Interpretation Of The Novel The House On Mango Street Under The Vision Of Feminism

Sandra Cisneros(1954-)is one of the most famous contemporary writers in American.As a Chicana feminist writer,she mainly focuses on the group of Mexican American females or Chicana.In her fictions,she fully depicts and analyzes their gender,ethnicity,class and culture issues.The House on Mango Street,composed of 44 mutually independent while relevant vignettes,reveals the living conditions of the Mexican ethnic groups through the discerning perspective of Esperanza.It show their identification and monologue of the cultural groups,the search for self and the identification of cultural identities,as well as their unfailing waiting for this and persist.This paper tries to analyse several important aspects revealed in the novel,such as female living embarrassment,awareness of female consciousness as well as the pursuit of their identity through the combination of the textual close reading and the relevant feminism.The paper is divided into five chapters.Chapter One introduces the life and experience of Sandra Cisneros and her major works,providing information about her writing career and literary creation background,Chicana literature,as well as Chicana feminism.It also makes an overview of the current academic research concerning the novel at home and abroad.Then it expounds the structure and significance of the thesis.Chapter Two focuses on analyzing the plight and choices of Mexican American females who suffer from racial hybridization and hierarchic exclusion from mainstream society,and suppression as well as confinement in patriarchal culture.Chapter Three looks into the initiation guidances to Esperanza’s growth from other females on Mango Street.It’s the very initiation instructions whether they’re positive or negative that urge Esperanza to set foot on the road of searching disengagement and redemption.Chapter Four explores Esperanza’s self-empowerment and transcendence.Narrating her personal growing up experience,realizing self and community transformation through writing and the pursuit of the house.Chapter Five is the conclusion,which summaries the previous analysis,and reiterates the main purposes of this thesis.Compared with traditional female literature,Chicana literature reveals that Mexican American females not only suffers confinement,persecution as well as discrimination in patriarchal society but also race ethnicity and class prejudice from white females Sandra Cisneros,spokeswoman of Mexican American women,seizes the necessity of establishing Chicana literature and the significance of constructing a harmonious distant culture and male-female relationships.Through The House on Mango Street reveals Mexican American women’s double alienation status.Esperanza’s growing experience,her pursuit and realization of personal identity provide reference for all ethnic groups in a multicultural society of America.