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The House on Mango Street Study Guide

Essential Questions

In order to better understand one of this novel’s central themes, identity, consider the following questions as we read The House on Mango Street.

• Where does our sense of identity come from?

• How does environment shape our identity?

• What does the word “outcast” mean? What kinds of attributes make people into outcasts? Why does society have outcasts?

• What roles do neighborhood and community play in shaping who we become, or at the very least, how others perceive us?

• What identities, if any, are permanent and which do we have the power to change?

Who is Esperanza?

Over the next two weeks, we will be reading, studying, and analyzing Sandra Cisneros’ short novel The House on Mango Street. The novel is made up of 44 very short character sketches, or stories, called vignettes; we will read 29 selections from the novel. Esperanza, a Mexican-American young woman who has just moved to Mango Street narrates them. As you read each section of this coming of age novel, note evidence from the text that supports each of the following themes. Focus on Esperanza’s desires and how we discover them through the text. IMPORTANT: provide a page number next to each example from the text you include in your notes.

|Reading |Themes |Notes/ Evidence from the text of Esperanza’s desires |

|p. 3-11 |Self-Definition and | |

| |Identity | |

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|p. 12-38 |Esperanza’s Deepest Desires| |

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|p. 39-55 |Growth, Maturity, Sexuality| |

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|p. 56-73 |Growth, Maturity, Sexuality| |

| |continued… Additional focus| |

| |on Gender Roles and | |

| |Expectations | |

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|p. 74-87 |Belonging | |

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|p. 88-110 |Escape/Finding one’s Own | |

| |Home | |

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The House on Mango Street Reading Questions

Be sure to answer each of the following questions as we read The House on Mango Street. Answering these questions will not only help you keep track of your reading, but they will help highlight important features of the text and prepare you for our final assessment, a Socratic discussion.

The House on Mango Street p. 3-5

1. Why is the house on Mango Street an improvement over the narrator’s other homes? In what ways does it fall short of her dream house? How does Esperanza feel about her home?

2. What do you learn about the narrator’s family in this short chapter? List as many details and inferences as possible.

Hairs p. 6-7

3. What character traits are suggested for each of the family members based on the narrator’s description of his or her hair?

a. Papa:

b. Carlos:

c. Nenny:

d. Kiki:

e. Esperanza:

f. Mama:

4. What does the following quotation suggest about Esperanza’s home? Make inferences based on the details in the text. “The snoring, the rain, and Mama’s hair that smells like bread.”

Boys and Girls p. 8-9

5. What qualities does Esperanza want in a best friend?

6. How would you characterize Esperanza’s feelings about her little sister Nenny?

7. This novel is written in a highly poetic style, which is rich with imagery and figurative language. Keeping this in mind, what is the meaning of the following metaphor, and what does it reveal about Esperanza? “Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor.”

My Name p. 10-11

8. Why is it bad luck for a woman to be born in the year of the horse, according to Esperanza?

9. What does Esperanza mean when she states that she doesn’t “want to inherit (grandmother’s) place at the window”?

10. What does Esperanza dislike about her name? Why do you suppose she wants to be called ZeZe the X? What conflict do these details reveal?

Cathy Queen of Cats p.12-13

11. This chapter is written partly with Esperanza as the narrator and partly with Cathy narrating. Why do you think the author decides to write part of this chapter from Cathy’s point of view?

12. How are Cathy’s parents and Esperanza’s parents alike?

Our Good Day p. 14-16

13. Why does Esperanza like Lucy and Rachel?

14. Why do you think Esperanza decides to befriend them even though it will make Cathy “mad forever”? Based on Esperanza’s actions, what does she value in a friend?

Laughter p. 17-18

15. This is an episodic novel written in small vignettes of literary sketches. What observation about family do you think Cisneros is making in this chapter with her description of Esperanza and Nenny?

Gil’s Furniture Bought and Sold p. 19-20

16. In what way might the junk shop be considered a metaphor for Esperanza’s neighborhood? What do you infer the music box symbolizes?

17. Read the following passage from the story. What do you think Esperanza is feeling?

“And then I don’t know why, but I have to turn around and pretend I don’t care about the box so Nenny won’t see how stupid I am.”

Marin p. 26-27

18. Most critics believe that this novel expresses many feminist views. From the perspective of a feminist (someone who defines, establishes, and defends equal political, economic, and social rights for women), what is the flaw with Marin’s dream?

19. What key words in the following passage suggest Marin’s chances of finding someone to rescue her from Mango Street? Circle them and explain your choice.

“Marin, under the streetlight, dancing by herself, is singing the same song somewhere. I know. Is waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life.”

There Was an Old Woman She Had So Many Children She Didn’t Know What to Do p.29-30

20. Cisneros presents many examples of women’s lives on Mango Street. What do you think Esperanza learns about a woman’s life from Rosa Vargas?

Alicia Who Sees Mice p. 31-32

21. What is Alicia doing to escape Mango Street?

The Family of Little Feet p. 39-42

22. Why is Esperanza surprised that the girls “have legs”? What is truly meant by this statement?

23. What motivates the grocer to threaten the girls with the police if they don’t take off their high heels?

24. Why do you suppose “no one complains” when Lucy’s mother throws away the shoes?

25. What can you infer that feet and footwear generally symbolize in this chapter?

The First Job p.53-55

26. Why do the women laugh at Esperanza?

27. What makes Esperanza trust the Oriental man? How does he betray her trust?

28. This first job is Esperanza’s first opportunity to experience the world away from Mango Street. What does this experience teach her about men and women in general?

Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark p. 56-57

29. Why does Esperanza’s Papa “wake up tired in the dark”?

30. What evidence from the text helps the reader to understand how Esperanza feels about her Papa? Provide the quotation below.

Born Bad p. 58-61

31. What does Esperanza mean when she says, “I think diseases have no eyes”?

32. Why don’t the girls realize initially that their imitations of Aunt Lupe are wrong?

33. How has Aunt Lupe’s illness impacted her children? Her husband? What does this tell us her primary function was before her illness?

34. What advice about life does Aunt Lupe give to Esperanza?

Sire p. 72-73

35. How does Esperanza feel about her ability to attract Sire’s attention? What line from the text convinces you of this? Provide the quotation below.

36. Considering that feet have been a symbol of maturity in the novel so far, what could the following passage tell us about Lois’ level of maturity compared to Esperanza?

“She was barefoot, and I saw her barefoot baby toenails all painted pale pink…and she smells pink like babies do. She’s got big girl hands, and her bones are long like ladies’ bones, and she wears makeup too. But she doesn’t know how to tie her shoes. I do.”

Four Skinny Trees p. 74-75

37. What do the four trees outside of the house on Mango Street symbolize?

38. What do the four trees teach Esperanza?

No Speak English p. 76-78

39. What is Mamacita’s primary challenge in belonging in her new environment?

40. How does Mamacita react when her baby sings the Pepsi commercial? Why?

41. What challenge (one faced by all people coming to the United States to seek opportunity) does this conflict highlight?

Rafaela…, Sally, and Minerva p. 79-85

42. All three women described in these three chapters are, in their own way, trapped. What holds them back? What does Esperanza learn from their examples?

a. Rafaela:

b. Sally:

c. Minerva:

Bums in the Attic p. 86-87

43. Why is Esperanza happy to tell her guests that she has “bums” in the attic? What is she saying about her life on Mango street?

Beautiful and Cruel and A Smart Cookie p. 88-91

44. What does Esperanza NOT want in her own life?

45. What advice does Esperanza’s mother give her as an alternative to the way her comadres, her “sisters” on Mango street, live?

Linoleum Roses p. 101-102

46. How does Sally attempt to escape her life on Mango Street? Does she truly escape?

47. What is the significance of the title of this chapter—what do the linoleum roses represent?

The Three Sisters p. 103-105

48. What does Esperanza wish for?

49. Why does one of the sisters tell Esperanza that she must “remember to come back for the others”? What lesson about identity is she trying to pass on to Esperanza?

Alicia and I Talking on Edna’s Steps p. 106-107

50. Why does Alicia think it is important for Esperanza to think of Mango Street as her home and return to it someday? Hint: Why “not the mayor”?

A House of My Own p. 108

51. The reader is familiar with the idea that Esperanza wants a house of her own, but what does having her dream home represent to her? (Hint: She doesn’t just want a house—what else is it clear she wants that her fantasy house represents? Look to her description of her ideal home.)

Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes p. 109

52. Where is Esperanza in this last chapter? How has she managed a “temporary escape” from Mango Street?

53. Why does she describe herself as a girl who “didn’t want to belong”? This is a bildungsroman, a coming of age novel. What has Esperanza learned about herself in the past year? Has her attitude about Mango Street changed?

54. Why do you think the following passage from the first chapter is repeated in the last chapter?

“We didn’t always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler.”

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