Windows symbolism

The House on Mango Street is composed of a series of vignettes. Each vignette has a specific subject in which the author uses symbolism as a deeper way of explaining the feelings of the characters. In My Name, No Speak English, Rafaela, and Sally, the author uses windows as a symbol. In my opinion, that is a rather strange object to choose, but when I read the stories, it actually makes a lot of sense to why she chose windows.
In My Name, the window represents how Esperanza’s great-grandmother was a wild, bold woman until she was stripped of her self expression when Esperanza’s great-grandfather forced her to marry him. 

“And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life...”(pg.11). 

This shows that the window is where she lied all of her feelings and memories of being on her own and free, without anyone else for her whole life.   
In No Speak English, a woman named Mamacita and her little boy has recently moved in across the street from Esperanza. Mamacita never goes outside, ever.

“...whether she is fat, or can’t climb the stairs, or is afraid of English, she won’t come down. She sits all day by the window and plays the Spanish radio show...”(pg.77). 

Here, I think she just won’t go out because she doesn’t speak English so she is afraid of what will happen when an English speaker asks her something and she can’t respond. So just like Esperanza’s great-grandmother, she rests all of her problems by the window all day, everyday.
In Rafaela, there is a woman named Rafaela who has a husband who won’t let her out because she is too beautiful to look at. 

“Rafaela leans out the window and leans on her elbow and dreams her hair is like Rapunzel’s.”(pg.79). 

This story is almost exactly like Esperanza’s great-grandmother. She had a husband that locked her up just like Rafaela, and both of these women just dream by a window all the time.

Lastly, in Sally, there’s a little girl named Sally who lost her best friend and has become a completely different person. She is no longer sociable and goes directly home and doesn’t come out. 

“Sally, do you sometimes wish you didn’t have to go home? Do you wish your feet...would stop in front of a house, a nice one with flowers and big windows...”(pg.82). 

In this vignette, the windows are not directly used with a woman resting on them, they are a dream. The windows represent something better, a better life.
In all of these vignettes, a window symbolizes the hardships, memories, of a woman/girl who has been stripped of something in her life. Each window is used to represent something that has been or could be.