The House on Mango Street Gender Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #10

But Sally doesn't tell about the time he hit her with his hands just like a dog, she said, like if I was an animal. He thinks I'm going to run away like his sisters who made the family ashamed. Just because I'm a daughter, and then she doesn't say. (37.3)

To Sally's father, the figurehead of sexist conservatism in Esperanza's society, being female is just cause for punishment. He seems to see women as sources of familial and perhaps societal shame.

Quote #11

Sally says she likes being married because now she gets to buy her own things when her husband gives her money. She is happy, except sometimes her husband gets angry and once he broke the door where his foot went through, though most days he is okay. Except he won't let her talk on the telephone. And he doesn't let her look out the window. (40.2)

In an attempt to escape her father's misogynistic violence, Sally marries another man. Esperanza's observations indicate to us that trading one patriarch for another did nothing to solve Sally's problems.