The House on Mango Street, Boys & Girls

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Reader: 王伊涵
Reading Time: 4.15
Reading Task: The House on Mango Street, Boys & Girls

Summary of the content:
In The House on Mango Street, this chapter uses the childhood perspective of the protagonist, Esperanza, to expose the entrenched gender roles imposed by family and society.  
Firstly, it emphasizes stark contrast in gender roles. There is freedom for boys, but confinement for girls. Esperanza’s brothers, like Nenny, enjoy unrestrained freedom—they roam the streets, ride bicycles, and even “don’t have to come home for meals.” But, Esperanza and her sisters are burdened with domestic duties (caring for siblings, cleaning) and warned not to “go near the windows,” symbolizing how girls’ lives are confined to the household.  
Then, it demonstrates the weight of cultural tradition. When Esperanza longs to run freely like boys, her grandmother enforces gender norms with the warning, “A girl can’t do that,” reflecting Latino cultural expectations of female obedience and propriety. Even after her grandmother’s death, her voice lingers like “a rope tied to your foot,” a metaphor for the enduring oppression of traditional gender norms.  
Finally, it reflects the protagonist’s inner conflict and awakening. While forced to fulfill “girl duties” (like babysitting), Esperanza gazes out the window at boys playing freely, highlighting her frustration with inequality. The closing line—“I count until she falls asleep”—hints at her growing desire to break free, foreshadowing her later quest for independence.  

Evaluation:
Sandra Cisneros uses Esperanza’s innocent observations to critique how gender roles are enforced from childhood. Questions like “Why can boys do things girls can’t?” starkly expose the absurdity of societal norms. The “windows” have symbolic meaning, which represent girls’ exclusion from the outside world, reducing them to passive observers. And “ropes” are metaphorized the intergenerational transmission of patriarchal traditions, binding women physically and psychologically. Also, Cisneros critiques gender oppression while preserving empathy for cultural heritage, reflecting the identity struggles in immigrant literature. The “boys play, girls obey” dynamic remains ingrained globally. Esperanza’s struggle reminds us that dismantling stereotypes must begin in childhood with small acts of self-awareness, not grand gestures.  

Reflection:  
By centering a working-class Latina girl, Cisneros layers gender oppression with issues of race, poverty, and immigration, exposing systemic marginalization. And Esperanza’s poetic narration reclaims agency. Her act of storytelling becomes defiance, echoing the book’s theme of “rebuilding oneself through words.” "Boys and Girls" is more than a childhood tale of gender inequality—it is a prism reflecting societal structures. It reveals how tradition silently shapes lives through family and culture, while proving that resistance can be poetic: awakening begins with seeing injustice, and change emerges from imagining freedom. The chapter offers courage to those trapped in societal chains, much like Esperanza’s eventual escape from Mango Street. The first step to breaking shackles is to recognize they exist.