Essay | An Invisible Shield

Every community has their own standards for the men, women and children. If a child were to grow up in a white dominant, high-class town like Poway, CA, they would be expected to complete high school, go to college, get a well-paid job and then marry in their mid-twenties. In The House on Mango Street, a Hispanic, second-class community expects their women to grow up, drop out of school, marry early to escape their family and depend on their husband. For a girl who grows up in that kind of society, it will most likely become her fate. No matter what her dreams may be, there is an established invisible shield that blocks most of the women from escaping their mother's and grandmother's destiny of a sheltered housewife. Cisneros writes what Esperanza experiences as she grows up and how she tries to understand the role...
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