The perception of the crucial and critical topic of sex by the majority of adolescent girls, even in today's progressive world, is alarming and apocryphal. The world's frantic attempts to preserve the beauty of childhood innocence and the seductive vision of passionate love have led inexperienced adolescents to conceive an idealistic and unrealistic image of sex. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get the original essay This fallacious belief poses a serious threat to young girls who may unknowingly become victims of harrowing sex. Groundbreaking author Sandra Cisneros uses the vignette “Red Clowns” in her autobiographical novel “The House on Mango Street” to poignantly depict the socially repressed horrors of sexual oppression. This haunting story is told by the novel's teenage protagonist, Esperanza, after she is sexually assaulted at a carnival while waiting for her friend, Sally. The view of sex traditionally presented by the media is radically misleading. Most films and novels depict sex as a sacred, romantic union between two individuals in love. The gory details of rape and other forms of violent sexual assault are rarely discussed. The few books and films that expose this dark alter ego of sex are carefully hidden from the unsuspecting eyes of idealistic adolescents. As a result, most girls grow up naively dreaming of a passionate and loving sexual experience. Esperanza, having believed in this dream, finds herself in a state of total confusion after her traumatic sexual encounter: "The way they said it, the way it's supposed to be, all the storybooks and all the movies, why did you lie to me? » (Cisneros, 122). This lyrical phrase, composed of detached fragments, depicts Esperanza's destroyed mental state with heartbreaking clarity. The reader can easily understand, without being explicitly told, that Esperanza's negative sexual experience was the antithesis of what society had led her to expect. His tone of gentle reproach for being led to cherish unrealistic romantic ideas then turns into vehement accusations: “I've been waiting all my life. You are a liar. They all lied. All the books and magazines, everything that said it was false. (Cisneros, 123). The hyperbolic statement "I've been waiting all my life" convincingly expresses the crushing disappointment she felt at seeing her long-held dreams of fairytale love dissolve. This also implies that the innocent life she led was over. The personification of "books and magazines" indicates that Esperanza's anger is directed at those who wrote them. The simplicity of the language used in these terse and childish allegations powerfully describes his ravaged faith in the integrity of the media and human beings in general. The media is not solely responsible for maintaining this misrepresentation of romantic sex. The people centrally involved in this conspiracy of lies are, in fact, the women themselves. Women's overwhelming personal insecurity makes them reluctant to share unpleasant sex with others. So Esperanza heard only stories of tender romance from her best friend, Sally, and was devastated when her own experience ended up being so abruptly different: “Sally, you lied. That's not at all what you said. Which he did. Where he touched me. I didn't want it, Sally. (Cisneros, 122). Although Esperanza never mentions the details of whathappened, the fragmented sentences: “What he did. Where he touched me,” vividly evokes images of the atrocious sexual abuse she suffered. Her pathetic cry “I didn't want it, Sally” reflects her total helplessness during this event. Throughout this vignette, Esperanza repeatedly blames Sally for lying to her. According to Maria Herrera-Sobek, her “rant” is not just aimed at Sally, but rather “at the community of truth-keeping women: the younger generation of women in a conspiracy of silence” (Herrera-Sobek, 222). Society's misrepresentation of gender is one of the leading causes of increasing rates of sexual assault. Adolescent girls are not aware of the dangers of sexual oppression and therefore do not take necessary precautions against it. Instead, they do their best to attract male attention and worship those who achieve it. “Red Clowns” subtly depicts this destructive tendency of young women: I was waiting near the red clowns. I was standing by the whirlpool where you said. And anyway, I don't like carnivals. I went to be with you because you laugh when you turn your head, you throw your head back and you laugh. I hold your change, wave, count how many times you pass. These boys who look at you because you're pretty. I love being with you, Sally. You are my friend. (Cisneros, 122-123) This simple passage, filled with powerful imagery, clearly illustrates Esperanza's excessive devotion to her friend Sally. She went to a carnival, where she was clearly bored, just to be with Sally and was willing to do whatever Sally told her, even if it meant waiting for hours. Although Esperanza justifies her extreme affection for her friend by saying, "I love being with you, Sally." You’re my friend,” her first observation that “Those boys looking at you because you’re pretty” suggests a different reason for her attachment. Sally attracted boys with flirtatious actions, such as throwing her head back and laughing; by spending time with Sally, Esperanza wanted to learn the means to exert such power over men. Ironically, her attempts to understand the male control technique led her to experience the most traumatic event of her life, in which a man had complete control over her. Another significant cause of the continued oppression of women in society is the lack of female bonding. Sally's reckless and selfish decision to leave Esperanza alone in the carnival to have a romantic adventure with a boy is undoubtedly one of the main reasons for her exposure to sexual violence: "But that big boy, where did you was he taken? I waited so long. I waited by the red clowns, like you said, but you never came, you never came for me. »(Cisneros, 123). Even though Sally was supposed to be Esperanza's friend, she abandoned her to go off with a "big boy" and never returned. The repetition “you never came, you never came for me” vividly describes Esperanza's acute feelings of betrayal. However, the fact that Sally does not return despite promising Esperanza that she would leaves the reader wondering if Sally, too, could have been subjected to such a harrowing experience. But Esperanza ignores this and blames Sally entirely for her tragic loss: “Sally Sally a hundred times over. Why didn't you hear me when I called? Why didn't you tell them to leave me alone? » (Cisneros, 123). In this passage, Esperanza childishly reproaches Sally for not hearing her screams in the middle of a noisy carnival and for not saving her from the boys against whom they were both powerless to fight. She doesn't accuse oncethe men directly responsible for the pathetic state she found herself in. Her rage is directed only at Sally because she lacks the courage to blame the real attackers. Victims of sexual oppression invariably undergo a period of mental paralysis. trauma. They are constantly haunted by memories of this harrowing experience despite their desperate attempts to forget. Through his carefully crafted use of powerful imagery, Cisneros depicts, in Esperanza, the damaged mental state of rape victims with heartbreaking precision: “Sally, make him stop. I couldn't make them leave. I couldn't do anything but cry. I don't remember it. It was dark. I don't remember it. I don't remember it. Please don't make me say everything. (Cisneros, 123). This poignant passage, told in a tone of uncontrolled panic, convincingly conveys Esperanza's tortuous mental state after being sexually assaulted. She asks Sally to "make him stop", even though his attackers were all gone by then. This implies that she was tormented by distressing memories of the event. The lines “I couldn’t make them go away. I couldn't do anything but cry,” illustrate his suffocating feelings of utter helplessness. Her repeated cries of “I don't remember” and her pitiful plea of ​​“Please don't make me tell everything” reflect her paralyzing fear of the memories that still haunt her. Sexual oppression is often a form of racial violence. . This seems to be the case for Esperanza. Although the race of her sexual attacker is never directly revealed, Esperanza mentions that he kept saying, “I love you, I love you, Spanish girl” (Cisneros, 123). The beautiful words “I love you” seem repulsively obscene in this context and their repetition only intensifies this feeling of horror. By calling her a “Spanish girl,” he was clearly making fun of her Latino heritage. This suggests that he himself was from a different racial background. The theme of racial discrimination is pervasive in Cisneros' novel, "The House on Mango Street," but it appears with the most heartbreaking brutality in this passage. The shockingly amusing attitude of most men toward sexual violence and the sheer resignation with which the majority of women accept that this attitude leads to an increasing number of rape victims: "Only her dirty fingernails on my skin, only its sour smell. The moon that looked. The whirlwind. The red clowns laugh their thick-tongued laugh. (Cisneros,123). This passage is filled with the key symbols used by Cisneros in this impressionistic story. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the moon is an icon of femininity, and through the anthropomorphism “watching moon,” Cisneros depicts the silent tolerance of male oppression by the female population. According to Wikipedia, the whirlwind is one of the most popular amusement park rides that features "unpredictable chaotic movement." Thus, the whirlwind embodies the chaos and confusion that Esperanza felt when she was raped. The powerful imagery created by the phrase "dirty nails against my skin" and the synesthesia "sour smell" provides a heartbreaking insight into Esperanza's feelings of physical violation. Furthermore, the term “red clown” (the title of the chapter) is the most striking symbol in this passage. According to the “Dictionary of Symbolism”, red is “a color charged with emotion” which designates a multitude of elements including blood, anger, passion, sexual arousal and masculinity. Cisneros thus uses red to symbolize the loss of blood and the impotent rage of Esperanza during the