Abstract
In Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street, deciphering two key motifs—the rose and trees—is fundamental to unpacking the central tension of the book: the protagonist’s desire to leave Mango Street and return in writing. While the tree motif is well-studied, that of the rose has eluded critical attention. This article shows how Cisneros unveils the centuries of patriarchal oppression distilled in the image of the rose and, in turn, offers new metaphors for women seeking to escape traditional constraints.
Highlights
Rising out of the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 70s, the Chicana feminist consciousness was born out of a fight for equality with the men of the Chicano community
Critics have discussed its obvious counterpart, narrator Esperanza’s “four skinny trees,” at length, but I propose that any analysis of this arboreal metaphor is incomplete without considering its place as a reaction to the text’s marked presence of the rose as metaphor for female subjugation to male authority and patriarchal tradition
The House on Mango Street consists of a series of forty-four vignettes containing the perceptive observations that a Chicana girl, Esperanza Cordero, makes about her daily experiences growing up on Mango Street in a poor neighborhood of a large American city
Summary
Rising out of the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 70s, the Chicana feminist consciousness was born out of a fight for equality with the men of the Chicano community. This article shows how Cisneros unveils the centuries of patriarchal oppression distilled in the image of the rose and, in turn, offers new metaphors for women seeking to escape traditional constraints.
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