Windows - Symbolism

In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, she displays windows for a symbolic reason in her vignettes. The significance of windows in the book is to symbolize an isolation from the outside world and sadness. The author describes a sense of loneliness and sadness with the window between them and the world. It is the window that causes them to feel differently.
Windows, in the vignette, my name, shows her great grandmother's life of trouble with her grandfather. Her grandmother's life was stolen from her. She says about her grandmother, "She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow." (pg 11) The result of her grandmother's stolen life is sadness. The window is what prevents her from seeing the outside world. The window shows isolation from others and prevents her from achieving what she could have achieved. The window was a barrier that isolated the grandmother from the world. The sadness prevented her from "be all the things she wanted to be."(pg 11) The window served as a barrier to not allow the grandmother to succeed but keep her in place. The window gives the characters a sad life, saying that they look out the window in despair.
In No Speak English, windows are used to show a sad life. It shows that Rachel did not get her name so "She sits all day by the window and plays the Spanish radio show and sings all the homesick songs about her country in a voice that sounds like a seagull.". (pg 77) From a failure, Rachel ends up in despair as well, and wastes her days listening to the radio. The window shows how her life seems so blank and Windows in this, show sadness like the first one. However, the window is the thing that makes her seem sad, because she is so close to the open world but never reaches it.
In the vignette, Rafaela, she is shown as "getting old from leaning out the window so much,"(pg 79)From this quote, Rafaela, leaning on the window, has shown despair with age. She has become older after being on the window so much, even though she is young. The window is the thing that prevents Rafaela from escaping her husband's grasp. She, "leans out the window and leans on her elbow and dreams her hair is like Rapunzel's. (pg 79) She is dreaming of escaping, however, the locked window prevents her from getting out. It is the barrier between her, and the world outside of her house.
From all three vignettes, grandmother, Rachel, and Rafaela's stare and connection to the window does not allow them to reach their full potentials in life. Rather, it keeps them isolated from the outside world. Windows represent the barrier, and the amount of loneliness they have. It is windows that can symbolize how the outcomes of their life have become and their dreams for hope.