Beautiful and cruel House on Mango Street

Esperanza thinks that she is ugly and that her looks will leave her trapped at home. She thinks Nenny is prettier than she is, so Nenny has more options – Nenny wants a man to take her away, but she doesn’t want to have a baby right away like Minerva’s sister did. Esperanza’s mother tries to comfort her by telling her she will get prettier as she gets older, but Esperanza has decided “not to grow up tame” like the rest. She wants to be like the women in the movies who are “beautiful and cruel.” These women make men love them but they never give up their own power. Esperanza is beginning this “quiet war” by leaving the dinner table like a man, without pushing in her chair or cleaning up her plate.

Esperanza tries to find a solution to her inner conflict (of sexuality versus autonomy) by becoming like a femme fatale of the movies – that is, being sexual and desired by men, but also retaining all her own power and agency. Her first act of this new “self” is humorously small, but also tragic in its own way – by refusing to wash her dishes, she is only making more work for another woman, in this case her mother. Things will only be fair when leaving the table “like a man” no longer means being irresponsible and negatively affecting other women.

In "Beautiful and Cruel", Esperanza starts having self-image issues, and often considers herself ugly. She believes that less attractive women are at a disadvantage because they hold less power over men than the beautiful. Therefore, thinking she is one of the less attractive women, Esperanza worries that she will never get a husband. Yet, she refuses to yield to the men, and insists on taking the power as her own. She says, "...but I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain." Esperanza will not just sit idly by and let people take advantage of her, as it was expected from women back then, but rather will try to be independent. As seen with Minerva, Rafaela and Sally, they are abused and controlled by the men in their lives. Esperanza decides to take up the role of a "beautiful and cruel" woman, someone who refuses to give up her power.
 A major theme in this vignette is the struggle to discover one's identity. Esperanza is having this internal war about what she wants, and who she wants to be in life. She wants the ability of having control over her own life, yet she also wants someone to share it with. Apparently, in this society, you must give up one for the other because the enforced propaganda is that men are the dominant gender. Esperanza refuses to accept that, which makes it very hard for her to follow her heart, when the rest of society is working against it.

Summary: “Bums in the Attic”

Esperanza wants a nice suburban house with a garden, like the ones where her father works. On the weekends, the family visits these houses and dreams about moving there. Esperanza has stopped going with her family. She, too, would like to live in one of those houses, but she is tired of looking at what she cannot have. She imagines that when she owns one of these houses in the future, she will not forget where she is from. When bums pass her house she will invite them in and give them a place to live in her attic, because she knows, she says, “how it is to be without a house.” When people think that the squeaking in the attic is rats, she will shake her head and say it is bums.

Summary: “Beautiful & Cruel”

Esperanza worries that she is unattractive and that her looks will leave her stuck at home. Her sister, who is more attractive, wants a husband to take her away, but she doesn’t want to leave by having a baby with just any man, as Minerva’s sister did. Esperanza’s mother comforts Esperanza by saying she will be more beautiful as she gets older, but Esperanza has decided not to wait around for a husband to take her away. Instead, she wants to be like the femme fatales in movies who drive the men crazy and then refuse them. These women do not give their power away. Esperanza’s way of beginning to be like this is to leave the dinner table like a man, without pushing in her chair or doing her dishes.

Summary: “A Smart Cookie”

Esperanza’s mother complains that she could have done something with her life. She has many skills—she can speak two languages, sing, draw, and fix a television—but she does not know how to use the subway. While making a family meal, Esperanza’s mother sings along to a Madame Butterfly record she has borrowed from the public library. She tells Esperanza that she needs to be able to take care of herself and not just rely on a man. She gives as examples two of her friends, one whose husband has left and the other who is a widow. Then she describes how when she was younger she dropped out of school, not because she lacked intelligence, but because she was ashamed about not having nice clothes. She seems disgusted with her young self and tells Esperanza not to be like she was.

Analysis

Esperanza finally matures and realizes that she needs to change her strategy in trying to get what she wants. She separates herself from her family, refusing to go with them to visit houses in the suburbs because she no longer wants to dream about a house. Rather, she wants to go and get one. She resolves not to forget her origins. Until this point, Esperanza has expressed nothing but a desire to leave her neighborhood, never to return. Now she dreams of letting homeless bums from the neighborhood live with her in her imaginary home away from Mango Street. She has begun to understand that her perfect suburbs on the hill are flawed because they have no system for including people like her. Esperanza suspects that if she escapes the barrio, she will not be satisfied by a suburban world that ignores the existence of less privileged people.

Read more about Esperanza’s struggle for self-definition.

Esperanza decides how she’ll approach her future in “Bums in the Attic,” while in “Beautiful & Cruel,” she decides how she will define herself sexually. Her new thoughts, however, introduce new problems. Tragic women like Minerva and Rafaela in the previous sections have reaffirmed Esperanza’s desire to be independent. As a femme fatale, Esperanza can be independent without ignoring her new sexual awareness. She understands that adult sexuality is tied up with independence, and that to accept men is to give up her autonomy. She also decides she will not spend her time doing petty tasks like washing the dishes, tasks she could spend time doing every day without ever really accomplishing anything. However, Esperanza’s solution presents a problem. By standing up and leaving her dishes on the table, she is creating more work for another woman. Yet there is no room in Esperanza’s imagination to make society fairer by asking that men and women share tedious tasks like doing the dishes.

Read more about the struggle between sexuality and autonomy.

In the opinion of Esperanza’s mother, to be a “smart cookie” is not a positive attribute. She gives the example of dropping out of school because her clothes were not nice as an example of being a “smart cookie.” If you think you are too smart for school or too smart to take your mother’s advice, her mother is saying, then you’ll end up with a husband when you’re too young and will have no way to escape. Esperanza has to realize that she is not smarter than the women around her. Surrounded by clever and creative women, Esperanza can view none of them, including her own mother, as role models because they are stuck on Mango Street. Her mother knows how to do everything except take the subway—that is, she knows how to do everything but leave. Esperanza finds her mother’s frankness about her regrets surprising, which suggests that their relationship is not usually so open and honest. Her mother compares her friends to Madame Butterfly, a character in an opera who spends her life waiting for her lover to return. This observation plays on Esperanza’s earlier thesis that the Chinese and the Mexicans do not like their women strong.

Read an in-depth analysis of what Mama says to Esperanza.

What is beautiful and cruel about in house on Mango Street?

What does Esperanza want to be in beautiful and cruel?

What is beautiful and cruel about?

What is the main theme of The House on Mango Street?