Examples Of Patriarchy In The House On Mango Street
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The Tone on Mango Street Patriarchy is defined as a form of social organization in which the male is the supreme authority in the group, family, society, or government. In Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street, Cisneros explores the idea of patriarchy with the characters, and actively exhibits her attitude towards the subject.Throughout the story, Cisneros creates situations where negative patriarchal concepts are shown. In the book, there are numerous females who are under the power of men. Sally, is the main character that Cisneros focuses on to relay her feelings about patriarchy. Cisneros’s tone toward patriarchy in the vignettes “What Sally Said” and “Linoleum Roses” is frustrated because the lack of proactiveness to fix the injustices…show more content… So when Sally gets married, things are not much different for her. Esperanza states, “Sally says she likes being married because now she gets to buy her own things when her husband gives her money” (101). One important detail choice the author chose to include is where Sally gets her money from. For the purpose of showing the power Sally’s husband has over her, Cisneros made Sally’s happiness dependent on her husband. Esperanza describes Sally and says, “She is happy, except when her husband gets angry” (101). By voicing that Sally’s emotions vary due to her husband, Cisneros installs male preeminence in Sally’s marriage. With this intention, Cisneros’s tone is relieved because patriarchy in marriage has cause the husband to be the owner over his wife. The feeling of being owned, almost like a slave, is not a sense many would want to acquire. By giving this characteristic to Sally, Cisneros shows that patriarchy transforms and destroys marriage from a bond of love to a concept power and control. This adds to Cisneros’s frustrated tone because patriarchy is taking away love and dehumanizing women to possessions. Furthermore, Esperanza goes on to describe the confines of Sally’s marriage, “Except he won’t let her talk on the telephone. And he doesn’t let her look out the window. And he doesn’t like he friends, so nobody gets to visit her...She sits at home because she is afraid to got out without his permission” (102). As a verbal illustration to patriarchal control, Cisneros has Esperanza reveal the restrictions of Sally’s marriage. By doing so, readers are able to view the sadness and fear that Sally has due to her husband’s intolerance to certain matters, and how those who know about Sally’s situation stay away rather than try to help her. Cisneros is frustrated with the deficiency of action to fight patriarchy. If the victims and the bystanders do