《芒果街上的小屋》中的女性形象

乐 山 师 范 学 院

学 士 学 位 论 文

On the Female Images in The House on Mango Street

浅析《芒果街上的小屋》中的女性形象

作 者 胡 丽 完成日期2013年 4月 27日

指导教师 车 欢 欢 职称 讲 师

院 别 外国语学院 专业 英 语

班 级 2009级 1 班 学号 09280115

二○一三 年 四 月 二十七 日

LESHAN TEACHERS COLLEGE

On the Female Images in The House on Mango Street

By Hu Li

照片

Supervisor Che Huanhuan

2013 LESHAN

Acknowledgments

I gratefully acknowledge the following people who have helped me in various ways in this

graduation paper.

Firstly, I want to show my sincere appreciation to my supervisor Miss Che, she spent a lot of time and shows her great concern to my paper. Miss Che inspired me to create new idea, perfected my writing style and corrects my errors in my creation with her profound knowledge.

Secondly, I’d like to express my thanks to all teachers who have taught me during my studies for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Leshan Teachers College, for their instructive and insightful lectures and their general supports in writing the present paper.

Thirdly, I want to show my gratitude to my parents and classmates, they encouraged me a lot in this graduation paper. Without them, I can not finish it successfully. So thanks again.

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Abstract

The House on Mango Street is a novel by Mexican-American female writer Sandra Cisneros. From the perspective of the heroine Esperanza, the book records the growth of her in the form of monologue. It also reflexes the suffering of the heroine and the females on mango street from sexism, racialism and patriarchy. By analyzing the typical female images, this paper aims to express the feminism the author intends to convey, to introspect the traditional value of Mexican females and to advocate females’ real independence. This paper comprises three parts. The first consists of two points. The first one is a brief introduction to feminism theory, and the second one on research background, brief analysis of current research achievements concerning this book. The second part is introduction, comparison, and analysis of the typical female characters in this book, for example, heroine’s mother and aunt, who are the La Virgen de Guadulupe type representing traditional female image in Mexican culture, and La Malinche type like Marlyn and Sally. The third part mainly analyzes life experience of Esperanza, then highlights new women images and due value, outlook on life for new women through her several awakenings.

Key words: The House on Mango Street; Ethnic women; female image; value

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摘 要

《芒果街上的小屋》是美国墨西哥裔女性作家桑德拉?希斯内罗丝的成名作，书中通过主人公小女孩埃斯佩朗莎?科尔德罗的视角，用日记样的独白记录下了她自身的成长。反映了女人公及整个芒果街的族裔女性饱受性别、种族、父权等迫害的生活状态。本文将重点从女性主义的角度，通过分析文中出现的典型女性形象，尤其是女主人公埃斯佩朗莎的成长经历，由此指出女主人公是区别于传统墨西哥瓜达卢佩圣母型和马琳齐型的新女性，揭示作者想表达的女性主义思想，反思传统墨西哥女性的价值观，提倡女性真正的独立自主，文章首先是对女性主义理论进行简要介绍，阐述其含义和意义。接着对书中的典型女性形象进行介绍、比较和分析，分别是代表传统墨西哥文化中瓜达卢佩圣母型的文中主人公的母亲和姨母，马琳齐型的马琳和莎莉，最后将重点解析女主人公埃斯佩朗莎的成长经历，通过她的几个觉醒来凸显新女性形象，和新女性应有的价值观人生观。

关键词：《芒果街上的小屋》；族裔女性 ；女性形象 ；价值观

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Contents

Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................ ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................................. iii 摘 要 ................................................................................................................................................. iv Contents ............................................................................................................................................... v Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Theoretical Framework .................................................................................................................... 3

1.1 A Brief Introduction to Feminism ........................................................................................... 3 1.2 Relevant Research ................................................................................................................... 3 2. The Typical Traditional Female Images in the book ........................................................................ 5

2.1 A Brief Introduction to Mum and Aunt Lupe .......................................................................... 5 2.2 The Similarities between Mum and Aunt Lupe ...................................................................... 6 2.3 A Brief Introduction to Marin and Sally ................................................................................. 7 2.4 The Similarities between Marin and Sally .............................................................................. 8 3. The Study of Esperanza from the Perspective of Feminism ............................................................ 9

3.1 A Brief Introduction to Esperanza ........................................................................................... 9 3.2 Three Awakenings of Esperanza ............................................................................................. 9

3.2.1 The Sexual Awakening .................................................................................................. 9 3.2.2 The Development of Moral Sense ............................................................................... 10 3.2.3 The Realization of Writing Ability .............................................................................. 10

Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 12 References .......................................................................................................................................... 13 论文独创性声明 ................................................................................................................................ 14 论文使用授权声明 ............................................................................................................................ 14

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Introduction

Sandra Cisneros is one of the most significant Mexican-American female writer. She has a lot of works and she was firstly well-known for The House on Mango Street, which, once published, became a sensation that arousing fierce debate and echo in the 20th century’s American intellectual circle that attached great importance to ethnical problems. As a chicana writer, Her writing was greatly influenced by her unique background. She was born in Mexico but grew up in America. And not only that, she was the only daughter of a family which has six brothers. Living in such a family often made her feel isolated and lonely. In addition, just like the heroine in The House on Mango Street, Cisneros’ family always keeping moving their house. And the constant migration of her family between Mexico and the USA instilled in her the sense of “always straddling two countries ... but not belonging to either culture.” (Doyle, 1996: 54) Therefore, she urgently hoped that they could be able to put an end to poverty and have a permanent and stable house of their own. Then, Her family made a down-payment on their own home in Humboldt Park, a predominantly Puerto Rican neighbourhood of Chicago when she was eleven years old. (Ganz, 1994: 22) The experience there provided much inspiration to her creation, especially The House on Mango Street. With the help of government fund, she went to the college. And then because of her gift on writing, she was recommended into the graduate writing class in the famous international university of Iowa. After her graduation, she did many jobs,such as:high school teacher, college counselor. During this period, she met many ethnic students and all those experience,not only hers, but also the stories around her, has been the materials of her creation.

The House on Mango Street is a coming-of-age work by Mexican-American female writer Sandra Cisneros. The whole novel is composed of forty-four vignettes that are not quite poems and not quite full stories. It was firstly published in 1984, After its publishing, it aroused grave disputes, and was valued by intellectual circles of the US in the atmosphere of caring about Ethnic problems. As for the content of the book. It’s through the narration of the heroine Esperanza to tell. Esperanza, the heroine, an adolescent latina girl, the whole book records the growth of her in the form of monologue. And during this process, reflexes the suffering of the heroine and the females on mango street from sexism, racialism and patriarchy. This paper aims to do a simple study of the female images in this book. And then try to express the feminism the author intends to convey, to introspect

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the traditional value of Mexican females and to advocate females’ real independence.

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1. Theoretical Framework

1.1 A Brief Introduction to Feminism

Feminism, the belief in the social, economic, and political equality of the sexes. That is to say,

women and men are equal. They have the same rights in working, education and some other things. Although largely originating in the West, feminism is manifested worldwide and is represented by various institutions committed to activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests. ( Britannica, 2013)

1.2 Relevant Research

The House on Mango Street is a coming-of-age work by Mexican-American female writer Sandra Cisneros. It was firstly published in 1984. After its publishing, it aroused grave disputes, and was valued by intellectual circles of the US in the atmosphere of caring about Ethnic problems. Many scholars have done lots of research on it. In general, Sun Aiping (2008) has concluded the critical study on the book can be list from the following perspective: studying the book as a coming-of-age work; exploring the female identity and constructing a new self; locating the Mango Street in its cross-cultural context; approaching Mango street in a broad ethinic women’s thematic; touching upon the postmodern writing of Mango Street especially its genre issue. We can find that these five perspectives are on the form only or the book’s formalistic study.

My study is on the female images of The House on Mango Street, but the perspective is feminism. The paper explores the Female Images in The House on Mango Street according to do research and contrast to the typical characters in the book. Chapter two focuses on the the study of the four figures, Mum, Aunt Lupe, Marin and Sally. Mum and Aunt Lupe in book just can represent the traditional women image “La Virgen de Guadulupe” in Mexican culture. Through the introduction of these two characters, and to find out the similarities between them. And the most important is to conclude the two figures’ characteristic. And the other two characters in book, they are Marin and Sally. They represent the other one typical female image in mexican culture, “La Malinche”, which is totally opposite to the “La Virgen de Guadulupe”. Similarly, firstly introduce

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the two characters, then to sum up the similarities and the remarkable characteristics of those two figures. Chapter three analyzes the heroine of the novel. Esperanza, who is the narrator of the book, represents a female image which is neither “La Virgen de Guadulupe” nor “La Malinche”. She manage to struggle for her own house and search for her identity. Through the analysis of her, to summarize the different characteristic of her. Conclusion is a summary of all aspects which were mentioned above. And conclusion calls for people to introspect the traditional value of Mexican females and to advocate females’ real independence.

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2. The Typical Traditional Female Images in the book

In this part, the four characters, Mum, Aunt Lupe, Marin and Sally they all will be analyzed in detail. In The House on Mango Street, these two kinds of people just can represent the traditional women image“La Virgen de Guadulupe” in Mexican culture and the revolted women image “La Malinche” respectively. “La Virgen de Guadulupe” and “La Malinche” are two typical female image in mexican culture and history, “La Malinche”, which is totally opposite to the “La Virgen de Guadulupe”. They two have totally different personality and quality. In this section, we will do some detailed analysis of their personality, and give some examples to find out what they have in common and how their personality affects their life.

2.1 A Brief Introduction to Mum and Aunt Lupe

In the book, The House on Mango Street, Esperanza’s Mum, is a key figure who appears almost the whole book, at the book’s very beginning, its middle paragraphs etc. We can even come to the conclusion that the heroine herself regard her mum as the example to follow during her growth period to some degree. In her eyes, her mum is as holy and warm as the virgin Mary. We can find the evidence from the description of mum’s hair in the book. It says,

“But my mother’s hair, my mother’s hair, like little rossetes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe, is the warm smell of bread before you bake it,is the smell when she makes room for you on her side of the bed still warm with her skin, and you sleep near her, the rain outside falling and Papa snoring. The snoring, the rain, and Mama’s hair that smells like bread.” (Cisneros, 2006: 155-156)

From the words quoted from the book, we can feel Esperanza’s strong emotions and mighty love for her mother. And that’s because her mum is an understanding wife and loving mother, she is dedicated to the whole family, taking care of all the family members. She play a good role of wife and mum in her husband and children’s mind. However, in Mum’s own deeply heart, she is not willing to live like this, she could not live like this, “I could’ve been somebody, you know?”; She can speak two languages. She can sing an opera. She knows how to fix a TV.(Cisceros,2006:258)

All these mentioned above are what Mum herself told Esperanza,from these words, we can feel

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the real desire in Mum’s mind. She dreams to live a life which is totally different from reality. And she possibly could be able to have a wonderful and free life. But in fact, She has lived in this city her whole life. But she doesn’t know which subway train to take to get downtown. (Cisceros, 2006: 258) Mum still live a life like other Mexican-American women on the Mango street.

In addition, aunt Lupe is a figure who seems similar to Mum. In Aunt Lupe’s youth, she is a vibrant, beautiful swimmer, but now she is old, blind, and bed-ridden. Her name was Guadalupe and she was pretty like my mother. (Cisceros, 2006: 217) In mexican culture, there is a well-known female stereotype “La Virgen de Guadulupe”. The author name Esperanza’s aunt Lupe on purpose to remind us readers of the “La Virgen de Guadulupe”. And not only the name, but also the reaction to Esperanza’s poem “That’s nice. That’s very good. She said in her tired voice. You just remember to keep writing, Esperanza. You must keep writing. It will keep you free.”(Cisceros, 2006: 221) From these behavior and words, we can feel how desperately Aunt Lupe yearn for freedom and independence. Unfortunately, till the end of her life, she never live the life she really wants to live and never experience the free she told Esperanza.

2.2 The similarities between Mum and Aunt Lupe

After the brief introduction of the two female in book, Mum and Aunt Lupe, we can make a summing up of the similarities between them. These two figures are suit for the female stereotype “La Virgen de Guadulupe” in mexican culture. As we all know, “La Virgen de Guadulupe” is a mexican icon, it’s called our lady of Guadulupe or the virgin of Guadulupe. The icon is Mexico’s most popular religious and cultural image, bearing the titles: the Queen of Mexico (Marys-touch.com) Apart from religious significance, it also has a certain political and cultural significance. All in all, in terms of its representative female images in Mexico culture, “La Virgen de Guadulupe” is a model of female traditional virtue which including virginity, diligence, patience, obedience, self-sacrifice etc. Mum and Aunt Lupe in book exactly meet these qualities or standards of the “La Virgen de Guadulupe”, especially the figure Mum in book. Therefore, we can draw the following conclusions, the two figures we discussed in this paper, the mother and aunt. They both representes the typical traditional Mexican women image who is suffer from the oppression of patriarchy. They have the awareness of pursuing for one’s own value, but they didn’t put into effect.

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2.3 A Brief Introduction to Marin and Sally

Just like name aunt Lupe Guadulupe, the author give the girl Marin the name “Marin” consciously. Why? That’s because the “Marin” in book follow the same track with “La Malinche” of Mexican culture. Marin lives with her aunt in Puerto Rico. She get away from her parents, and dreamed to find a job like white collar so that she can be well dressed to come across some rich man. And then the rich man will buy a big house for her. In order to live a happy life she defined, she always dressed herself well even though she is just in charge of taking care of her cousin. From the description of the book, Marin knows lots of things about gender differences, and she is the first teacher of Esperanza on sex to a large extent. However, next year, Marin was sent back to her mother for causing so much trouble to her aunt. But she never give up waiting for a man to let her get rid of poverty. Just like in the end of the section which on Marin, the writer wrote, “Marin, under the streetlight, dancing by herself, is singing the same song somewhere. I know. Is waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life”. (Cisceros, 2006: 179)

Sally is another “La Malinche” in the book, but there is a radical difference between her and Marin. That is the reason why they become the “La Malinche”. We have just discussed about Marin, and we can say that she behaves like the “La Malinche” in order to achieve her own dream, to be a lady who can enjoy a luxurious life with the help of men. But Sally is the victim of patriarchy. She suffers great mental pain everyday. She is controlled by her father who think that her beauty is trouble. We have mentioned before that the female stereotype “La Virgen de Guadulupe” in mexican culture. The model of female traditional virtue which including virginity, diligence, patience, obedience, self-sacrifice etc. especially the virginity. Because Sally’s father is extremely strict in his religious belief, and he is afraid of Sally going bad for her outstanding appearance. He rules Sally not to dance, even not to go out except to school. And not only her father, but also the people around Sally, what they did and said do hurt Sally. When Esperanza shows her admiration on Sally’s black shoes, her mother tell her it’s too young to wear black, it will be dangerous. And the girls in school are not willing to make friends with Sally, the boys talk about Sally in despising way. All these gossips and prejudices make Sally go towards the wrong direction her father wish she would not to. Sally start to live a doubled-life, when she is at school, she make herself as pretty as she can, to the contrary, she behave as an obedient and quit daughter when she’s home. But she

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cannot meet her father’s standard, she is hit hard by her father when she is caught talking with some boy. Poor Sally is titled with “La Malinche” by others for her beauty. It seems that she is cursed by her appearance. Then she escapes from her abusive father by marring a marshmallow salesman, but her situation get worse, she is oppressed by her husband. He lock her at home in order to avoid she escaping from him.

2.4 The similarities between Marin and Sally

What has been discussed above points to the fact that Marin and Sally well represent the “La

Malinche” in Mexican culture. About “La Malinche”, in the Mexican history, she is a controversial figure. She is born into a noble family, her father is an indian tribal leader. But after her father’s death, her mother remarried and she is selled to be a slave. In the process of being a slave, she learn several indigenous languages and spanish. Because of her language talent, she is appreciated by the Spanish colonist Heman Cortes. With her help, Cortes conquest the Mexica. Therefore, she is the embodiment of treachery in Mexica. However, because she is abandoned by Cortes in the end, she is still regarded as the quintessential victim. All in all, in Mexican’s eyes, \the women who is discriminated, such as:bitchy woman, enslaved woman. So do Marin and Sally. They both are bitchy and enslaved in the eyes of people around them. Maybe we can say that they both are the victim of the patriarchy. They all live a miserable life and want to change it, but they do not choose the right way. Marin, all she think is to depend on men, she never think about changing her life all by herself. And Sally she is controlled by his father when she is a girl, but the way she try to against her father is totally wrong. They two have the awareness to change their life and take some actions, but they fail because of wrong methods.

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3. The study of Esperanza from the Perspective of Feminism

This part mainly talk about the heroine of the book Esperanza from the Perspective of Feminism. Firstly give a brief introduction of her personality and experience, then analyze her three awakenings and how these awakenings affect her and help her succeed. Then we can make some conclusion on “Esperanza” female image.

3.1 A brief introduction to Esperanza

As the novel's heroine and narrator, a Mexican-American girl, Esperanza is a budding writer who wishes for a home of her own. The House on Mango Street chronicles a year in her life as she matures emotionally and sexually. Esperanza is the clue of the story, the whole book is just like her diary, she records her life and the people, the things around her on the Mango Street. She witness the changes on the Mango Street and the Mango Street witness her changes. The name Esperanza means “hope” in English, but too many other meanings in Spanish, most of which are not good. She does not like her name and want to rename herself. She is pure that she pay money to buy bike in order to make friends with other girl; she is sensitive that she feel shameful about her house, her name etc. Or in other words, she feels inferior for she is a Mexican-American girl, which means poor, sexism discrimination etc. Fortunately, she has the gift of writing and she keep writing as her aunt told her. She learn from the lessons other girls make and finally make her life different and own a house of her own or we say find her real identity.

3.2 Three Awakenings of Esperanza

As Esperanza matures during the year that makes up The House on Mango Street, she experiences a series of awakenings, all these awakenings make her be independent and different from others.

3.2.1 The Sexual Awakening

The first important awakening is a sexual awakening. At the beginning of the novel, Esperanza

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is not quite ready to emerge from the asexuality of childhood. She is completely ignorant about sex and says that boys and girls live in completely different worlds. She is so much a child that she cannot even speak to her brothers outside of the house. When she becomes an adolescent, she begins to experiment with the power she, as a young woman, has over men. Marin teaches her fundamental facts about boys, but the first major step in Esperanza’s awareness of her sexuality is when she and her friends explore the neighborhood in high-heeled shoes. She relishes the power the shoes seem to give her, and she plays with the idea that physical beauty could help her escape the squalor of her surroundings. Esperanza quickly learns, however, that the patriarchal society in which she lives denies the power of female sexuality. The bum who attempts to kiss Rachel is the first in a series of men who will use force to take what girls don’t want to give freely. After being sexually assaulted, Esperanza decides to try to forget some of what she has learned about sex in the past year in order to focus on writing. By the end of the novel, Esperanza’s views on sex have evolved, and she rejects sex as a means of escape.

3.2.2 The Development of Moral Sense

Esperanza’s moral sense develops from an intense individualism to a feeling of responsibility toward the people in her community. As a child, Esperanza wants only to escape Mango Street. Her dreams of self-definition don’t include the fact that she has any responsibility to her family or to the people around her, and she wishes to leave them all behind. Once Esperanza has become familiar with the people in her neighborhood, however, she begins to feel affection and, ultimately, responsibility for them. She no longer sees herself as an individual striving for self-determination. Instead, she recognizes herself as a member of a social network who must give back to her community in order to break the cycle of poverty that plagues the neighborhood. Esperanza also develops feelings of moral responsibility toward her community of women. Her negative experiences as Sally’s friend show that she has the courage to try to help her friends, even if they do not always understand that they need to help her as well. Not until she talks with the three sisters and Alicia, however, does Esperanza understand that helping the neighborhood women will be a lifelong effort.

3.2.3 The Realization of Writing Ability

Esperanza’s final and most important awakening is her realization of her writing ability, which

gives her the means to escape from Mango Street. Because Esperanza is a writer, she is a keen observer, and we see her powers of observation mature. She is present in all of the early stories she

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narrates, but by the middle of the novel she is able to narrate stories based wholly on observation of the people around her. This change shows that she is becoming an artist, and also that she is becoming more detached from her neighborhood, since she does not always see herself in the stories she tells. By the end of The House on Mango Street, she knows she has become more detached from her home through her writing. Although she has not yet found a home of her own, her writing has helped her to find privacy within herself.

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Conclusion

By analyzing the five typical characters of the book, Esperanza’s mum, aunt Lupe, Marin, Sally and Esperanza herself. Everyone can know their personality clearly. Firstly, Esperanza’s mum and aunt Lupe, they represent the female stereotype “La Virgen de Guadulupe” in mexican culture. Secondly, Marin and Sally they are the embodiment of “La Malinche” in Mexican history. Then lastly, Esperanza, she is neither “La Virgen de Guadulupe” nor “La Malinche”, but she has something from them.

This study from the perspective of feminism, reveals that how hard situation the Mexican-American women suffer from. They suffer from sexism, racialism and patriarchy. And how the traditional females deal with their terrible life and miserable fate. What’s more,by listing the three kinds of female images in the book, and comparing their personality and fate, to advocate females’ real independence. Women should be strong and as equal as men on rights and privileges. With the development of economy and politics, there comes more and more attentions to sexism, racialism and patriarchy from the perspective of government, law and the whole society. But the most important is women’s personal awareness and actions.

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论文独创性声明

姓名： 胡 丽 系（院）： 外国语学院 专业 ： 英语 班级： 1 班 英文题目： On the Female Images in The House on Mango Street 中文题目： 浅析《芒果街上的小屋》中的女性形象 本论文是我个人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研究成果。论文中除了特别加以标注和致谢的地方外，不包含其他人或其他机构已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。其他同志对本研究的启发和所做的贡献均已在论文中作了明确的声明并表示了谢意。

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