“You become a different Sally. You pull your skirt straight, you rub the blue paint off your eyelids. You don’t laugh, Sally … Do you wish your feet would one day keep walking and take you far away from Mango Street, far away and maybe your feet would stop in front of a house, a nice one with flowers and big windows and steps for you to climb up two by two upstairs to where a room is waiting for you. And if you opened the little window latch and gave it a shove, the windows would swing open, all the sky would come in. There’d be no nosy neighbors watching, no motorcycles or cars, no sheets and towels and laundry. Only trees and more trees and plenty of blue sky. And you could laugh Sally. You could go to sleep and wake up and never have to think who likes and doesn’t like you. You could close your eyes and you wouldn’t have to worry what people said because you never belonged here anyway and nobody could make you sad and nobody would think you’re strange because you like to dream and dream” (Cisneros, 83)
I remember reading Sandra Cisneros’ House on Mango Street a few years back, and while I know I really liked the book back then, I realize now that there were many hidden messages in the short stories that compose the book. My favorite one of these short chapters was Sally, from which I pulled out this reading. As a Latina, I think that young teenagers have a lot of expectations from their families. Here it says “you pull your skirt straight, you rub the blue paint off your eyelids” Sally becomes one person while she is at school and a completely different one when she heads back home. Although we may not all have had to rub off make-up or change from one outfit to another, I think the fact that we are two different people while at school and when we go back home is a relatable one for many. For girls, these expectations go much farther, as for Sally, girls cannot wear make-up until they are considered adults. Otherwise they are blamed for calling a guys attention to them and “only easy, loose, women would do such a thing.” I remember being told what a descent young lady should and shouldn’t do throughout my high school years. I am sure that every mother wants to know her daughter holds a good, descent reputation, but I think this is especially important to the traditional Chicana mother.
As a first-generation American, there are certain “unofficial” rules that Chicanas are expected to live by, there are a few that come to mind. For instance, a girl is not allowed to wear make-up, get her nails or eyebrows done, or even date until they are at least 15, and even then they cannot do it without permission. A girl is expected not to have a boyfriend until she has formally introduced him to the family and asks for their permission to date. Otherwise, she is being a rebel and ruining her reputation because people will soon start spreading rumors and talking bad things about her. Traditional Mexican households really value their name and reputation and the last thing they would ever want is for people to be spreading rumors about their daughters because this looks bad on the entire family, especially the mother. In a traditional household, a daughter is supposed to follow her mother’s footsteps and learn all that the typical housewife knows, she should learn how to cook, clean and attend her husband in all he may need; otherwise it is assumed that her mother did not teach her any better. As this excerpt says, you have to consider and think about who will and will not like you, and what people say because that means a lot to the family.
This really ties into the idea of belonging, because while the world around you may be growing and changing every day, the family traditions and values that the traditional Mexican parents were raised with remain the same, and thus, they expect the same that was expected from them. Many times they just do not understand that present day is much different from “back in the day” and that is where this feeling of not belonging surges. I think Sandra Cisneros indirectly tries to inform the reader of that feeling and through this Sally character really expresses the idea that sometimes we all just wish we could keep walking, outside and beyond the world we live in, and many times it will be due to the fact that we feel like we just don’t belong.
Resources:
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York : Vintage Books, 1991. (pp 82-83)