This quote in particular, from “Beautiful and Cruel,” really marks a turning point in the novel for me. Esperanza begins a war against the standards of the culture of her people and refuses to let her power be held by anyone else. She will not wait for a ball and chain like the others. It’s a powerful message, undoubtedly- to take hold of your own power and use it in whatever way you wish in the way a man does. The harsh gender roles of the Hispanic culture in which Esperanza is immersed tell her to give up her power as a girl to the men in her life. She refuses to wait for a husband to command her life for her, something blatant and bold in the context of which she
lives. She is intelligent, questioning her surroundings and aiming to better them; she grows sick of feeling entrapped. This point in the novel marks where Esperanza fully realizes her potential, even as a woman, and becomes determined to soar beyond Mango Street by her own works and her own potential. Esperanza refers to the others as “waiting for the ball and chain,” as many of the women she sees around her are trapped by their husbands and/or fathers. There is a recurrent image throughout the novel of women looking out windows in an almost Rapunzel-esque fashion, and Esperanza does not wish to be one of those. She is determined to be powerful in her own right, unapologetic for that which is hers, and that stands out to me.

“My mother says when I get older my dusty hair will settle and my blouse will learn to stay clean, 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…
I have begun my own quiet war. Simple. Sure. I am one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate.” -p. 88-89