Teenage Boys and Girls

Some people think that treating people differently is unfair, but sometimes it is simply necessary. One example is in the question, “Should parents/guardians raise their teenage girls in the same way that they raise their teenage boys?” I believe that teenage boys and teenage girls should be raised differently. They should be raised differently in some ways , but they both should be taught the simple rules of manners and etc. They should all be raised in their own style, but be taught simple ways. Sandra Cisneros believes that they are both raised differently, and suggests they should be raised differently.

Sandra Cisneros explains a lot about the teenage girls in the neighborhood. Some are good friends or nice girls, and other come off as dirty or bad examples of girls. “And anyway, a woman’s place is sleeping so she can wake up early with the tortilla star, the one that appears early just in time to rise... (31)” This quote exhibits that the women are the ones that cook, and that have to wake up early to cook. So from this quote I think that Sandra Cisneros is trying to get to that teenage girls should be raised to be helpful, not necessarily in house work but overall. Another quote that is about girls is in the vignette Sally.“...and bit a hole in your arm and you looked as if you were going to cry and everyone was waiting and you didn’t, you didn’t...” (82) This quote shows that everyone was expecting her to cry, I believe just because she was a girl, but she did not cry. This indicates that girls should be raised to be strong, even when a girl looks weak. I think this is great because Sandra Cisneros is implying that girls should not only be raised to be girly, but also strong.

Sandra Cisneros puts little hints in the book about boys and men. I had to look hard to find some. “Nenny says that she won’t wait her whole life for a  husband to come and get her... (88)” What I get from this quote is that the men have to pursue the women. This means that the boys have to be raised in a men state of mind. What I mean by this is that they have to be raised to be like men and to pursue women. “My brothers for example. They’ve got plenty to say to me and Nenny inside the house. But outside they can’t be seen talking to girls. (8)” Prior to this quote was talking about the seclusion between boys and girls. This is how Sandra Cisneros sees how each of them should be raised, with each other’s gender. This brings me to think that they should be raised up separately.