Significance in Windows - The House on Mango Street

In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, there are many different objects that are mentioned a significant amount of times throughout the book that are symbols/references to things the main character Esperanza experiences throughout her life. One of these symbols are windows, which are mentioned in a couple of vignettes in the book. Behind these windows, there always seems to be a women trapped on the other side of them for one reason or another.

For example, in the vignette "No Speak English," Esperanza talks about a woman known as Mamacita who is the wife of one of her neighbors that has worked very hard to bring her and her son from Mexico to the US. Mamacita never seems to come outside from her house and people have said that it is because she is too fat to fit through the door or doesn't want to walk down the stairs (No Speak English, pg.76). However, Esperanza comes to the conclusion that she doesn't want to come out side because she is afraid to since she can't speak English. She also describes how this woman is trapped behind the window of her house and longs for her old pink home back in Mexico. It seems as though this window holds her back from experiencing the world outside her new house.

Another example of a woman being trapped behind a window is in the vignette where Esperanza talks about the woman who is locked up in her  room by her husband because she is "too beautiful to look at". Unlike Mamacita who stays locked in the house by choice and fear, this woman is forced to stay inside. She is also described as sitting, staring out of the window looking at the world outside of her room. She also has to ask the children to run errands for her since she can not go out side. This is another example of a window keeping a woman from living her life in the world on the other side of the glass.

One final example of a female being trapped is in the vignette "Sally" (pg.81) In this part of the book, a girl named Sally is described as a very pretty girl, who all the boys like and the girls envy. However, Sally's father tells her that "being this beautiful is dangerous"(82). Esperanza also makes the observation that everyday after school, Sally rushes straight home with her eyes starring down at the ground.Her father is stopping her from exploring her own life for herself.

After analyzing these vignettes, it is obviously a reoccuring situation in which there is a woman trapped behind a window. These windows symbolize how a lot of woman in this area are held back from achieving there goals. Also, besides  the vignette about Mamacita, these woman/girls are also being held back by a man. For the woman who is "too beautiful to look at", it is her husband who traps her in the house; for Sally it's her father. So, based on these conclusions i've made, i believe that these windows represent a higher power or feeling that holds these women back.