Final answer:
Sandra Cisneros utilizes her work, particularly 'The House on Mango Street', to critique gender norms in society, suggesting that they inhibit the autonomy of women. This critique is grounded in her own experiences of feeling confined by cultural expectations and using writing as a means of seeking freedom and self-expression.
Step-by-step explanation:
Sandra Cisneros's novel The House on Mango Street explores society's views on gender, focusing on the disparities between men and women. Cisneros expresses an opinion that women often face societal pressures related to marriage and family that can limit their freedom and autonomy, as seen through the experiences of the novel's protagonist, Esperanza, and other female characters. This issue is intricately connected to both 'choice' and 'survival' as the characters navigate the expectations placed upon them while seeking their own paths to happiness and fulfillment.
Cisneros herself faced similar pressures and used her writing as a means of self-expression and to forge her own identity, as described in her memoir A House of My Own: Stories from My Life. She battled with finding acceptance within her traditional Mexican-American culture, while also contending with her personal desires and ambitions that went beyond the conventional gender roles of her community.
Through narrative storytelling and poetic language, Cisneros conveys these themes effectively, with recurring concepts of male versus female, married versus unmarried, and belonging versus not belonging. Her reflection on her own life in her memoir indicates her belief that writing became a survival tool for her, a way to break out of the gendered expectations and claim her individuality and freedom of choice.