s exploitation.
Esperanza's Justice
Trying to grasp for intervention, Esperanza looks toward another woman to stop the injustice, but Tito’s mother’s apathy reflects how Mango Street is a community where even the adults, even the women, allow misogyny to subsist. By taking “three big sticks and a brick” to beat the boys, Esperanza takes matters into her own hands (97). She fights against the misogyny. Esperanza builds the confidence to contest against the subjugation, to stand up and announce that the sexual harassment is wrong. But Sally as well as the boys tell her to go away, so she feels ashamed that her feminist efforts were cut at the stem before they could fully blossom. “I wanted to be dead, to turn into the rain” she says, and when she gets up from the ground “[her] dress [is] green” (97, 98). Even though Esperanza’s efforts were rebuffed, the action signifies her advancement into womanhood. As she turns green, she becomes fertile like the nature that surrounds her, fertile like the women who nurtured her.
Cisneros pairs Esperanza’s feminist confrontation with the earth as Cisneros dilates on snow and The Monkey Garden as tools for feminist growth.
Mangoes
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