《芒果街上的小屋》中的女性形象(4)

is not quite ready to emerge from the asexuality of childhood. She is completely ignorant about sex and says that boys and girls live in completely different worlds. She is so much a child that she cannot even speak to her brothers outside of the house. When she becomes an adolescent, she begins to experiment with the power she, as a young woman, has over men. Marin teaches her fundamental facts about boys, but the first major step in Esperanza’s awareness of her sexuality is when she and her friends explore the neighborhood in high-heeled shoes. She relishes the power the shoes seem to give her, and she plays with the idea that physical beauty could help her escape the squalor of her surroundings. Esperanza quickly learns, however, that the patriarchal society in which she lives denies the power of female sexuality. The bum who attempts to kiss Rachel is the first in a series of men who will use force to take what girls don’t want to give freely. After being sexually assaulted, Esperanza decides to try to forget some of what she has learned about sex in the past year in order to focus on writing. By the end of the novel, Esperanza’s views on sex have evolved, and she rejects sex as a means of escape.

3.2.2 The Development of Moral Sense

Esperanza’s moral sense develops from an intense individualism to a feeling of responsibility toward the people in her community. As a child, Esperanza wants only to escape Mango Street. Her dreams of self-definition don’t include the fact that she has any responsibility to her family or to the people around her, and she wishes to leave them all behind. Once Esperanza has become familiar with the people in her neighborhood, however, she begins to feel affection and, ultimately, responsibility for them. She no longer sees herself as an individual striving for self-determination. Instead, she recognizes herself as a member of a social network who must give back to her community in order to break the cycle of poverty that plagues the neighborhood. Esperanza also develops feelings of moral responsibility toward her community of women. Her negative experiences as Sally’s friend show that she has the courage to try to help her friends, even if they do not always understand that they need to help her as well. Not until she talks with the three sisters and Alicia, however, does Esperanza understand that helping the neighborhood women will be a lifelong effort.

3.2.3 The Realization of Writing Ability

Esperanza’s final and most important awakening is her realization of her writing ability, which

gives her the means to escape from Mango Street. Because Esperanza is a writer, she is a keen observer, and we see her powers of observation mature. She is present in all of the early stories she

10

narrates, but by the middle of the novel she is able to narrate stories based wholly on observation of the people around her. This change shows that she is becoming an artist, and also that she is becoming more detached from her neighborhood, since she does not always see herself in the stories she tells. By the end of The House on Mango Street, she knows she has become more detached from her home through her writing. Although she has not yet found a home of her own, her writing has helped her to find privacy within herself.

11

Conclusion

By analyzing the five typical characters of the book, Esperanza’s mum, aunt Lupe, Marin, Sally and Esperanza herself. Everyone can know their personality clearly. Firstly, Esperanza’s mum and aunt Lupe, they represent the female stereotype “La Virgen de Guadulupe” in mexican culture. Secondly, Marin and Sally they are the embodiment of “La Malinche” in Mexican history. Then lastly, Esperanza, she is neither “La Virgen de Guadulupe” nor “La Malinche”, but she has something from them.

This study from the perspective of feminism, reveals that how hard situation the Mexican-American women suffer from. They suffer from sexism, racialism and patriarchy. And how the traditional females deal with their terrible life and miserable fate. What’s more,by listing the three kinds of female images in the book, and comparing their personality and fate, to advocate females’ real independence. Women should be strong and as equal as men on rights and privileges. With the development of economy and politics, there comes more and more attentions to sexism, racialism and patriarchy from the perspective of government, law and the whole society. But the most important is women’s personal awareness and actions.

12

References

Ganz, Robin and Cisneros, Sandra. Border Crossings and Beyond[J]. MELDS, Vol.19 No.1, Varieties of Ethnic

Criticism,1994(1).

Aranda, Pilat E.Rodriguez . ”On the Solitary of Being Mexican,Female Wicked and Thirty-Three: An interview

with writer Sandra Cisneros” The Americans Review: A Review of Hispanic Literature and Art of the USA[M]. 1990.

李保杰. 从墨西哥女性原型看桑德拉.希斯奈罗丝小说中女性形象的嬗变[J]. 天津外国语学院学报.2010(4). 李杨. 逃离和等待—对《芒果街上的小屋》中父权制的解读[J]. 唐山师范学院学报2008(3).47-48. 桑德拉.希斯内罗丝. 芒果街上的小屋[M]. 潘帕译. 南京:译林出版社，2006. 石平萍. 开辟女性生存的新空间[J] .外国文学. 2005,33(3):25-29.

孙爱萍. 破茧成蝶—《芒果街上的小屋》中女性身份转变的叙事学解读[C]. 西南大学. 2008.

王海燕. 一所自己的房子：阶级、族裔 和女性身份的追寻—评希斯内罗丝的《芒果街上的小屋》[J]. 西安

电子科技大学学报，2010(4) 12-13.

魏成林,张彦春,陈庆Esperanza’s identity and the house on Mango Street [J]. 商情2010(21). 杨铭. 族裔女性的困惑与成长—析《芒果街上的小屋》[J]. 文学界：理论版, 2011. (8)36-39. 周蓉. 《芒果街上的小屋》中女性身份的追寻[C].湖南大学.2010. Sandra Cisneros. [DB/OL]. [2013-04-26]. http://www.wikipedia.org. Feminism. [DB/OL]. [2013-04-26]. http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/724633/feminism/

13

论文独创性声明

姓名： 胡 丽 系（院）： 外国语学院 专业 ： 英语 班级： 1 班 英文题目： On the Female Images in The House on Mango Street 中文题目： 浅析《芒果街上的小屋》中的女性形象 本论文是我个人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研究成果。论文中除了特别加以标注和致谢的地方外，不包含其他人或其他机构已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。其他同志对本研究的启发和所做的贡献均已在论文中作了明确的声明并表示了谢意。

作者签名： 日期：

论文使用授权声明

本人完全了解乐山师范学院有关保留、使用毕业论文的规定，即：学校有权保留送交论文的复印件，允许论文被查阅和借阅；学校可以公布论文的全部或部分内容，可以采取影印、缩印或其他复制手段保存论文。保密的论文在解密后遵守此规定。

作者签名： 导师签名： 日期：

14

百度搜索“77cn”或“免费范文网”即可找到本站免费阅读全部范文。收藏本站方便下次阅读，免费范文网，提供经典小说综合文库《芒果街上的小屋》中的女性形象(4)在线全文阅读。