Burning Down the House

In today’s class, we had a chance to look at four different women in Esperanza’s community. There are several parallels that run through these four vignettes that link all of these women—Mamacita, Rafaela, Sally and Minerva—together as well as each with Esperanza. Each woman is isolated and trapped and the author uses the recurring image of the house as a place that confines with the only form of escape or freedom being windows. In Minerva’s case, the house is on fire. And although each of these women finds herself trapped in different ways and for different reasons, they all are left powerless over their respective situations. Esperanza remarks, “There is nothing I can do” (85). 

This kind of powerlessness would suggest that these women do not, in fact, have free will. Remember, free will involves a certain amount of personal autonomy, a certain amount of power to make decisions. Free will involves the power to choose. So, if these women are without power, then they couldn’t possibly make their own decisions. They couldn’t possibly be autonomous. Therefore, they are without free will. And if we go back to Esperanza’s encounter with Elenita, the fortuneteller, it’s almost as though these four women are possible outcomes for Esperanza. It’s like these vignettes are some kind of crystal ball. And though these four women are indeed different, they all suffer the same consequences of isolation and confinement. 

So, is there a way out for Esperanza? What about these other women? Is there anything that these women can do to gain a sense of power and control over their lives? And what about the role of beauty in society? Is it fair that beautiful girls like Sally, Marin and Rafaela are defined as slutty, sneaky, untrustworthy and weak? How does a girl break these stereotypes and free herself from what other people think? And is free will (whether you’re looking at gender or not) something that can coexist among peoples? In other words, if certain groups have free will, does that mean it will be denied to others? What happens when one person’s dreams come at the expense of another’s?